Have you been inspired by the Sausage Roll business that you saw at the country show because they had queues of folk blocking the entrance to the marquee and EVERYBODY seemed to want them? The aromas coming from their mobile kitchens wafted the comforting, tempting and familiar aroma that signifies a British family day-out and a mouth-satisfying favourite. Another great thing about sausage rolls is that there is not really a time of day that you wouldn’t want one, is there? Morning, noon and night are all good sausage-roll eating times so you will be the stallholder who is busy all day rather than just at specific times.
The truth is, starting an artisan food business selling the ever popular Sausage Rolls will mean that your product will not only sell, but sell all day, every day. These cleverly packaged comforting snacks are the food that all of us recognise but none of us can resist, particularly when they are still warm from the oven. They are probably the second most popular food item in Britain, after a sandwich. The history of this humble food, of meat wrapped in pastry, is known to have originated somewhere in Europe but gained popularity in Britain in the early 19th Century as an inexpensive food sold by street vendors.
Even if you are not a good baker now, as long as you can follow a recipe, you will soon be able to make a jolly good sausage roll and the various attempts at different recipes and additional flavourings will be a delicious pleasure for you and for whoever your volunteer guinea pigs are! Once you choose a recipe that you like, do the maths.
Do the Maths
In this case, the maths is relatively simple because you are looking at the cost of pork. As the cheapest cut of pork also makes the best sausage roll filling, you are onto a double winner. Pork shoulder, due to its fatty nature will bring necessary moisture to your recipe. The suggestion would be to either acquire a mincer to make your own, but best of all will be to ask your butcher to do it for you. Getting it from a butcher who knows the provenance of the meat will add to the appeal of your brand and you can use the ‘local’ nature of your product in your branding – always appealing.
If you can make the pastry yourself, one hundred percent do so. Your own pastry will make the difference between a good sausage roll and a magnificent one! Making your own is significantly cheaper than shop bought puff pastry. Also consider the mouthfeel of shortcrust pastry. Sometimes a sausage roll feels more filling and substantial with shortcrust rather than the flaky puff pastry.
For the purpose of this exercise, I bought the meat from a supermarket £2 (400g) and a puff pastry packet for £1.50. Total cost £3.50 for a resulting 6 fat pork pies (0.58p each) which are being sold at festivals for around £4 each. A tidy profit of £3.42. Sell 100 and you have £342. Of course, if you make your own rough puff pastry you can change the cost of the pastry to £0.50, now costing £0.41 each – profit on 100 sold will be £410.
| Ingredient | Purchase Cost (Supermarket) | Home Made Pastry |
|---|---|---|
| Pork | £2.00 | £2.00 |
| Pastry – bought / home made | £1.50 (bought) | £0.50 (home made) |
| Cost Each Batch of 6 | £3.50 | £2.50 |
| Sell 6 at £4 each | 24.00 | 24.00 |
| Minus Cost to Make = profit selling 6 | £20.5 | £21.50 |
| Profit selling 90 (£4 x 90 =£360) | (£360 – £52.50 cost) = £307.5 | (£360 – £37.50 cost) = £322.50 |
Is It Profitable?
This business can only be profitable if you can buy your raw ingredients cheaply and have minimal wastage. Making your own pastry is a first step to this and using a cheap cut of fatty pork meat will also help to keep your costs down but will also result in nicer tasting products. Always, always get your butcher onside. They should become your new best friend!
How Much Will You Charge?
When you consider how much you will need to charge, also think of wastage. What would happen if you were not able to sell all of your sausage rolls in a day? Will your business focus on larger events or even will you be able to cook on site? I remember a market I visited once in France. There was a pastry seller who sold a huge variety of different pastries, from meat-filled pies, cheese-filled offerings and sweet pastries. On the surface it didn’t seem like a good business model because the town where the market was had very few people living there and neither was there much footfall (I did get there late) but from the look of the empty stall, there had been a huge amount of stock and it had all gone. How did they mange to avoid wastage? I looked a little closer and could then see two large mobile electric pastry ovens. I asked how they operated and the lady told me that they cooked in small quantities according to the demand. I have never seen this system used in UK but it is rather clever. Not only can they cook on demand but their customers are receiving their goods oven fresh!
When you do decide on your selling price do consider multi buys for large purchases. Having a price point that targets your customers to is extremely useful. Supermarkets do this for a reason – people buy more and it works! So if you chose a price point of say, £4 which is at the higher range for a sausage roll, but offer a 6 x £20, in effect offering one for free. As long as your multibuy price is a round number and the maths is easily worked out by your customer, it will work effectively.
Where Will You Buy Raw Materials?
Buying your ingredients is easy. Meat from a butcher who can cut your meat to your specification and your pastry ingredients can be purchased from a supermarket or a wholesaler. If you are going large on this, you will want to purchase key ingredients like Flour in large 25kg bags from wholesalers to limit the amount of time that you spend going to the smaller suppliers.
How Much Can You Make?
How many Sausage Rolls will you be able to physically make in a day? What kind of oven capacity do you need? If you can only make one batch a day and your profit per that batch is £20.5 and your stall is £25 then you will run at a loss unless you can up your production. Making these at the last minute is also a downside because freezing them is not an option. You could look at different types of savoury pastries that you can make over a few days, perhaps adding meat pies into the offering for certain markets if applicable and if they can be made in advance. Organisation is key here. If you can get to the point where you can employ people to make your stock for you and you sell it, that is a good option for the future.
How Much Do You Need To Earn?
Decide how much you need to earn from each market and then work backwards. If your market costs £25 and you need to make £300 to make a decent profit, then work backwards.
£300 takings ÷ £30 from each whole cake = 10 cakes needed (minimum)
Then minus the stall fee and cost of each cake
| £300 ÷ | Stall Takings |
| £24 | Amount from each batch of 6 sold |
| 12.5 | Number of Batches Needed (75 sausage rolls) |
| £25 + | Cost of Stall |
| £31.25 | Cost of Raw Ingredients (£2.5 x 12.5 batches) |
| £300 – £56.25 = £243.75 | Total Profit per market – £243.75 |
Contact EHO To Register Business
Once you have worked out if this might be profitable for you, then get hold of your local Environmental Health Office (EHO) and register your business. You only need to do this because this is a food enterprise. The EHO will probably not come to your premises immediately but you will be able to trade once you have received confirmation of registration. They should send you a letter confirming this.
Book Market Stall
After you have done your market stall research and read https://marketstallfacts.com/how-to-find-your-first-markets-tips-to-getting-a-pitch/ all you need to do is email or phone your local market operator and see if they can give you a pitch. Know that Sausage Rolls are a highly competitive niche to go into and there may already be a seller attending, so you may need to ask around where an available pitch may be. Book a date in the future where you will allow yourself enough time to not only make your stock but also to …
Buy Packaging
Consider the way that you want to package your wares when you sell them to your customer. Will you want to buy boxes, paper bags or greaseproof items? Will you need labels with your brand name on them or will you wait to see if there is demand for your products before you go ahead and begin your branding? Also think about the tools you will need on the stall itself. e.g. Knife, tongs, fish slice for cutting and handling. Hot water flask for cleaning equipment and paper towels for drying them.
Buy a Banner
If you are going with a one item business, then branding your niche from the beginning will serve you well. Branding will allow you to tell your personal story, which will be important to showcase within your branding. e.g. Black Farmer, Lone Farmer Girl or Organic hand raised pigs etc.
If your aim is to be well known for your amazing Sausage Rolls, then the price will not matter if they really are mouth-wateringly good. Build your brand from the very start. Get a banner at the very least – certainly before any unnecessary business cards or website presence. You want to get a feel for how your product will be received ‘on the streets’ and you will get a feel for what kind of customers your products will attract.
Once you begin to offer different flavoured Sausage Rolls – like sage, marmalade, mustard, haggis, black pudding, chorizo etc you will see which of your flavours are popular with your customers. Even offer tasters initially, but we would not recommend tasters on a regular basis because folk ultimately know what a sausage roll tastes like and even if they don’t – £3-£4 is not a very large investment to take a risk on, is it? Though with such a high wastage product, offering a taster or two when you know you will have stock left at the end of the day, will help push those final sales through.
I think that many people would secretly love to have a successful sausage roll business because as a product, they will always be in demand, won’t they?
Check out our other Market Stall Business Ideas and see if there is an ideal business for you.
Happy Trading!
Idea No 1: Cake Business