Born in Salisbury, Wiltshire, our family run business, Frying Tuck Mobile Catering launched in October 2015! My husband and I, living in a rural area outside of Salisbury, realised the lack of takeaway options. So, we bravely made the decision to start a mobile fish and chip shop! Originally a ‘Milk Float’ at an Oxfordshire farm, we purchased our van, drove it home and had it converted to a catering van! We pulled the main (milk storage) structure from the chassis, and then had the kitchen box made from scratch in Bradford!
Since day one we have hit the ground running with demand being far higher than we ever expected!
At present, we have a regular round, visiting local estates and villages around Salisbury. In addition to this we cater lunchtimes at a regular retirement village and offer event catering. Our ethos has always been to exceed the
reputation of food vans and provide excellent service together with high-quality takeaway food, using sustainable and/or local products whenever possible. In addition, we produce our ‘own recipe’ Tartare Sauce, which is loved by many! We have recently become a local ‘employer’ creating jobs for locals and more importantly we have become a key part of local communities, with support from local councillors, governors, and business owners, we have built connections and helped locals connect with each other. Even though we do not offer a takeaway delivery service, we regularly visit elderly/ disabled customers to deliver food, ask how they are, and generally be a smiley face!
Currently we have five regular stops, serviced over five days a week. In addition, we regularly cater at events, both public & private. However, the more time goes on the more people become aware of our business, and so we are in the situation where the demand has far exceeded our capacity and expectations! But with only one catering van, we are constantly having to turn people down, and in such financially challenging times, it pains us to say No!
So we have now come to the decision to aim for expansion! We would effectively double the size of the business, so it would provide us with the additional funds need to keep the business going, at the same time, providing extra services and local jobs! We believe expansion is the only way we would like to move forward and would love nothing more than to be able to offer our services to further villages/estates, create more jobs and even more happy customers!
If we reach our target of £25,000, we aim to purchase a second catering van and double the size of the business. Any additional funds would cover the costs of a bigger commercial space and marketing. Likewise if we don’t reach our target, we get nothing..