Posted by Greg Breland on June 03, 19100 at 01:05:00 :
In Reply to: Re: Linens posted by Sam Sears, CEC on May 30, 19100 at 19:40:55 :
: : Hello I along with another Chef own a medium sized catering company 250.000 receipts in the southeast.
: : This is all from catering as we have no retail.
: : One issue that has always been bothersome is linens.
: : We are charged $12.00 to rent so we of course pass that on to our client. We have accumulated a large amount of linen and often wash and rent for full profit. Problem is bringing to cleaner cost the same as rental and ironing is impossible. We can probably purchase for $18. Have seen ads in Special Events
: : with rentals at 5.50 per cloth. Are they good. Shipping $$$ Reliable. Any usefull hints abut linen. Ive seen on this message board people talking about linens for $3.50 not here. Where???
: : We included food table linens in price but breakout guest table linen.
: : Also what are you'll charging for ice???
: It is my firm belief that you should continue renting linen, there is a lot of $$$ to be had renting linen (or rental cos would not do it), but linens are a "perishable" item, as they loose their newness easy.....yes there are national rental cos that have a great selection, but you must add in that shipping charge and give yourself a day or two lead time in case of delay..I have tried the linen & napkin route to make additional money, but I found that that is a specialized business, better left to the pros, pass that cost along and stick to catering, we do rent some equip to our clients, silver plated chafers, 5'grills, propane stoves, ect....that we have purchase, but these items wear much better than any linen........just my thoughts...........also, ice....we add in the retail cost of ice & make a profit from it,........Sam
I don't know about your market areas in the US , but I live in a small community about 75 miles outside of Vancouver, B.C. We don't have a large catering business, maybe 350 events a year so we augment that business with a rental store in a town of about 70,000 people. We get weekly delivery of linen tableclothes , both round and rectangular, for about $1.85 each , we rent them out to customers for 6.00 each. We keep a running inventory of about 300 tableclothes, which if not rented, are usually used for catering, there must be a similar company close to where you are situated, or have you tried a uniform rental company, sometimes they handle linens, but just don't advertise that fact. All I can suggest is to keep looking. WE also get Ice delivered weekly, that only costs, $6.00 for 50 lbs. We charge $12.00 per 50 lbs. Good Luck Greg Breland, Lori's Catering/ Party's Plus Rentals