Arepa Business Plan: A Truck, Frozen Packs and Catering

An arepa is a griddled corn cake split and stuffed, and a filled arepa, shredded chicken and avocado or beef and black beans, costs about $2.67 with its wrap and card fee and sells for $9. A cheese arepa costs less and sells for $7. A truck sells them hot; frozen packs of plain arepas, made from only corn flour, water and salt, sell in Latin grocers; and catering feeds a party at once. The plan turns on the truck and its commissary, hands on the griddle at lunch, and the meat rule: filled arepas sold hot from the truck are retail food, but frozen packs with meat sold to a grocer would bring USDA inspection, so the grocer gets plain ones. The plan below works per arepa. In the example, a Doral arepa truck starts with $88,500, ends its first year about $3,000 ahead before the owner's pay, and makes about $5,200 a month at full speed. Below is each part of the plan, the first year month by month, the startup budget, and a free template.

The short version

• Describe the business in a paragraph: the arepas, the stops, who buys, the goals.
• Cost each arepa: corn flour, filling, the wrap, the card fee.
• Plan sales by product: filled arepas, cheese arepas, frozen packs, catering.
• Fillings are the biggest cost in a filled arepa.
• Frozen packs for grocers: plain, or USDA inspection for meat.
• Commissary, propane and permits are fixed costs.
• TaroStack costs each arepa from its recipe and what each batch used. More below.

Part 1: the business description

Caracas Corner Arepas, a made-up arepa truck in Doral, Florida, writes:

Caracas Corner Arepas runs a truck at two weekday office stops and weekend events in Doral, selling filled and cheese arepas, sells frozen packs of plain arepas to five Latin grocers, and caters parties. In its first year it aims to reach $24,200 of sales a month.

Part 2: what an arepa costs

A plain arepa is precooked corn flour, water and salt, about 20 cents. The grocer sells the frozen pack for about $8.99. Catering for 50, filled arepas and sides, is $600 and costs $160. Bags and labels for frozen food are in how to package frozen food for sale.

Part 3: the truck, the grocers and the meat rule

The truck works two weekday lunch stops and weekend events, prepping fillings at its commissary each morning. Frozen packs are griddled, cooled, bagged and frozen on Mondays and delivered every two weeks. Fillings with chicken or beef stay on the truck: a product with meat sold to another business brings USDA's inspection, in usda meat inspection requirements. The truck's permits are in food truck license.

Part 4: what each product earns

At full speed the business sells $24,200 a month and keeps $17,730, 73.3%; filled arepas bring $10,128 of it.

Part 5: the first year, month by month

Fixed costs are $12,500 every month: wages for two on the truck ($9,000), commissary ($1,400), propane and fuel ($700), permits and event fees ($400), insurance ($350), freezer storage ($200), software ($50), and other costs ($400). Sales start at 35% of full speed:

The year's sales are $208,830, and the business ends it $2,998 ahead, before the owner's pay. It breaks even at about $17,060 of sales a month, in the seventh month. The lowest cash point, −$19,282 in month 6, is covered by the $20,000 of working cash with about $700 to spare. Summer storms and slow weeks thin the truck's days; the frozen packs keep selling when the truck stays home.

Part 6: the startup budget

The $68,500 before working cash is earned back in about 13 months at full speed. Another truck is in taco truck business plan, and another Latin American dough sold hot and frozen in pupusa business plan.

Get the template

Download the arepa business plan workbook. Four sheets: your products, each with its price, variable cost and units a month at full speed; the first year, month by month, with sales ramping up, profit, cash, the first profitable month, the lowest cash point and whether the working cash covers it; your fixed costs; and the startup budget. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.

Where this stops working

The plan uses one cost per arepa. Chicken and avocado prices move by the week, a busy event runs out of a filling by noon, and which frozen packs are oldest at a grocer is anyone's guess.

How TaroStack does it

TaroStack costs each arepa from its recipe and from what each batch used.

Recipes by weight. Each arepa is a recipe, with unit conversion from the case or sack to the gram.

True cost from the batch. Each batch takes ingredients at their real cost, from the deliveries they came from, so a price rise shows up in the next batch.

Price creep. A price-creep report per supplier shows which ingredient is quietly costing more.

Recipes, batches and true cost are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.

Questions people also ask

How much does it cost to start an arepa business?

The example budgets $88,500, including $20,000 of working cash; the used food truck is the biggest item.

Is an arepa business profitable?

It can be: the example makes about $5,200 a month at full speed before the owner's pay, and ends its first year ahead.

How much does an arepa cost to make?

In the example, about 20 cents for the arepa itself and $2.67 for a filled one with its wrap and card fee.

Can I sell frozen arepas to grocery stores?

Plain or cheese arepas, from a licensed kitchen; filled arepas with meat sold to another business bring USDA inspection.