How much profit does a food truck make in the UK?
There's no single honest number for that — a food truck's profit depends on its own food cost %, how many covers it actually sells, its pitch or event fee, its sell-through rate, and how much stock goes unsold. Here's what actually decides it, and a free calculator to work it out for your own menu and event.
What decides it
Five things move the number, and only one of them is fully in your control before the event starts:
- 1Food cost % — what each dish costs to make as a share of what you charge for it. A well-run kitchen typically runs this at 30–35% of the sell price, ex-VAT, per our sourced UK benchmark guide. This is the one lever you fix at menu-design time, and it's the same maths whether you're on a pitch or in a kitchen.
- 2Covers — how many people actually buy, on the day. A food truck's covers depend on the pitch, the footfall, and the weather far more than a fixed restaurant's do.
- 3Pitch or event fee — a flat cost or a percentage of takings, paid regardless of how many covers you get. It doesn't move with sales, so low covers hurt it twice.
- 4Sell-through rate — the share of what you prepped that actually sold. You buy and prep for expected covers, not actual ones, so a lower sell-through means food cost you paid for but didn't recover.
- 5Waste / leftover — stock prepped but not sold. It's the direct cost of getting the sell-through assumption wrong, in either direction — too low and you turn away paying customers, too high and you throw away food you paid for.
We don't have a sourced UK-wide food truck profit margin to quote you, and won't invent one. What we can give you is the exact arithmetic for your own numbers.
Work out your own event's profit
Put in your expected covers, sell-through assumption and menu — cost per portion and sell price — and get purchase quantities, food cost, revenue, gross profit and break-even covers, all shown with the sums. Free, no signup.
A worked example
Using one of our costed starter recipes — a beef burger and fries, ingredient cost per portion £2.64 (a dated wholesale snapshot from JJ Foodservice, 7 Sep 2026, not a market average) — here's the arithmetic for one stall selling it at £9.50 inc VAT, expecting 150 covers at one portion each, with an 85% sell-through assumption. Figures are carried through at full precision and rounded only at the end, the same way the calculator does it, so they match to the penny:
| Step | Amount |
|---|---|
| Portions to prep (150 covers × 1) | 150 |
| Expected sold (150 × 85%) | 127.5 |
| Food cost (150 × £2.64) | £396.00 |
| Sell price ex-VAT (£9.50 ÷ 1.2, unrounded) | £7.9167 |
| Revenue ex-VAT (127.5 × £9.50 ÷ 1.2) | £1,009.38 |
| Gross profit (£1,009.38 − £396.00) | £613.38 |
| Gross profit % | 61% |
This is food cost only — no pitch fee, staff, fuel or packaging. Add those separately for a true event profit. The £2.64 cost and the 85% sell-through are both stated assumptions, not researched averages — change either one in the calculator and the whole sheet recalculates.
What to record after each event
The calculator has optional columns for actual sold and leftover once the event's done. Recording those three things — sold, leftover, and covers on the day — for every market or pitch builds a history you can look back on before the next one. That's not forecasting: the calculator doesn't predict your next event's covers or sell-through for you. It's a record you read yourself, so your sell-through assumption gets less like a guess each time.
Do the maths for your own menu
Cost your dishes with the free recipe cost calculator, browse costed starter recipes, or keep a full recipe book with the free prep sheet tool — then bring the numbers into the event & food truck calculator for your next stall or pop-up.
FAQ
How much profit does a food truck make in the UK?
It depends on food cost %, how many covers you actually sell, your pitch or rent fee, your sell-through rate, and waste — there isn't a single reliable UK-wide profit figure to quote. The one lever you fully control is food cost: a well-run kitchen typically runs 30–35% of the sell price, ex-VAT (see our sourced benchmark guide). Everything else is pitch fees, fuel, staff and equipment on top.
How much does it cost to run a food truck in the UK?
Running costs are the vehicle or trailer, pitch or event fees, insurance, gas or power, staff, and food cost. We don't have a sourced UK-wide figure for total running cost to quote here — it varies too much by city, vehicle and pitch. Food cost is the part you can calculate exactly for your own menu; use the free calculator to do that.
Is there a free food truck profit calculator?
Yes — the event and food truck calculator on this site is free, needs no signup, and works out purchase quantities, food cost, revenue, gross profit and break-even covers for your own menu and expected covers, with the arithmetic shown.
What's a good sell-through rate for a market stall or food truck?
There's no fixed answer — it depends on the pitch, the weather, and how well you know that event. Sell-through is the share of what you prep that actually sells; the rest is leftover stock you paid for. Recording actual sold and leftover after each event is how you find your own number instead of guessing.
How do I work out food cost per portion?
Cost per portion = the cost of every ingredient in the recipe, added up, divided by the number of portions it makes. The free recipe cost calculator does this for any dish; costed starter recipes are also on the site.
Figures shown are worked examples from stated assumptions, not researched averages, and don't constitute financial advice. The £2.64 beef burger and fries cost is a dated wholesale ingredient snapshot (JJ Foodservice, 7 Sep 2026) — your own supplier prices will differ.