Are you looking for the food truck SWOT analysis? Look no more! This essay sample conducts SWOT analysis for food truck business. Here, you’ll find the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
Market competition is getting stronger and stronger in the modern globalizing world. The companies grow larger, they try to cover bigger territories, attract more customers, and provide wider ranges of services. In order to survive and compete in the contemporary business world, companies constantly need to develop, progress, learn, and improve.
This is why it is highly important for the company’s managers to analyze the market they work with, the main competitors, and the way they operate. Based on this data and its analysis, the managers of the company can develop an awareness of the strengths and weaknesses of their own business and work out the strategies in order to use all of the opportunities to grow and avoid the potential threats and risks that the company may face in the future.
The food truck company operates in the central business district of Portland, the area where the food delivery industry is very well developed. This means that the company will have a lot of other businesses to compete with, although a big part of the food delivery companies provides the clients only with fast food, many of the deliveries specialize in pizza mainly.
Besides, some of the strong competitors are such companies as Pedal Power. The food cart industry has made strong impacts on the food industry of Portland. In the world of nowadays unhealthy and fatty fast food is known to be quite a bad choice of a meal. Everyone has heard multiple negative comments and seen many researches directed at discovering the harmful influences of fast food on people’s health. This definitely makes the customers think twice before ordering from a fast food place. Food truck provides its clients with freshly cooked healthy meals that are more nutritious and healthy.
The truck can be found in the busiest areas of Portland, where business workers or pedestrians can purchase affordable meals for themselves and their families. Today many companies have to juggle a great number of clients, and because of that, they have to compromise between the number of meals they sell and their quality (Kwun, Ellyn & Choi 2013). Food truck meals are not made by means of using mass methods of preparation; this is why the business presents a strong competition in the food delivery market of the Portland area.
Food Truck SWOT Analysis: Strengths
The strengths of any business are represented by the areas this business is the best at, qualities that make it stand out. Some of the food industries provide customers with meals of good quality, but those meals are normally quite expensive. Fast food deliveries produce their meals in big amounts and work very quickly; this is why the quality of such food is not the best.
One of the strong sides of the food truck is that it supplies the customers with healthy and freshly cooked meals and works at a good speed. This makes the food truck a preferred source of food for the customers that are watching their weight or are thinking about their health and for busy people that do not have time to go to a restaurant or cook at home. Besides, one of the best strengths of the food trucks it its mobility.
The truck can move around the city and choose its own locations, depending on the time of the day or the day of the week. For example, the truck can be standing near bars that have their kitchen closed and do not sell any food in the evenings (Developing a SWOT Analysis for Your Mobile Food Business 2013).
On weekends and holidays, when the central business district of Portland is not busy, the truck can move to crowded park areas or to the river piers. Basically, the food truck goes wherever the potential customers are. Another strong side of the food truck business is that it can be owned and operated by only one person; this allows better control of the processes happening within the business.
Food Truck SWOT Analysis: Weaknesses
The weaknesses of a business are the aspects where this business could potentially improve in order to become more popular and gain more clients. One of the weaknesses of the food truck business is its limited variety of meals. A wide range of options is always a very attractive attribute for the customers. In this type of business, the cook works from the inside of the truck, this is why not many meals are normally available to the customers. The menu is quite short and may lack certain special dishes that are popular. For example, desserts could be a high income on weekends, when the truck is located near the biggest city parks, where there are a lot of people with children. Besides, the truck sells its meals in food containers, and this creates a lot of litter in the areas where the truck operates.
Food Truck SWOT Analysis: Opportunities
The opportunities are possible ways to improve the performance of the business. This section is based on the strengths and weaknesses of the food truck described before. In order to gain better revenues and increase the number of customers, the business manager needs to research the districts of the city and find more profitable locations for the truck.
This way, the truck will always have a steady schedule that allows a stable income because the business will all the time to be operating in the busiest areas of the city. Besides, the schedule will bring more loyal customers, as it will provide the buyers with precise knowledge of the time when the truck is going to be based in their area. Another opportunity to improve this business is introducing new items to the menu, possibly, based on the requests from the customers. The truck owner can choose the meals by means of a questionnaire that can be spread among the customers asking them to name the meal they would like the truck to sell.
This will help the manager to know the wishes of the target group of customers and choose the meals that will have the best popularity. In order to be able to sell desserts from the truck, the owner could hire a specialist that will prepare this kind of food. The problem with the litter could be resolved by introducing ecologically safe containers to the business process.
Food Truck SWOT Analysis: Threats
The threats of business are represented by multiple changeable aspects of the market, where the business operates. The potential threats will create a negative impact on the business and its income; they may also influence the number of customers. The threats that a food truck business may face in the future are multiple. For example, it is a well-known fact that we live in an unstable world, where the prices for gas may drop or grow one day rapidly. The growth of gas prices will definitely affect the revenue of the mobile business in a negative way.
Another threat for a truck business is the prices for food, a change in the cost of any of the main ingredients used by the business will influence the income and shift the prices of the meals sold from the truck. Besides, the food industry is highly popular, and it develops quickly, so new competitors can appear in the market any day. Moreover, the changing preferences of the customers could create difficulties for the development of the food truck business.
Role in the Society
The business provides the society with opportunities to eat healthy, freshly prepared food away from home. This affects public health in a positive way and creates better working conditions for businessmen and women. Besides, the business answers the social need for healthy food instead of fatty and sugary fast food. The contemporary society appreciates the higher speed of life; this is why food truck provides its customers with quick service of good quality.
To sum up, the main SWOT issues of the food truck business are the following:
Strengths
- Mobility
- Quality of food
- Speed of preparation
Weaknesses
- Limited variety of meals and desserts
- Litter
Opportunities
- Finding better districts to operate in
- Forming a schedule
- Adding new meals to the menu
- Hiring a pastry and dessert chef
- Switching to eco-friendly containers
Threats
- Growth of gas prices
- Growth of food prices
- The appearance of new competition in the market
- Change of customers’ preferences
Reference List
Developing a SWOT Analysis for Your Mobile Food Business. (2013). Street Food Locator. Web.
Kwun, D., Ellyn, E., & Choi, Y. (2013). Campus Foodservice Attributes and their Effects on Customer Satisfaction, Image, and Word-of-mouth. Journal Of Foodservice Business Research, 16(3), 276-297. Web.