Understanding Catering Pricing
Updated: Jun 29, 2020
To give you an idea of why our packages are priced the way that they are, here are some major components for our package pricing.*
1. Food Cost. On average, food cost take up 30% of the gross sales in a normal catering event or for any food establishment. It may go higher or lower depending on the type of protein and cut requirement of the client. To give you an idea, the Filipino favorite liempo costs on average, Php230/kg. A kilo of raw liempo can produce 8-12 servings. That is one viand. Add in the 1, 2, 3+ other food items, ingredients needed, oil, gas, used for cooking and you get the idea.
2. On-Call Servers & Waiters. Even if you only have a few food items in your event, the number of waiters will always remain the same. For example, a 100 person event with 3 food items priced at 400php/head, and a 100 person event with 10 food items priced at 850php/head will have the same number of waiters. The number of staff will always be directly proportional to the number of your guests and this is why it is one of the major factors in pricing. Prices per waiter can range from Php700-1500.
3. Transportation Costs. We love the perennial traffic predicament and impossible truck bans cursing our Metro Manila streets. Deliveries from QC (commissary) to BCDC event venues such as Taguig can take as long as 3 hours ONE way. That's with gas, truck, driver, and assistant. For a regular L300 delivery service (ex. Transportify), that would cost around Php2,500 at the very least. It takes AT LEAST 2 deliveries for a standard 50 person event: equipment, then food. This may or may affect other events lined up for the day.
4. Rentals. While we are equipped with almost all dining equipment, there are instances wherein we will have to rent from third party suppliers. For example, a 1,500 head event requires additional tiffany chairs. The cheapest tiffany chair you can rent ranges from Php80-100. That is excluding the delivery charge.
5. Overhead expenses. Kitchen lease, office lease, utilities, regular employees, cooks, bakers, etc. Self-explanatory. We follow minimum wage laws and government benefits requirements.
TL;DR: Location and number of pax are as important as food cost in determining menu price.
*Please note, this is purely based on Alfonso's Catering & Events Specialist cost summary. This may or MAY NOT apply to other caterers in the country.