Is there anything more delightful than a spread of delicious treats from around the world to tempt your tastebuds? Delis offer casual dining experiences, allowing customers to choose from a wide range of pre-prepared salads, pasta, rice dishes, and more.
The best delis offer ingredients that you wouldn't usually find in your local supermarket - from expertly crafted antipasti and cooked meats to cheeses, flans, pies, pastries, and sweet things. Cakes and savories, freshly brewed coffees, and infusions - the deli is a place of culinary discovery.
Deli franchises offer catering newcomers the opportunity to learn the expertise required to prepare and appealingly present fresh products. In this case, you really can buy taste.
Deli counters are found in supermarkets, department stores, standalone trading units, and farmers' markets. With a market share of 12.13% of food retail sales (2017), deli franchises and counters are certainly playing a winning game.
So, if you're looking to change your career, taking on a deli franchise could serve you exceptionally well. Food IS love - can you imagine loving every working day for the remainder of your professional life?
Franchising
Franchising is frequently seen as the simplest way of going into business - especially for those who haven’t previously been their own boss. When you invest in a franchise, you’re privy to a whole host of benefits that puts your new business in a strong starting position.
Independent companies often struggle during their first couple of years of trading while they perfect their services and products, develop their reputation, and create a customer base.
All this is already in place with a deli franchise, which comes with a ready-built reputation for excellent customer service, excellent quality products, and an innovative menu. Hit the ground running with instantly recognizable branding that offers immediate curb appeal and a product line known to resonate with customers.
Simply put, when you invest in a franchise, you invest in a ready-to-go business. No market testing, no second-guessing customer tastes - it’s all in the bag the moment you open your doors to your hungry customers.
On the other hand, businesses starting up without the support of an experienced partner generally struggle to recoup their costs quickly enough to survive for the long term. Unfortunately, almost half of all independent businesses go bankrupt within five years.
Franchise Direct offers an excellent selection of premium deli franchises with::
- A hard-earned reputation for brilliant service and product innovation
- A researched menu your future customers already love
- Access to a supply chain
- Ongoing business support and training
- HR support
Facts About Deli Franchises
Deli sales amounted to around $27.12bn in the US throughout 2018 - that’s a big marketplace waiting for newcomers. And catering provides a healthy mark-up on raw materials.
Many deli franchises offer mobile catering services, dedicated to enhancing celebratory days such as weddings, graduations, and birthdays. But good food is often required at all gatherings, including funerals.
Holiday meals became the largest area of sales growth in deli franchises during 2018, with pasta-based dishes bringing in the highest proportion of sales. Also hugely popular are Asian-style- and pork dishes.
Deli departments earned $36.9bn in the US last year, with deli supermarket sales coming in at $29.85bn, representing a 4% share of supermarket sales.
Some deli franchises are location-based, with stalls and stands in department stores or travel hubs. Other deli franchises offer mobile catering opportunities, allowing the franchisee to travel around festivals and parties, providing excellent food to hungry guests.
The most popular deli choices are:
- Prepared chicken dishes - 28%
- Pasta dishes - 14.5%
- Organic salads - 19.5%
Of those, rotisserie chicken represents almost half of prepared chicken sales, closely followed by specialist ham products.
As well as more sophisticated prepared dishes, we can't forget the dominance of soup in the deli franchise. Soup is filling, satisfying, and endlessly popular with deli franchises, seeing a 23.4% growth since August 2019.
Of course, soups are easy to produce, with a considerable price mark-up. Prepared soups have seen a real resurgence in popularity with deli customers, as clients aim to minimize the calories.
Self-serve food bars are also enjoying a renewed passion, many of which closed during the pandemic for hygiene reasons. But now that people are out and about again, customers are flocking back to these counters of delight, selling prepared chicken, meat, fish, cheese, and veggie delicacies for lunchboxes.
However, people don't just visit deli counters for lunch during the working day. Many customers rely on deli franchises because they stock more interesting foods than standard supermarket shelves, with sliced cheeses from around the world in great demand from deli stands.
Franchising Vs. Independent
All business opportunities come at a premium, and there will always be startup costs. With franchises, your startup costs are your initial investment, starting at around $50,000. Of course, most of us need to apply for funding support to get started - and this is where franchising, once again, pays dividends.
Most banks and moneylenders look favorably on franchises because their business model has already proven itself sustainable, profitable, and capable of ongoing expansion. This puts you in a very healthy position when it comes to that all-important meeting with your bank manager.
Independent companies, however, struggle at the financing stage because they often lack the business acumen that can be proven by the parent company of a franchise. Indies tend to suffer much higher interest rates because the risk on a return of investment is perceived to be higher than a franchise.
Deli franchises can charge a premium for their products because they benefit from a reputation, whereas independent businesses need to earn the trust of their customer base.
So, if you're considering a change of career and a new pace to your working life, consider investing in a deli franchise.
Deli Franchises
Check out Franchise Direct's brilliant selection of deli franchises.
You can also check out many more Food Franchises here on Franchise Direct, such as: