WATCH: A new study says many of Vancouver’s food trucks are having a hard time surviving. Linda Aylesworth reports on why many owners say they need help dealing with the industry’s growing pains.
The food truck concept was incredibly popular when it was first introduced to Metro Vancouver and Victoria five years ago but according to a new report, a third of the city’s food trucks are not profitable.
The Vancity report found that 44 per cent of Metro Vancouver and Victoria consumers enjoyed what the food truck industry served up but thanks to challenges with regulations, licensing and cost structure, the owners are taking a hit to their profits and overall success.
One alarming statistic that stands out in the study is that the food truck industry has nearly reached an estimated 80 per cent turnover of vendors.
Street Food Vancouver Society president Steve Ewing found the report’s findings “surprising.”
“It shows a bit of a grim look of the food truck industry but it depends on how you look at it,” Ewing says.
“It also spans a great deal of time. So as time has gone on, the industry’s so young, I think that now things are starting to level out, and we’re going to see a lot less rotation or flipping of businesses.”
But Vancity Community Investment manager Catherin Ludgate cautions, “turning over at 80 per cent doesn’t mean that they’re failing.” Instead it may mean the trucks are converting or downsizing to avoid full licensing.
Or in Ewing’s case his food truck, Yolks, has been so successful that it led to him open a very popular bricks-and-mortar restaurant in East Vancouver. Soon, he says, he’ll be opening a second.
Ludgate says there’s more room to do analysis “to see what’s actually happening.”
But not everyone who enters the food truck industry has success like Ewing’s. It’s a young industry and in the beginning, a lot of people without a lot of experience got swept up into it.
“It’s not going to be, you know, my grandmother had a great recipe and I’m going to open a food truck and make it,” Ewing says.
“Now it’s going to have to be real restaurant professionals with a business plan, a business model and experience — they’re going to be the ones who are running it.”
A business plan is a must but so is a reduction in municipal red tape.
Areas to help foster a thriving food truck industry include municipalities needing to: extend mobile business licensing to mobile food vendors; reasonably address the competitive threat to local restaurants, and address the need for commissary (food preparation) kitchen space.
“If we want to enjoy the benefits of a thriving food truck industry, like more tourism, community vibrancy and support of local food producers, we need to make sure there’s an enabling environment in place to support it,” Ludgate says.
~ with files from Linda Aylesworth
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