START A CHIPS/ CHICKEN CAFE BUSINESS

Start A Chips Cafe ama Eatery

Chips

Many of these cafes get their supply of potatoes for making chips from Wakulima Market (popularly called “marikiti’) in Nairobi. A sack goes for around Ksh2,800 – Ksh3,200 on normal days. During times of scarcity, be ready to spend Ksh5,000 or even Ksh6,000 per a sack.

These cafes commonly sell a plate of chips at between Ksh70 and Ksh100. If you decide to set up this business, you should set your price in this range, don’t price yourself out of the market. Some places even lower their prices to Ksh50 per plate to attract even more crowds. When there is a shortage of potatoes in the market, prices can shoot up to Ksh100 per plate, to maintain profitability. You can also make and sell bhajia, which has also become very popular. A plate of bhajia sells at an average price of between Ksh130 to Ksh150 depending on location.

In busy places, the cafes consume almost 3 bags of potatoes in a day, making a profit of between Ksh6,000 and Ksh7,000 from chips alone. You can notice how this can be profitable, especially if you are located in a busy location.

Chicken

In addition to chips, fried chicken is also a very popular delicacy in these cafes. Chicken is readily available from City Market. Many of these cafes in town actually rely on City Market for their supply of chicken.

At City Market, raw chicken goes for between Ksh350 and Ksh500 each depending on type, size and seller, although the common price is Ksh350 but it is advisable to work with slightly higher prices in your budget. During times of scarcity, be prepared for a hike in prices.

You will sell fried chicken in parts such as ¼, ½ or even full. You will sell one ¼ of chicken at between Ksh150 and Ksh200 while a full chicken goes for Ksh500. Selling quarter pieces will bring you more cash than selling full fried chicken. If you sell four quarters, which make a full chicken, you will end up with between Ksh600 and Ksh800, compared to a full chicken sold once at Ksh500. Now compare this with your price from City Market of Ksh350. Busy cafes sell 100 chickens in a day although one reported moving about 200 in a day.

Assuming that you can crack it to sell even 50 of the birds a day, when doing badly, you will rake in about Ksh7,500 net profit before you consider other costs such as electricity, oil, labour etc. This is just from chicken alone. If you sell 100 or more, you can work out how much net profit that will be.

Other Foods

Apart from chicken and chips, you can also include other items such as soft drinks, juices, smokies, samosas and sausages in your menu. Many people will ask for a combination of foods such as chips/ sausage, chips/chicken, chips/burger, chips/samosa and others.

Many of these can be made in your café. You can get beef and pork from City Market for making your sausages, samosas, etc. For about Ksh390 and Ksh450, you will get a kilo of beef and pork respectively, just like many of these cafes are doing. Your sausages should sell at between Ksh30 and Sh40 to be within market price but can also be higher depending on location. If you don’t want to go through the process of making sausages, you can still buy from the many supermarkets around and just fry.

In addition to the good profits from chips and chicken, you can greatly increase your income by addition of other foods. In fact many of your customers will expect to take their chips or chicken with other foods once in a while . Hapo vipi!? #MeshBizTips