Today is Taco Day! Everything you need to know to succeed with this dish

This article was translated from our Spanish edition using AI technologies. Errors may exist due to this process.

No one can deny it: the Mexican is taquer o. The basis of the diet of the Aztec nation is, without a doubt, it is meat and / or prepared vegetables that are covered with a warm corn or flour tortilla.

The cultural impact of this dish, -which is part of a gastronomy considered Intangible Heritage of Humanity by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) -, it is such that it was determined that on March 31 of each year Taco Day is celebrated .

For entrepreneurs, tacos represent a very attractive business model. Omar González, brand director of the El Tizoncito franchise, considers that these businesses are a good opportunity because it is a meal where the price / value ratio for the consumer is very good.

“The taco business is one that Mexico has contributed to the world and has a lot to give, while respecting the roots of the product. For example, we invented the taco al pastor in 1976 and the recipe remains exactly the same, which makes it so recognized and loved ”.

González has a very important point. Just a few days ago, the popular taco al pastor was recognized as the best dish in the world by journalist Matija Babic’s Taste Atlas site, considered the Google Maps of food.

Not only that, according to data from 2017 from the National Chamber of the Restaurant and Seasoned Food Industry ( CANIRAC ), the taco sector is one of the largest employers in the country, since it supports more than 17% of the personnel employed in the restaurant industry.

For his part, Carlos Roberts, CEO of El Fogoncito recalled that, according to data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (Sagarpa), the estimated consumption of tacos is around 17.3 million tons per year, of which in most are tortillas. If we consider that according to this dependency the consumption of tortillas per Mexican is 297 kilograms per year, we will definitely find a market willing to receive us.

“Although the main ingredients with which the tacos are produced are proteins whose price compared to carbohydrates is higher, the profit margins in casual food restaurants and those of QSR (fast food), are still very attractive for investors and owners of this type of business ”, indicated the executive director of El Fogoncito.

If you are taking advantage of the quarantine we are experiencing to stop the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak to plan your next venture, this business model may be for you.

Why should you consider tackling?

Unlike a formal restaurant or food run by time, taco eaters come to the premises, eat and leave. Their average stay is less than one hour and according to CANIRAC, they can pay consumption tickets of up to 200 pesos per person.

You can have a varied menu that does not take up too much space offering specialties such as steak, rib, flank steak, chorizo, chicken, wires and the much loved pastor. You can even “decorate” your offer with accessories such as guacamole, chicharrón, nopales and onions and the inevitable red and green sauces.

One way to expand your offer and appeal to different diners is to offer other Mexican dishes such as quesadillas (with or without cheese), broths, pozoles, wires, charro beans and cakes. And if you want to cater to an even wider audience, you can offer light or vegan alternatives.

The CEO of El Fogoncito stressed that it is convenient to undertake Mexican food in general and specifically with tacos because everyone has a need to eat and eat outside the home, when the restaurant meets expectations and generates diner satisfaction, it becomes all an experience.

“Mexican food throughout the world has become an international benchmark, and, due to its great acceptance and popularity, an opportunity for any highly profitable investor, especially in a country where we eat tacos with pride.”

**But what are there not millions of taquerías in Mexico?**

You will surely wonder why start a taqueria when there are millions of them in any city, town and state in the country. And it is not a ridiculous question. According to figures from the National Occupation and Employment Survey (ENOE) as of the third quarter of 2017, there were 1.6 million tacos in Mexico.

However, it can be said with great confidence that Mexicans will not stop eating tacos in the near future since, according to a study by Kantar World Panel , six out of 10 families eat tacos, sopes, quesadillas and gorditas at least once. a week.

Let’s do a financial exercise. In a past edition of Entrepreneur in Spanish , the specialist Nora Castaños Rocha, proposed to do the following financial exercise to plan the capital that you would need to inject into a taqueria and estimate what the return on investment would be.

“We start the first month under the assumption that you will start by selling 110 tacos a day to 22 clients; an average of five each. As your taqueria becomes known and the recommendations of your clients spread, we will increase during the following months and finally we assume a maximum of 350 tacos per day by the end of the first year, when the taqueria is already positioned. Estimating the costs per portion, each taco would take almost seven pesos in supplies to be sold in 12, with which each taco is they would earn five pesos, that is, a margin of 40 percent of sales.

The sale of tacos plus the consumption of soft drinks yield an estimated income of just over 50 thousand pesos in the first month alone. But the cost of preparing the tacos plus the rent of the premises, the electricity, the salaries of at least two employees and even the cost of transportation necessary to make all the purchases amounts to almost 40 thousand pesos. “

That is, with these numerical examples, if you open each of the 365 days of the year, your monthly sales would reach 108 thousand 238 pesos. From that, the 78,046 pesos would have to be subtracted from the average spending of the month to obtain earnings of 30,192 pesos every 30 days. In this way, you would sell approximately 86 thousand 590 tacos during a whole year generating accumulated profits that would exceed 350 thousand pesos, with which the 77 thousand pesos invested would be recovered the fifth month after opening the taqueria.

“There are many taquerías. They come and go and some disappear for wanting to change the concept of a proven recipe. The important thing is to be clear that what should differentiate you is quality, service and having a recognized brand, as in our case, which has been in operation for more than 50 years ”, recalled González.

What do you need to open your taqueria?

Opening a taqueria is not an easy exercise. As in any food business, key points must be taken into account to achieve the desired performance.

Supplies

It is the raw material with which you will prepare your dishes such as vegetables, tortillas and meat.

Vegetables : fresh ingredients without preservatives. You can get them at the Central de Abastos or at your local markets.
Tortillas : Look for suppliers of nixtamal dough and flour. QuimiNet has a directory of providers of this service.
Meat : You must buy products that have the TIF certification (Type of Federal Inspection), a recognition that the Mexican government grants to meat processing plants that comply with all the norms and requirements of sanitation management.

Local

A place that has a commercial land use permit and that allows the sale of alcoholic beverages. For this you must consult the Law of Operation of Commercial Establishments to know the hours in which your restaurant can operate.

Regarding location, it is recommended that your store be on a corner in neighborhoods with a medium and high socioeconomic level or in a square that already has a guaranteed flow, the competition, the type of area.

Here you will find 10 tips to choose the best location for your restaurant .

You should consider:

Sanitary spaces away from the kitchen
Good finishes in orange and brown tones to awaken consumer hunger
Good ventilation and extraction hood for the grills
Warm lighting
Good music at a medium level that allows chat between diners
Image that goes according to your brand: Will you be traditional, modern, very Mexican, vegan?
Cable television to take advantage of events such as soccer games or boxing fights.
Real estate: Will you have a table, will you be self-service or will you only have a place where the diners will stand? You should also consider whether you will provide parking service.

Permissions

Do not forget that you must process various permits, even if your idea is to start a mobile stall.

Employees

You should at least consider a basic template to cover a shift.

A chef
Two barbecue
A shepherd
Two kitchen assistants and / or waiter
A cashier and a waiter

Then you can extend your staff and even expand your business model to attend events through the taquiza, but the important thing is to maintain the quality of the food, the speed of service and the good attention to the diners.

What if you better buy a franchise?

All of that seems like too much work for a single entrepreneur, so you can opt for other, simpler ways to start with tacos. When you buy a franchise from an established brand, they give you the procedures manual and what is better, a brand that is already positioned in the public’s taste.

“In our case there is a minimum investment of 25 thousand dollars, but it depends a lot on the expectations that each franchisee has. However, that figure already includes all the advice to set up the place, choose the location, the training of the shepherds and the accompaniment of people with experience of the brand during the first weeks of operation “, indicated the brand director of El Tizoncito who remarked that, with a correct operation, the return on investment does not usually exceed 24 months.

Remember that, when buying a turnkey business model, you are given the procedures manual and what is better, a brand that is already positioned in the public’s taste.

“Franchises are a business model that converts unknown risks into known risks in order to apply a defense mechanism to them and thereby obtain results that they want to undertake independently could hardly achieve,” Carlos Roberts recommended to all entrepreneurs who feel attracted to the food industry.

If we remember that just two weeks ago the Potzollcalli franchise raised 10 million pesos in less than 30 hours through a crowdfunding model, we can see that there is a lot of hunger for turnkey businesses based on Mexican food.

Pass it young man, here we have tacos

If you decide that selling tacos is your thing and you think you have what it takes to serve a market that will not stop consuming, we leave you a list of contacts that may be useful to start your business:

National Chamber of the Restaurant and Seasoned Food Industry (CANIRAC)