Fish and Chip Shop Equipment

When I set up in business in 1989, I bought two new expensive office desks for £1,500.00. The only reason why I bought these was because the office furniture manufacturer was the only one I knew. We had no money, and if someone explained to me you can buy a new desk for £100.00 each or there was an active second-hand market, then this would have saved us a lot of cash.

I can even remember the sales pitch, “these desks are guaranteed for ten years and will last twenty.” They were telling the truth, but what they did not say is that many companies prefer to change out office furniture and undertake a refit every five to ten years. The lessons we learnt in your context:

• Do not necessary go with the chip shop equipment manufacture or supplier you have used in the past
• Just because the equipment will last ten years does not mean you will keep it that long. It may work out cheaper in the longer term to go with a lower priced solution but then replace every seven years as opposed to every ten

Working with who you know

There is a good logic to using the manufacturer you know, if there is good history with regards to the quality of frying and reliability. Training requirements will have been taken care of and you may well have a basic understanding of how to maintain the equipment or mend it when it stops working. However, we would suggest that you always look at what else is out there:

• When you speak to a supplier or manufacturer of fish and chip shop frying equipment, you must always drop into the conversation the name of another company you are looking at, it will help keep their prices keen
• You may have been using up to date technology a few years ago, but who are the market leaders now. (Look at Tesla cars, an unknown company five years ago. Now their stock market valuation is greater than the mighty Ford Motor Cars.)

A manufacturer, distributor or supplier?

Make sure you know if you are dealing with the manufacturer directly or a supplier of other company’s equipment.

There are benefits to both:

• The manufacturer will not be paying another supplier to sell their equipment and any problems go straight back to them
• The supplier will be suppling a range of manufacturer’s products and will be independent. Also, they may well be a “one stop Shop,” i.e. they could also supply commercial fridges, counters and organise for the chip shop refit.

Do your research

• Undertake a credit report on the supplier, how long have they been trading, what are the chances they will be around in five years?
• Ask for references or speak to them about their existing customers
• Are they a UK owned company, where is the equipment manufactured, do they hold stock in the UK?
• Talk about installation, service, maintenance, training. Is this outsourced, are their local people/companies that can maintain the fryers, what is the yearly cost of maintenance?

List of suppliers of fish and chip shop equipment

The National Federation of Fish Friers has eleven Associate Members who sell ranges of fish and chip shop equipment. Clearly, these companies focus on your sector. However, there are a number of other UK suppliers of chip shop frying equipment that are not Associate Members who sell quality equipment. We have met a number of these other manufacturers during early 2017 who sell deep fat fryers etc. and we are more than happy to supply you a list of all these companies or recommend ones to you.

Our report on the UK suppliers of equipment to the fish and chip shop sector will also provide a financial analysis of these manufactures and has a lot of other valuable information that will help you make a decision as to who to go with.

Please call for more information on fish and chip shop equipment suppliers 01494 611 456 or email, hello@fishfryerfinance.co.uk