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Food trucks in Luxembourg: suppliers, financing and local

Pol Miller, co-founder of Lëtzburger, 2018

How to find suppliers?
We owe almost all of our suppliers to the Café Belair. The owner has helped us develop our burgers. At the very beginning, we contacted Café Belair and asked him to show us how to do it. We actually had no idea nor experience in the area. It was all very new to us. He’s given us everything: suppliers, showed us how everything is done and so on. Actually, it’s thanks to him that we got in touch with the suppliers. He even made it possible for us to start buying our products at a cheaper price. That was actually the great thing about it. That is how everything happened.

What about the recipes?
We made up the recipes ourselves. However, as far as the meat and the sauces are concerned, they’re actually from him. He also taught us how to cook the meat. He showed us how to roast it. That’s what he showed us. Over time, we figured out lots of things on our own. We found products we wanted to try and so on. It all came naturally along the way.

New recipes?
I look for inspiration on Instagram regularly. I also brainstorm with our cook, who develops our recipes, and we then discuss how we could proceed. After comes the testing phase. For example, we try out a new bread we haven’t used before.

How much to launch it?
We got 35,000 euros from friends, and 15,000 euros from Microlux. They didn’t give us much… But at the time, it was a lot. The loan from Microlux was really helpful.

How exactly did Microlux help?
We reached out to them and they helped us with the business plan, and they helped us with the numbers. They also looked at whether the whole project would be viable and what we had to do to get it up and running. We had a contact person who was responsible for our project. That person helped and supported us and looked at our financials. Our project was discussed by the committee and they decided to grant us the loan. And yes, we got it! We gained their trust and they granted us a 15,000 euro loan.

Food truck VS local?
A “local” restaurant is fixed. Food trucks have different customers every day. With a fixed spot, it’s easier to build a stable customer base compared to a food truck. On the other hand, a food truck is less expensive in terms of maintenance and other costs. Yes, firstly, the customers are very different. A food truck parks in a different place every day, so customers are ever-changing. In each place, you have to build your customer base. This means our customers in Mamer are different than the ones in Bettembourg. That’s our challenge. On the other hand, I get to meet more people, so, I can count on a lot of potential customers. However, with a fixed place, people can come two or three times a week as compared to a food truck they only see once a week. Our advantage is to be able to tell people when to come and join us. That’s our advantage.