Prestige Food Trucks, a premier central Florida food truck builder reports significant demand for mobile food venders as small to large restaurant chains/franchises consider expanding into mobile catering.

“Over the past two years, many small to large restaurant chains/franchises have shown significant interest in taking their brand/restaurant to the food truck industry,” stated Tracy Stein, CEO and president of Prime Pinnacle, a private investment firm that provides financial capital for Prestige Food Trucks, in a prepared statement.

Stein further stated that the rise in popularity is because restaurant chains/franchises have begun to see the big picture in getting into the food truck business by studying, researching and recognizing the opportunities.

Prime Pinnacle’s research/data have shown that more than 15 percent of the top 200 restaurant chains have a mobile café / food truck presence. These include Cousins Submarines, Inc; Tasti D-Lite Frozen Yogart; Toppers Pizza; Jack in The Box; Sizzler; Red Robin; Chick-fil-A, Star Diner;The Gap; The Habit Burger & Grill; Taco Bell; Applebee’s; Dairy Queen, Subway, Qdoba, California Pizza Kitchen, Carl’s Jr.; In-N-Out Burger, Fatburger; Grandolfo’s New York Delicatessen; Banna-Stow’s Crepes & Coffee; and more.

Stein stated, “Food trucks serve as mobile billboards as well which is very enticing to the franchise/chain owners as they can spend between $50,000 to $200,000 plus per month on advertising alone. With a mobile food truck their visibility increases exponentially.”

Photo: PRWeb

Due to significant demand, Prestige Food Trucks of Orlando, Florida has recently expanded its operations to include small to large restaurant chains/franchises.

“Over the past two years, many small to large restaurant chains/franchises have shown significant interest in taking their brand/restaurant to the food truck industry,” stated Tracy Stein-CEO/President for Prime Pinnacle.

Mr. Stein further states the rise in popularity is because restaurant chains/franchises have begun to see the big picture in getting into the food truck business by studying, researching, and recognizing the following opportunities:

•     Franchises can extend their brand recognition immediately and exponentially while earning loyalty from their new customers early on
•     New locations for future Brick-And-Mortar Restaurants can be scouted out to gain important data on location and demographics for additional franchisee value and security
•     Mobile/Roaming Billboard for Advertising/Promotions/Marketing
•     Testing and data gathering on new menu items and concepts for mass-production
•     Additional Profit Center

Prime Pinnacle’s research/data have shown that over 15% of the Top 200 restaurant chains have a mobile café / food truck presence. That’s a tremendously strong statement as to the value of a mobile brand extension. The trend is increasing daily as many well-known chains and franchises have already jumped into the game. These include Cousins Submarines, Inc; Tasti D-Lite Frozen Yogart; Toppers Pizza; Jack in The Box; Sizzler; Red Robin; Chick-fil-A, Star Diner;The Gap; The Habit Burger & Grill; Taco Bell; Applebee’s; Dairy Queen, Subway, Qdoba, California Pizza Kitchen, Carl’s Jr.; In-N-Out Burger, Fatburger; Grandolfo’s New York Delicatessen; Banna-Stow’s Crepes & Coffee; and more.

The restaurant industry is highly competitive and establishing and maintaining brand loyalty and recognition early is key.

The chain restaurants/franchises are aware that the cost to buy/build a food truck pales in comparison compared to opening a brick-and-mortar store, with much higher profit margins. Stein stated, “Food trucks serve as mobile billboards as well which is very enticing to the franchise/chain owners as they can spend between $50,000 – $200,000 + per month on advertising alone. With a mobile food truck their visibility increases exponentially.”

And one food truck manufacturer has begun to see the feasting begin to gain market share. “The food truck industry is here to stay and will be growing by leaps and bounds in order to keep up and meet consumer demand. With that more evident now than ever, small to large chain restaurants/franchises are jumping on board and moving their brands out into main stream and rural America,” Says Mr. Stein. “It’s an exciting thing to watch.”

Prestige Food Trucks builds, sells, buys, repairs, rehabs, finances, leases and rents premium quality food trucks/mobile cafes & trailers to a wide range of clientele from sole-proprietors to nationwide chains. Their commitment is to offer complete turnkey development to their customers, from building to branding to getting on the street.

More information about Prestige Food Trucks is available online at http://www.prestigefoodtrucks.com.

http://www.sfgate.com/business/prweb/article/Franchises-Restaurant-Chains-Experiment-with-4459951.php

Without good food equipments, you won’t survive in a catering truck business. Hence welcome to the Cater Needs. Zarik Menassian, the owner of Cater Needs Inc., has been involved in the catering truck business since 1975. Through all these years Zarik has accumulated vast knowledge in all aspects of the industry from manufacturing, sales, repairs, and financing. Cater Needs is your one stop online and in-store provider for every catering truck needs. Cater Needs has been known for offering the most reasonably priced truck electrical partsand in addition their kitty is full of all the necessary mobile kitchen equipments etc that you require while doing any such business.

Many people may know but those who don’t know, see, a food truck is essentially a restaurant on wheels, having various advantages over a traditional eat-in restaurant. You don’t need to go through all the hassles of setting up your restaurant in the most hotshot place in your city or town; rather simply carry your truck hardware over there and crowd will come to you instead. A food truck can go to where the customers are; where you will get business. Today, there are about 3 million food trucks operating in the U.S., more than 5 million food carts, and an indefinite number of kiosks. Food kiosks are temporary booths or stands used to prepare and sell foods like pretzels, ice cream and hot dogs. The suppleness and ease by which a kiosk can be opened and closed are among the reasons why this concept of selling food via a truck or a moving car has become so popular. The concept of running a fast food shop and dealing with various mobile kitchen equipments may sound a very easy thing for most of you but in reality there are certain factors that needs to be taken care of well to ensure you build a successful business.

CaterNeeds is ever committed in serving the cater truck service industry in the most cost-effective way possible by offering very competitive prices and toll free phone and fax lines. In addition to efficiency and great pricing, Cater Needs will give you the peace of mind to run a catering truck business.

http://foodtruckequipment.wordpress.com/2013/04/18/cater-needs-offering-you-the-best-priced-truck-electrical-parts/

Gorilla Fabrication specializes in building out Custom Food Trucks. Mobile Eateries, Catering Trucks and Beer Trucks. Check out the masterpiece below that was built for Coastal Crust based out of Mt. Pleasant, SC in the Charleston area. Whether you want to outfit your food truck with a full commercial kitchen or you need to add on to an existing food truck, Gorilla Fabrication has you covered. Tons of options that can make your custom food truck dream come to life! We’ll get you on the road in style with all the comforts of your own restaurant. If you are thinking about joining the food truck phenomenon that is sweeping the country, you have found the perfect company to build your custom food truck and mobile eatery. We have recently built trucks for the likes of Jim ‘N Nick’s BBQ and Kickin Chicken. If you’re ready, fill out the quote form here.

http://gorillafabrication.com/commercial-food-trucks/

The whirs and hisses of drills and welding torches carry outside a warehouse tucked away in a Fort Lauderdale office park. Inside, rows of step vans and delivery trucks are being reborn as food trucks.

As mobile eateries have flourished in South Florida in recent years, food truck builders have also shifted into high gear.

These mobile food truck factories — including Concession Nation in Fort Lauderdale, AAA Concession Trucks and Trailers in Davie, and FoodCart USA in Miami — scour the state for new and late-model Chevy, Ford and GMC step vans as well as used flower, fire and delivery trucks (and in one case, a shuttle van from NASA). They add fryers, refrigerators and stainless steel surfaces and turn them into rolling restaurants.

“Everybody wants one,” said Alexander Alvarez, owner of Concession Nation, which completed 126 jobs in 2012, a 34 percent increase from 2011.

The weakened economy and high unemployment of the past few years have helped drive the local food truck boom. As people were laid off or considering job changes, some decided to become their own boss and invest in mobile units. Meanwhile, TV programs such as Food Network’s “The Great Food Truck Race” and the Cooking Channel’s “Eat Street” were showing contestants making thousands of dollars a day with a customized food truck.

Yes, food truck operators have costs such as gas, food inventory and permits. But these are “less expensive than brick-and-mortar facilities, making it easier to enter the food service business,” said Ron Grimes, manager of environmental health programs at NSF International, a nonprofit that develops standards for equipment used in food service establishments such as food trucks.

“People don’t have to pay rent [with a food truck], and they are not committed to one place,” said Bruce Hicks, owner of AAA Concession Trucks and Trailers, adding that his business doubled to 30 trucks in 2012 from the previous year, from a mix of local and national clients.

He began to shift his business toward food truck building in the past two years after noticing a decline in RV-related jobs.

“I saw that [business] going away. People were in foreclosures and losing their homes,” Hicks said.

These days, he’s getting requests to create food trucks for freestanding businesses such as Popeye’s fast-food chicken and Donna’s Restaurant and Lounge, which has locations throughout Broward County.

He was also hired to outfit an all-white, 8-foot GMC step van for Gozen Yogurt, a self-service frozen yogurt company based in Philadelphia. It will be painted in orange, yellow and blue swirls and have a flat-screen TV, freezer and four self-serve yogurt machines. Once completed later this month, the truck will be ready to dispense sorbet, dulce de leche and caramel-flavored treats at corporate parties and festivals from Jupiter to Miami.

“The real advantage to having a food truck is that you will be able bring the entire frozen yogurt store experience to someone’s home,” said Adam Zell, the Florida partner for Gozen Yogurt.

Of course, none of this would be possible without the ever-growing popularity of food truck fare and events. The National Restaurant Association doesn’t track the number of food trucks in the United States, but the group has found that consumers have been increasingly flocking to mobile eateries.

In a 2012 association survey, 43 percent of adults said they had bought items from a food truck.

The demand for food trucks, Concession Nation’s Alvarez said, comes from a base of customers hungry for “fast-food but better quality. You get a homemade plate served to you in 10 minutes.”

At Concession Nation’s offices and warehouse in Fort Lauderdale, calls pour in from throughout the country. The San Francisco 49ers football team, for example, had the company create a team-themed concession trailer.

And the Fontainebleau in Miami Beach recently hired Concession Nation to build an 18-foot food truck to sell some of the dishes found at the resorts’ restaurants such as Gotham Steak and Scarpetta. The truck will roam the property, complete with three flatscreen monitors showing video of the hotel’s amenities.

“It’s a truck that we are going to use to feature lots of different venues in the resort,” said Thomas Connell, the resort’s executive chef. “We are going to use it for special events, barbecues, LIV [nightclub] after-hours … wherever our customers need it really.”

Costs range per builder, but a used food truck can cost $3,000 to $20,000, depending on the mileage, year, condition and size, which can be 16 or 18 feet long. Fully-loaded new trucks can run as much as $100,000. Generally, vendors find the trucks for the client, but a customer can bring a truck to a contractor and have it outfitted with equipment.

Workers strip the rear (or the box) of the truck, install aluminum walls and diamond-plated flooring. They add stainless-steel counters, refrigerators, sinks and deep fryers, or whatever the client requests. Some owners add LED lights on their roofs and flat screens to promote their menus to potential passers-by.

Concession Nation, which features its work on fastfoodtruck.com, also wraps the exterior of the vehicle to brand the food and services.

“You have a brand-new truck inside and, plus, you have free advertising whenever you hit the road,” said Monica Gonzalez, chief financial officer at Concession Nation. A typical job there lasts about five days.

Craig Larson, owner of Lucille’s Bad to the Bone BBQ in Boca Raton and Boynton Beach, wanted a food truck as a side catering business to bring his culinary fare to office workers daily.

“We realized there was as significant truck scene going on down in [Miami-Dade] but didn’t see a lot of it in Palm Beach,” he said.

So last year he sought the services of Concession Nation, which transformed a 2001 GMC 28-foot-long step van used for flower deliveries in Disney World into Lucille’s on Wheels, a black food truck bedecked with the image of a smiling red-headed woman carrying a tray of food.

“We wanted to do something whimsical, slightly southern, slightly risque. The whole deal with the truck was to have fun,” said Larson, whose mobile unit houses a three-compartment sink, two fryers and a 4-foot grill that makes barbecue chicken nachos and fries slicked in gravy. “It’s a whole rebirth for that truck from what it did originally.”

http://www.southflorida.com/news/fl-food-truck-builders-20130306,0,3231810.story

The whirs and hisses of drills and welding torches carry outside a warehouse tucked away in aFort Lauderdale office park. Inside, rows of step vans and delivery trucks are being reborn as food trucks.

As mobile eateries have flourished in South Florida in recent years, food truck builders have also shifted into high gear.

These mobile food truck factories — including Concession Nation in Fort Lauderdale, AAAConcession Trucks and Trailers in Davie, and FoodCart USA in Miami — scour the state for new and late-model Chevy, Ford and GMC step vans as well as used flower, fire and delivery trucks (and in one case, a shuttle van from NASA). They add fryers, refrigerators and stainless steel surfaces and turn them into rolling restaurants.

Bruce Hicks, owner of AAA Concession Trucks and Trailers in Davie, buys used bread and delivery trucks and converts them into rolling restaurants for clients locally and out of state.

“Everybody wants one,” said Alexander Alvarez, owner of Concession Nation, which completed 126 jobs in 2012, a 34 percent increase from 2011.

The weakened economy and high unemployment of the past few years have helped drive the local food truck boom. As people were laid off or considering job changes, some decided to become their own boss and invest in mobile units. Meanwhile, TV programs such as Food Network‘s “The Great Food Truck Race” and the Cooking Channel‘s “Eat Street” were showing contestants making thousands of dollars a day with a customized food truck

Yes, food truck operators have costs such as gas, food inventory and permits. But these are “less expensive than brick-and-mortar facilities, making it easier to enter the food service business,” said Ron Grimes, manager of environmental health programs at NSF International, a nonprofit that develops standards for equipment used in food service establishments such as food trucks.

“People don’t have to pay rent [with a food truck], and they are not committed to one place,” said Bruce Hicks, owner of AAA Concession Trucks and Trailers, adding that his business doubled to 30 trucks in 2012 from the previous year, from a mix of local and national clients.

He began to shift his business toward food truck building in the past two years after noticing a decline in RV-related jobs.

“I saw that [business] going away. People were in foreclosures and losing their homes,” Hicks said.

These days, he’s getting requests to create food trucks for freestanding businesses such as Popeye’s fast-food chicken and Donna’s Restaurant and Lounge, which has locations throughout Broward County.

He was also hired to outfit an all-white, 8-foot GMC step van for Gozen Yogurt, a self-service frozen yogurt company based in Philadelphia. It will be painted in orange, yellow and blue swirls and have a flat-screen TV, freezer and four self-serve yogurt machines. Once completed later this month, the truck will be ready to dispense sorbet, dulce de leche and caramel-flavored treats at corporate parties and festivals from Jupiter to Miami.

“The real advantage to having a food truck is that you will be able bring the entire frozen yogurt store experience to someone’s home,” said Adam Zell, the Florida partner for Gozen Yogurt.

Of course, none of this would be possible without the ever-growing popularity of food truck fare and events. The National Restaurant Association doesn’t track the number of food trucks in the United States, but the group has found that consumers have been increasingly flocking to mobile eateries.

In a 2012 association survey, 43 percent of adults said they had bought items from a food truck.

The demand for food trucks, Concession Nation’s Alvarez said, comes from a base of customers hungry for “fast-food but better quality. You get a homemade plate served to you in 10 minutes.”

At Concession Nation’s offices and warehouse in Fort Lauderdale, calls pour in from throughout the country. The San Francisco 49ers football team, for example, had the company create a team-themed concession trailer.

And the Fontainebleau in Miami Beach recently hired Concession Nation to build an 18-foot food truck to sell some of the dishes found at the resorts’ restaurants such as Gotham Steak and Scarpetta. The truck will roam the property, complete with three flatscreen monitors showing video of the hotel’s amenities.

“It’s a truck that we are going to use to feature lots of different venues in the resort,” said Thomas Connell, the resort’s executive chef. “We are going to use it for special events, barbecues, LIV [nightclub] after-hours … wherever our customers need it really.”

Costs range per builder, but a used food truck can cost $3,000 to $20,000, depending on the mileage, year, condition and size, which can be 16 or 18 feet long. Fully-loaded new trucks can run as much as $100,000. Generally, vendors find the trucks for the client, but a customer can bring a truck to a contractor and have it outfitted with equipment.

Workers strip the rear (or the box) of the truck, install aluminum walls and diamond-plated flooring. They add stainless-steel counters, refrigerators, sinks and deep fryers, or whatever the client requests. Some owners add LED lights on their roofs and flat screens to promote their menus to potential passers-by.

Concession Nation, which features its work on fastfoodtruck.com, also wraps the exterior of the vehicle to brand the food and services.

“You have a brand-new truck inside and, plus, you have free advertising whenever you hit the road,” said Monica Gonzalez, chief financial officer at Concession Nation. A typical job there lasts about five days.

Craig Larson, owner of Lucille’s Bad to the Bone BBQ in Boca Raton and Boynton Beach, wanted a food truck as a side catering business to bring his culinary fare to office workers daily.

“We realized there was as significant truck scene going on down in [Miami-Dade] but didn’t see a lot of it in Palm Beach,” he said.

So last year he sought the services of Concession Nation, which transformed a 2001 GMC 28-foot-long step van used for flower deliveries in Disney World into Lucille’s on Wheels, a black food truck bedecked with the image of a smiling red-headed woman carrying a tray of food.

“We wanted to do something whimsical, slightly southern, slightly risque. The whole deal with the truck was to have fun,” said Larson, whose mobile unit houses a three-compartment sink, two fryers and a 4-foot grill that makes barbecue chicken nachos and fries slicked in gravy. “It’s a whole rebirth for that truck from what it did originally.”

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/fl-food-truck-builders-20130306,0,5442847.story

WASHINGTON — In recent years food trucks have proliferated in big U.S. cities.  As the popularity of the mobile kitchen continues to grow, a small business in the Washington D.C. suburbs is also profiting.  East Coast Custom Coaches is a builder of food trucks.

“You’ve got to come in, go around in this truck, and back out that window in three to four minutes, period,” says Lee Campbell, owner of East Coast Coaches who believes that is how long it should take for a chef to prepare food for customers.

“That is how we design our trucks to the chef. They are made for the chef,” Campbell said.  “Are you right-handed or left-handed, are you real tall …,”

East Coast Custom Coaches is based in Manassas, Virginia, outside Washington. Over the past several years, his team of 15 employees has built about 200 food trucks.

Gauri Sarin sells Asian fusion food in downtown Washington. Her mobile kitchen, Something Stuffed, was built by Campbell’s team.

“I love the inside of my truck,” she says. “I am very happy with all the equipment and where everything is located.”

Campbell says each truck has a different design depending on the cuisine.  One of his biggest challenges is finding the best use of the small space.

“One, two, three, four, five, six, seven pieces of equipment [are] right here,” he said. “We maximize every square inch of it.  That is why I have a top-notch engineer on my staff.”

That engineer is Tom Mayhew.  He met Campbell many years ago when they were working as volunteer firefighters.

“I have 26 years in a fire department. So I have a keen eye for safeties,” Mayhew said. “When I look at a design or a drawing, I take safety in consideration first.  Is it safe?  If it is, then we can design the way they [customers] feel like they want to make it.”

Jeff Kelly, of the D.C. Food Truck Association, says the trucks must also comply with local government regulations.

“So working with somebody like Lee and East Coast Custom is important in that way because regulations are really hard to understand for someone just opening a truck for the first time,” he said. “They know the rules, they know the regulations.  They build quality vehicles.”

That is why Carmen and Chris Morse came to East Coast Custom.

“We are going to serve gourmet mini-burgers,” said Carmen.

“We have worked in restaurants since we were young teenagers, things like that,” Chris said. “This is our first venture on a mobile food truck. We are super excited.”

Campbell says most food trucks in the Washington area are used vehicles from FedEx or the post office. The re-outfitting process takes two to three months and costs, on average, around $45,000 – a fraction of the cost of opening a regular restaurant.

“We have about 31 trucks to build,” Campbell said. “We try to get four to five trucks out a month.”

Campbell expects to stay busy for many years to come, as the curbside restaurant industry keeps growing.

http://www.voanews.com/content/building-a-restaurant-on-wheels-food-trucks/1615143.html

MAG is experiencing mind warping growth. Last year MAG was included in the prestigious Inc 500, as the 81st fastest growing private company in the country. This recent success is in part due to MAG Specialty Vehicles, which designs and manufactures mobile food trucks.

With the fast growing mobile food industry still in its infancy, MAG has provided it with a breath of fresh air, with its roots in entrepreneurism and also its large company solutions. MAG consists of; MAG Trucks, a fully integrated truck dealership and manufacturer, MAG Capital, a national provider of commercial truck and equipment financing, MAG Transport, a full service transport company, and lastly MAG Specialty Vehicles, a custom design and up-fit firm, focusing on the mobile food industry.

2012 Freightliner P1200 StepVan

The foray into building custom food trucks was a difficult one for the team at MAG Specialty Vehicles, but their early difficulties turned into a plus for the customer. MAG traditionally was a process manufacturer for the parcel delivery industry, where production success was based on speed and quality. The building of custom food trucks by nature is a slower process and based on customized build outs. Each build is specific to the end user, but the team knew they could marry both industry practices into a stronger product. Once the team defined an upfront process working with the end user to get the build out and strategic plan laid out, it all really seemed to go together. They could now apply their production processes to a custom build. This was good for the end user, because they receive a custom food truck that has been built like a production line vehicle. The speed is increased and the quality is improved.

MAG knows the mobile food industry is developing and the players are now big and small. The needs of players in the middle, or at either end of the spectrum require specific solutions. That is why they offer stripped trucks for sale to other food truck builders, customized designs for a single truck or fleet designs that take advantage of savings due to volume, financing for one truck or specific leases for large fleets that allow decisions to be made without affecting capital budgets, pick up at the production facility or coordinating shipping to different regions across the country. At MAG Specialty Vehicles, they don’t just manufacture food trucks, they manufacture solutions.

Check out MAG Truck: www.MAGTruckSales.com

Binalot Fiesta Foods, Inc. (BFFI), has partnered with Mitsubishi Motor Philippines Corp.  in this endeavor. With truck body builder Centro Manufacturing for the development of  food trucks similar to those  that have started a craze in the United States.

The Binalot food van has a Mitsubishi L200 Chassis developed as a compact, efficient, light weight and affordable platform to house a fully-operational Binalot store on wheels.

It is a whole store unit and an eco-friendly mobile food solution. Completely modern and environment-friendly, the Binalot food van will cater to people in a hurry, perfect for those who just want to grab a quick lunch and go. Popular Pinoy classics adobo, bistek, tapa, tocino, sisig, longganisa (with salted eggs and tomato) can now be enjoyed wherever and whenever because of the mobility of the new store units.

http://www.malaya.com.ph/index.php/special-features/motoring/15328-mmpc-develops-food-truck

By Bethany Clough | The Fresno Bee

Darrell Jones of Custom Concessions works inside of a trailer at the Fresno business Tuesday, September 4, 2012. Custom Concessions, which manufactures food trailers and portable barbecue pits has seen an uptick in business with the popularity of food trucks around the nation. CRAIG KOHLRUSS/THE FRESNO BEE

Fresno’s flourishing food truck scene is benefiting more than just the people selling lunches and the customers eating them.

One Fresno-based company that makes concession trailers has doubled the number of workers in its shop and had sales jump 30% in the past year as entrepreneurs jump into the trendy food business.

The growth of Quality Custom Concession & BBQ Trailers is an example of the ripple effect that happens when a new industry that is relatively easy to get into becomes popular.

The 11-year-old company started making barbecue grills, then evolved into building trailers that sell everything from shaved ice to gourmet meals. Though they aren’t true food trucks — the mobile kitchens are towed by pickup trucks — that part of their business has picked up significantly in the past four years, said David Martin, who does sales and marketing for the company.

“It got more popular and more popular,” he said. “The more we built, the more we saw a market for it.”

Arnold Barajas of Custom Concessions works on an exhaust fan near the alcove that used to be the stage for the old Marigold Ballroom in Fresno Tuesday, September 4, 2012. Custom Concessions manufactures custom food trailers and portable barbecue pits. CRAIG KOHLRUSS/THE FRESNO BEE

Fresnans might recognize the Summertime Pies and K’s Pasta trailers — both sell their food at the Manchester Center farmers market at lunchtime on Fridays. Quality Custom Concession built both.

They’re part of the burgeoning mobile food scene, a $1.5 billion industry that has grown at an average rate of 8.4% per year over the past four years, according to research firm IBISWorld.

The trend has grown locally as customers seek out fresh and unique foods, and scorn processed foods, said Tim Stearns director of the Lyles Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Fresno State.

“Certainly the uptick in the demand for street vendors is helping a lot of their upstream suppliers,” said Nima Samadi, an IBISWorld senior analyst. “It’s been a boost for a lot of these manufacturing firms that create the carts and equipment that’s used within these trucks and also the industries that supply them with food.”

A custom food trailer is shown in the Custom Concessions warehouse in Fresno Tuesday, September 4, 2012. The company manufactures food trailers and portable barbecue pits and has seen a recent uptick in business because of the rising popularity of food trucks around the nation. CRAIG KOHLRUSS/THE FRESNO BEE

Other local businesses have benefited from the trend, too.

For Fresno-based Carlin Manufacturing, sales of the mobile kitchens — both trucks and trailers — it makes for big-name brands like Taco Bell have grown 15% to 20% over the past two years, said Ralph Goldbeck, one of three partners in the business.

The company closed its Fresno plant in 2003 and moved manufacturing to the Midwest, but it maintains a 10-person design and sales office here. The growth inspired Carlin recently to add two people who design the trucks and trailers to its Fresno office.

And Quality Custom Concession has passed business along to J&E Restaurant Supply, ordering its trailer-size refrigerators, griddles and other equipment from the downtown Fresno business.

The mobile food business is relatively easy to get into, accounting for some of its recent growth, Stearns said.

“It doesn’t cost a lot of capital to … get a barbecue pit trailer,” Stearns said.

Entrepreneurs avoid many of the expenses and pitfalls facing brick-and-mortar restaurants, he said.

As people struggle to find work, many are increasingly turning to the mobile food business as a source of income, he said.

“The appeal is the cost to get into the industry,” said Robert Thomason, a member of the Mobile Food Vendors Association’s board of directors.

Costs range from $895 for a small barbecue trailer to $100,000 for a top-of-the-line food truck.

“A lot of our customers, this is their new dream,” said Mark Cifranic, Quality Custom Concession’s office manager and a sales person.

Many are laid-off workers or people coming out of retirement.

Quality Custom Concession is creating prototypes in the $20,000 to $30,000 range. Not cheap, but within the budget of entrepreneurs who tap their retirement or other savings, Cifranic said.

John and Sherry Liles of Summertime Pies bought a 20-foot trailer in Southern California that originally was built by Quality Custom Concession. They hired the Fresno company to remodel it.

“They completely gutted it,” putting in new sinks, a refrigerator, freezer, two deep fryers, oven and stove and grill, said John Liles.

The couple came out of retirement to run Summertime Pies, saying they needed an additional source of income. Now they visit several locations per week, selling baked and fried pies and empanadas from a window in the trailer.

Quality Custom Concession is increasingly remodeling trucks and trailers, some of which are bought out of state and need work to meet California and county health requirements, Cifranic said.

About half of its business comes from local customers and the rest from outside the area.

Quality Custom Concession’s roots are planted firmly in the Valley, however. The company — located on Hedges Avenue, near Blackstone and Olive avenues — got its start when owner Durbin Breckenridge, who runs a meat-processing plant across the street, got involved in a barbecue-building and catering business.

Its first concession trailer was built for Del Rey farmer and author David Mas Masumoto, who wanted a mobile kitchen to serve food from while entertaining on his farm.

“All of a sudden, we had people calling us,” Breckenridge said. “We picked up from there and the rest is history.”

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2012/09/08/2984277_p2/valley-street-vendor-suppliers.html#storylink=cpy