10 Best Profitable Food Business Ideas

When it comes to the food business, it is always a hit or a miss, but never too bad because of the most basic universal known fact ever, we all love food! Starting a food business can be a tricky and lengthy process not to mention all the legal formalities that come with it but if you pick up the right industry, profits and revenue will flow through in no time.

Hamburgers are the most profitable fast selling food chain in America. With a total of 50 billion hamburgers sold every week, it stands out as one of the most profitable and high-demand fast food that yields the most profit.

Why is starting a food chain a good idea?

For the longest time, many food businesses and industries have come and gone but the demand for good food remains constant and people are ready to pay for it no matter what. Especially in this era, starting a food business is a great idea as it is very attractive and convenient for most people if the prices are nominal and the food is of high quality.

With an estimated revenue of $500,000 every year, the food business industry is one of the most thriving and booming ones in recent times. With creativity coming in the form of food trucks, small cafes, takeaways, buffets, etc, this is the best time to start a food business.

If you are wondering where to begin or overwhelmed with all the processes, here are the top 10 foods that yield the highest profit depending on the location, demand, etc

1. Hamburgers

Burgers have been one of the most iconic foods in the West and the trend is nothing but growing significantly day by day thanks to its convenience not only in consumption but also in production and distribution. The hamburger industry is the fastest growing with so many new budding entrepreneurs.

The burger restaurant sector in the United States was estimated at approximately 108.51 billion U.S. dollars in 2020, down from the previous year’s total of 123.27 billion U.S. dollars. In 2021, the market was forecast to reach 126.92 billion. (Source)

Pros of Hamburger business

1. Low risk

Compared to all other restaurant start-ups, the risks involved in opening a burger selling business are relatively low. Even though there is a lot of competition in the food industry, the right location and a winning recipe are a great way to start off

2. Popularity

Getting into something that is already popular all over gives you a cushion while starting something new in the same field. Given the worldwide popularity of hamburgers, more and more people are ditching cooking for a more convenient form of food and burgers are number one in the category.

3. Relatively Simple

You really don’t need to be a burger pro or a master chef in order to start your burger restaurant. With the right resources and knowledge, anyone can open a small burger place with a minimal menu and build up gradually from there.

4. Inexpensive

The overall cost of starting a burger business is relatively low and since the cost of burgers is also very inexpensive, the long-term stream of steady flowing cash is guaranteed even if there is no immediate profit.

2. Brewery/Brew Pub

While opening a brewpub requires knowledge and understanding of microbreweries, a dedicated team of brewers can help in contributing to a profitable brewpub business with different types of crafted beers along with a tailor-made menu that goes well with it is a great idea to start off. According to Binwise, the average bar revenue is $27,500 per month, which translates to an average of $330,000 annual revenue. Average monthly bar expenses are $24,200. That leaves about $39,600 in net profit annually.

Pros of Brewery business

1. Beers can be sold anywhere

Other than your brewpub, crafted beers can be sold anywhere irrespective of what season it is, like grocery stores, convenience stores, other cafes, restaurants, etc, which will help in increasing revenue.

2. Scalability

As mentioned in the previous point, beers can be consumed anytime in a year no matter what weather or occasion it is, making it one of the best scalable forms of business in the industry.

3. Partnership Opportunities

As beers can be sold anywhere, it does not really require your presence in order to make money. You can opt for partnerships with other cafes or restaurants that will make you extra money along with your existing business.

4. Higher Margin percentage

According to startup.info, the profit margin for beers is around 40%, which is much higher compared to other businesses. This will help in great revenue and better management of overhead costs in the long run.

3. Bakery/Patisserie

With proper planning, a bakery is a sure-shot profitable industry to begin your entrepreneurial journey. Sweet treats are never out of style and owning a patisserie or a bakery is a fun thing to start with given its versatility. Starting off with a home bakery allows you to save on capital costs which contribute to a large portion of expenses. According to Restaurant Accounting, there are over 6,000 retail bakeries in the United States, bringing in over $3,000,000,000 in combined revenue annually. That puts the average revenue per bakery at about $450,000

Pros of bakery business

1. Sustainable Market

While baked and sweet items are comfort food in almost all countries in the world, the sustainability part of it is taken care of as a bakery never goes out of business.

2. Loyal Customers

Do you find yourself going to your favourite bakery to buy your bread or cake always? It means that you are a loyal customer of that place because you love their baked goodies! Building a loyal customer base is not too hard as compared to other businesses.

3. Creativity

You can go ahead and invent all you want and your customers will love and appreciate you for it with increased sales! Creativity is the biggest advantage and you can go all in and invest all you want.

4. Expansion Potential

The potential for expansion is high when you run a bakery through a high number of products or a high number of varieties that you can sell. You can also sell your baked goods to other retailers at a margin or expand your business in other locations, the opportunities are vast.

4. Pizza

Pizzas are also one of the fastest-growing businesses with so much potential that it can scale your pizza store to great heights with a solid business model in place. Pizza makes around 1m in annual sales, you can expect to make $150K in pre-tax profit. (Source)

Pros of the Pizza business

1. Simple Business Model

Starting a pizza store has a simple business model as compared to other businesses which contribute to a more seamless and easy launch of your start-up.

2. Easy to learn and start

With pizzas being so popular all over the world, all the resources and recipes you need to start a pizza store are readily available online which will save you a great deal of time and effort in starting everything from scratch.

3. Customer referrals

Word of mouth is a powerful form of advertisement and your pizza store will stand a higher chance of that if you do a great job in making some amazing pizzas which can be very impactful to attract and retain customers.

4. Quick to make

Pizzas are also very quick and easy to make and an experienced chef can bake an amazing pizza with any topping you want in under 8 minutes which helps in faster and greater sales turnover in a short time.

5. Sandwiches

We all love a yum quick sandwich on the go on busy days (or all days, really). Sandwich business can be started by anyone given their simple and quick recipes and profits will start flowing in when paired with drinks like coffee, lemonade, etc. A small–scale but standard sandwich shop that is located in a high human and vehicular traffic location in a cosmopolitan city in the United States of America will make on average between $120,000 to $350,000 annually all things being equal. (Source)

Pros of Sandwich business

1. Endless Options

You will never run out of options when it comes to adding a touch of creativity to your sandwiches. With so many options available when it comes to different fillings. Veggies, toppings, sauces, etc, you are blessed with any opportunities to add varieties to your sandwich menu.

2. Diverse selection of products

Appealing to a large customer base is not much of an issue, thanks to all the options to have to tweak them based on individual preferences like vegetarian, vegan, all wheat sandwiches, etc

3. Convenience factor

Sandwiches are one of the most simple dishes to grab and eat on the go which will avoid all the hassle. Whether you are free, busy, or running errands, they are a quick and healthy option to choose from.

6. Frozen Yogurts (Froyo)

With gaining a lot of popularity in recent times and with a number of advantages, frozen yogurt store is a profitable business that can be started easily and can help in profit margins as we do not see a lot of froyo stores all over. According to IBIS World, frozen yogurt is a $1 billion dollar per year industry with 2508 stores in operation. Based on this estimate the average store generates $398,724 in annual sales.

Pros of Frozen yogurt business

1. Attracts younger crowd

As frozen yogurts are popular now, the major crowd that one can see in froyo stores is the younger crowd can hop in for quick refreshments with friends as a cute hangout spot. Attracting a young crowd is an advantage as they tend to stay loyal and return to your store over and over again.

2. No cooking

Unlike all other business that allows prepping and cooking food, frozen yogurt stores require zero cooking which will help you in focusing on other areas of making profits.

3. It is healthy!

Unless you add a ton of toppings and sugar, frozen yogurts are a healthy option as they are high in calcium that helps in strengthening bones and teeth while also providing protein and other vitamins that might attract higher crowds to your store.

4. Many options

The best of all! With the option to customize yogurt exactly to their liking by choosing amongst so many flavours and toppings, people enjoy a more personalized treatment to enjoy which is also a big advantage to retaining and attracting a diverse crowd.

7. Handmade Gourmet Chocolates

Chocolate making business is a great way to turn your favourite hobby into a money-making machine. With the right marketing techniques on social media like creating a page, website, etc, you can become your own boss while doing the very thing you love. According to statista, The chocolate market in the United States is expected to experience modest growth from 2016 to 2025. The market was valued at 17.6 billion U.S. dollars in 2016 and is forecast to grow to 20.7 billion dollars by 2025.

Pros of chocolate making business

1. Very little startup costs

Turning your hobby into a business involves very few startup costs, which is a great advantage as it helps in a very quick launch and helps your business up and running in no time.

2. You can start from home

Unlike other businesses, you do not need a separate dedicated space to start your candy-making business, at least at an early stage which is amazing as it helps in saving a lot of expenses.

3. Great Income Potential

There is no real limit as to how much money you can make with your candy-making hobby. As you grow slowly, your sales and profits will also increase in a steady manner.

4. High Website Traffic

Having a website is a great idea especially when it comes to the chocolate-making business as it drives more traffic which in turn increases sales and revenue.

8. Bubble Tea Shop

Bubble Tea if one of the latest global takeovers and it is for good reason. Bubble tea is a normal milk tea that is made with sugar, black tea, and tapioca balls. It is also called ‘pearl milk tea’ in many countries. With its origination from Taiwan, bubble tea shops are rising all over the world and this is your chance to start a profitable, high-selling business!

Bubble tea shops that have an average selling price of $5.00/cup of bubble tea and sell about 100 cups per day would make about $500/day x 350 days = $175,000 in annual revenue.

Pros of starting a bubble tea shop

1. Demand will always be there

The demand for caffeine will forever be there and different caffeine intake options in the form of bubble teas, infused teas, etc, will only increase demand and profit margin to great extent.

2. Diversification

The second advantage of bubble tea is that it comes in many flavours which call for many people with varied tastes. With over 10 flavours available, attracting many people should not be a very difficult task

3. Health benefits

As bubble tea is made from tapioca balls, it is derived from the cassava root that is rich in vitamin C and calcium that strengthens the immune system and boosts heart and skin health which in turn will bring in people of all ages to your store.

4. Highest potential future growth

According to Researchdrive.com, the global bubble tea market is anticipated to garner $4,552.9 million in the 2021–2028 timeframe, growing from $2,595.8 million in 2020 at a healthy CAGR of 7.4%. This means that opening a bubble tea business will give you a very competitive advantage and a strong market hold in the near future.

9. Ice Cream

Ice creams have been dominating the global market for more than 50 years and it has become all the better these days with so many new flavours and varieties. With no end in creative ideas to diversify, an ice cream business can be a successful startup with more advantages to make use of.

According to Fortune Global Heights, the market size reached USD 70.85 billion in 2019 and is anticipated to reach USD 91.90 billion by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 4.01% during the forecast period.

Pros of the Ice cream business

1. Huge Target Market

Ice cream bars are perfect for almost everything and with everyone be it family, date, friends, grandparents, etc. So as long as you are looking for more unique selling points and innovation strategies, your ice cream bar is in for some money!

2. No particular season

Even though ice creams were made for summers, these days there is no particular season to enjoy one and people are in need of ice creams all around the year which is good for your business’s potential growth.

3. Side Job

Due to its simplicity, ice cream business can be your passive job as it does not require your full attention and effort every day. So you can do it along with your full-time job or as your weekend passion.

4. Flexibility

It helps and contributes to your flexible working hours, where you can choose when you want to work and will also give you the decision power in order to choose the flavour, prices, etc.

10. Pasta

This Italian food is a blessing to humankind in many ways given its simplicity and cost-effectiveness and also when it comes to starting a pasta-making business. According to idea2makemoney,  You can expect a minimum of 33% of profit margin in a pasta-making business if you start the business at a smaller scale. For a commercial scale, the profit goes up to 50%. Pasta is a great profit-making business given its increase in profit margin in recent years.

Pros of Pasta business

1. Minimal experience required

One of the biggest advantages of pasta making is that you don’t need to be a great chef as they are easy to make and scale upwards depending on the demand in a particular location.

2. Less making time

Making pasta is easy compared to others as it takes no less than 15 mins, which means you can make large amounts of pasta in a short time

3. Can serve a large audience

As pasta is easy to make, you can serve a large number of people in a short time which will help in increased profits and the potential to expand to other locations.

4. All-time favourite

Pasta is an all-time favourite savoury food for many people thanks to its ability to keep you full for a long time. As it also contributes as a quick snack, pasta is one of the highest-selling foods in the world.

Conclusion

While starting any business requires a great deal of effort and time, starting a business that is under the highest-selling ones will not only help you in scaling faster but will also save you a lot of time, not to mention great profit and margin making capacity. Please comment down below and let us know of any other profitable foods to sell or any of the best-selling foods in your location.