How much can you earn from shawarma?
DISCLAIMER: The article was written based on an interview with the co-founder of Kebab MD shawarma points Andrey Bychkov, Moscow.
In 2018, my partner and I opened our own shawarma point. Now we have 3 shawarma shops.
I heard on the Internet that the shawarma business has a low entry threshold, quick payback and a sought-after product. Therefore, I decided to tell you how things really are in this business.
In order not to discredit either Muscovites or St. Petersburg residents, the words shawarma and shawarma are used in the materials in the same volume.
Shawarma from scratch
Opening a catering outlet in 2024 is a piece of cake. You notify Rospotrebnadzor about the start of activity, install an online cash register (from 15k), a fiscal drive for it (10k per year), this is like a computer hard drive, connect a fiscal data operator (3k per year) to transfer tax information about sales.
Do you work with meat? You register with Mercury (2,500 ₽ for the visit of a sanitary doctor before starting work), within 3 days on the Mercury website you must confirm that you received the meat from the supplier, so that the state can trace the path of the meat from the farm to the buyer.
Do you want to sell some water? and from November 1st and sweet water? You put an honest sign, a scanner (from 3k), an application to one online cash register (6k per year).
Do you want to sell beer? You install EGAIS, pay for the software (from 1,500 per quarter), receive a digital signature, now they give it for free. You submit the alcohol declaration to the declarant alcohol. An alcohol license for beer is not yet required.
The main thing is not to forget anything, otherwise, from the losses that 90% of public catering establishments earn, you will also have to pay fines.
We bought a shawarma point from the former owner – 170,000 rubles for equipment + dishes + sign. She swore to her mother that she was simply going on maternity leave and was forced to sell the top point. The place really looked promising: the hero city of Moscow, 3 houses from the Akademicheskaya metro station. On the one hand, there is a 24-hour pawnshop, on the other, a bottler.
They decided to change the old name “Kebab MD”, as soon as we got going, there wasn’t enough money: the partner worked as an administrator at the President Hotel, I worked as an engineer in advertising production.
Location is very important in catering. I know places that don’t make the most delicious shawarma, but they sell 50-70 kg of meat per day. Therefore, it is better to try different locations with minimal investment. It happens that the point is located next to the metro, but not on the path of human flow, and the rent there is high, but there is zero sense.
There were 7 steps leading to our point. And as seasoned restaurateurs say: each step is minus 10% of the turnover. We didn’t know this then.
The opening of the second and third points cost approximately 400k each. New outlets began to open in 2021.
Shawarma point expenses
I count the numbers on revenue 821,318 ₽ – February 2024.
Premises rental – 100,000 ₽
2 months after opening the outlet, we decided to close. My partner and I made shavukhi ourselves, but we had to add about 20 from the engineer’s salary for rent. In response to the notice of closure, the landlord reduced the rent to 80k, apparently tired of looking for new successful shawarma players every time.
Staff – 203,000 ₽
We prepare the sauce for shawarma at the Academic one, for all three of our points. Therefore, academic employees receive 3,500 rubles per shift, and where the sauce is already ready, the shawarmist receives 3,100 rubles per shift.
There are problems with a good shawarma maker on the market. I think you see that mostly migrants work in shawarma shops. This is the case with us too. Why did this happen? I think there are three reasons.
– Despite the air conditioning, the grill is VERY hot, and the guys from the sunny republics are used to it.
– The work is hard. For 3,500 ₽, an employee must: come 30 minutes in advance to trim the workpieces, stay 40 minutes after the shift to clean – we do not have separate cleaners. Then you spend 12 hours frying meat, rolling shavukhi and communicating with not always nice customers. You also need to have time to mix the sauce into 3 points. Apparently, for a newcomer this is good money for a twelve-hour shift.
From the money received, the visitor must pay a monthly labor license (7k) and renew his medical insurance annually. book (3k) and, of course, the outstaffing office, which helps with the registration, takes a percentage for completing the paperwork.
These offices are engaged in processing patents, registrations, medical. insurance, register migrants and pay taxes for them, so even if a person comes to me directly, it’s easier for me to send him to an outstaffing office so that there are no problems with the papers.
We trust the shawarma masters, but we installed cameras to monitor the process. We don’t worry about theft, since most of the payments are made by bank transfer.
Purchase of products – 400,000 ₽
It’s ideal to marinate meat on site, but we don’t have such a large area for independent attachment: we almost need a separate workshop. We found an office that sells meat already skewered. They also bring lavash.
What do you need to know about the products? They are constantly becoming more expensive. The eggs that go into the sauce have doubled in size.
We did not react to the price increase in time and in February, out of 821k turnover, 400k was spent on purchases. As a result, they earned very little. There were 3 options – reduce the grams, take worse products or raise the price. We have raised prices.
We pack it in a white craft bag, but don’t bother too much – it’s better to add more meat to the shawarma.
Taxes – 250,000 ₽ per year
We have a patent. 250k per year where there are no landing places, and 380k per year where there are landing places. The cost of a patent for catering in Moscow doubled.
It also turned out that working with food delivery aggregators is not covered by a patent and a tax must be paid on the volume of these sales – 6% according to the simplified tax system. +500k unforeseen expenses, minus 500k profit.
Advertising
Sometimes I find promotional codes for advertising in Yandex.Food, the last one was for 15k. We also buy geoservices, like Yandex.Maps, it works fine.
Now we have three points operating and the consumable part can be compared. The Yandex.Food commission of 35% is removed before the revenue is included.
Shawarma shop's income
The total net profit of February 2024 for our 3 points was 77,208 rubles. We share all profits with our partner.
That is, if we had one shawarma point, then the February profit could be 3,430, 19,090 rubles or 54,688 rubles
February, in which I considered expenses, was not the best month; in the summer, the turnover of three points reached 2.5 million, in this situation there remains about 350k in profit for two.
I detailed the month of February to illustrate just how bad revenue is in this business. In the summer you save to stay afloat in the winter, you repair falling equipment, pay for innovations from regulatory authorities.
On average, from three points we can take away from 100k to 250k net for two people per month. Previously, part of the money was set aside for opening new outlets. At the same time, the partner is consistently 2 days a week full-time at the points, and I deal with all external activities: accounting, Mercury, Honest Sign, taxes, outstaffing, advertising, etc. We take turns shopping.
Of course, sometimes a collector passes by on our street. For example, when restaurants were closed during Covid, we made record revenue and received 500k profit in a month from one point.
Payback of shavukha
For the first six months, we made shawarma ourselves: we were constantly looking for a working sauce recipe, changing food suppliers, literally living at work. For a long time, God the Shawarman did not want to send us the recipe for the ideal sauce, but he easily sent us a 2-fold increase in the patent tax or a supplier with expired meat.
Even taking into account that we did not pay ourselves a salary, our point began to work in plus only after six months. That is, we did not recoup our first investment of 277,000 rubles, we were simply able to cover the costs of the shawarma shop with its income. When we started to break even, the landlord reminded us that our rent was not 80,000 rubles, but 100,000 rubles.
It took us another six months to recoup 277,000 rubles. During Covid there was a lot of revenue, but the equipment that we got from the previous owner was constantly cracking (breaking) and before we took anything for ourselves, we bought new grills, deep fryers and a refrigerator.
When we started, all we had was 277,000 rubles for two, I would recommend to all beginners to at least keep the same amount. Be pessimistic.
Ready-made minus, excuse me, ready-made business
Today, if I wanted to open a shawarma, I would think not how much I could earn from it, but how much I could sell everything on Avito.
If someone sells a ready-made shawarma business, then this is a 99% dead unprofitable enterprise, this is what happened to us.
Note author*
There are a lot of videos on the Internet from shawarma shop owners who immediately sell the franchise after a couple of outlets. I think this is due to the fact that it is very difficult to make money from shawarma, and people decide, since I don’t make money from shawarma, I’ll try to make money at least from a franchise. So that their shawarma leaks from below.
*The opinion of the hero of the article and the author of the article may differ
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DISCLAIMER: The article was written by the author of the blog “fell, rose” based on an interview with the co-founder of Kebab MD shawarma points Andrey Bychkov.
I blog “fell, rose” with stories about real business, and not this successful success of yours. Stories based on interviews with entrepreneurs are published once a week.
You will read: how a farmer spent 250 million in a village, how a store in the province was a nightmare for Smeshariki, why my sister and business partner became an “ex,” how I opened and destroyed a chain of nightclubs, how a technician restored a Soviet camp, but flew into a cash gap for 60 million, why did the owner of the quest room chain decide to just keep quiet, how did I encounter the Pikabu racket in 2023 and other stories.
