Karibu

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Karibu

Food truck

Limited Liability company

Belgium

http://www.kaributruck.be/

Exclusive import, unique product, outlook truck

Eloise Deleersnyder

Anthony De Clerck

Eloise Deleersnyder

Summary

Karibu was founded by Eloise Deleersnyder in July 2015. The company offers its customers the chance to explore the new tastes of exclusive exotic meats by selling sandwiches containing these products. This young entrepreneur fully committed to her dream and now she meets new people while exploring different places.

Background

After achieving a degree as a chef, Eloise Deleersnyder had some working experience in a restaurant, working as a sous-chef. The different lifestyle and lonesome characteristics of a chef quickly irritated the young entrepreneur so she started searching for a plausible solution. Thanks to her father, who is the sole importer of exotic meat in Europe, she had the idea and opportunity to implement this meat in her business activity. After some advice she received from her aunt, she founded the Karibu food truck. After the purchase of the caravan, she restored it and with some help from friends and acquaintances she installed her very own kitchen on wheels.

The initial cost to finance the foundation of Karibu was mainly based on the purchase of the caravan. The founder searched the internet in order to find a suitable vehicle for her activities. Through Ebay, she finally found a cheap model that still needed some adaptations and fixing. The low cost to buy this van, the equipment (friges, pots and pans, …) was covered by the savings money the 21st year old innovative mind had collected.

After the foundation of the Karibu food truck, the decision was made to rent the truck to BVBA Afrodisa. This is an organization that was founded by Eloise Deleersnyder, her dad and her sister. The contract includes the deal that all profits the food truck generates would go to Afrodisia and in exchange all further costs like as the purchase of the ingredients, the napkins, …, made to conduct the business activity would be paid by ‘Afrodisia’. Also the entrepreneur, Eloise Deleersnyder would be provided with a fixed salary at the end of the month. This is a huge stress reliever for the owner of Karibu. The income of a food truck is very flucuating because of it’s dependency on the weather conditions and seasonal changes.

The name is very exotic because it had to be in line with the business activity. After a long search for a suitable name, ‘Karibu’ was chosen after Eloise Deleersnyder spent a few months in Tanzania where she learnt some Swahili. In this language, Karibu means ‘welcome’. After hearing this word, the young entrepreneur knew it fitted her vision and mission for her company. Even though, the food truck market may be characterized by its quick and easy service, this truck wants to let the people relax and enjoy the moment, while tasting original and special new flavors.

Mission

The mission of the company is to let all willing people taste the exotic meat in a relaxing yet cheap, quick and easy way. This can either happen on (food truck) public events, or at home at the customers home.

Vision

At the moment, the food truck is booked for several upcoming events and Karibu still wants to explore the market and see how much further they can grow. The fear does exist that the trend around the whole food truck businesses may reduce and may even come to an end. This could be harmful for the company and that’s why Eloise Deleersnyder would like to combine the food truck with a small restaurant that serves the same products Karibu does.

A second desire today is to possibly explore more locations to serve the goods. Since the creation of Karibu, it has traveled in a lot of Belgian cities and also some popular ones in Holland but maybe the French market might still prove to be an interesting one.

Values

At Karibu, there’s a lot of attention for sustainability and the conservation of nature. For example, the paper napkins the customers receive, but also the cutlery are ecologically degradable. Because Karibu works with forgeable products, Eloise Deleersnyder tries to limit her waste and tries to recycle and reuse her equipment and products as much as possible.

A second value is flexibility. To reach your destination, in most cases an event, with a food truck attached to your car with a speed limit of 90 km/h demands determination. Patience and discipline of the workforces are two big aspects the owner of Karibu attaches great value to. Sometimes she has to get up very early and goes to sleep late at night.

Furthermore there’s also focus on quality. The creator of the Karibu food truck wants to provide a great experience around the first try out of the exotic foods. When the experience is satisfying, the customers will most likely come back in the future and they will spread the word about the amazing flavors this truck has to offer.

Keeping an open mind is the last important value. The manageress believes that there’s always room for improvement. Following this believe, she always listens to good advice and remarks concerning her food truck and/ or business activity.

Business Model

The concept of a regular food truck already existed but the refreshing part of its business model lays in the usage of the unknown, original products the company offers. Thanks to the presence of the exotic meats her father imports to Europe, Eloise is able to give the customer something they’ve never tasted before and therefore she creates an extra value to the food experience. In order to gain some knowledge and experience on the food truck business, the young creative mind started working at the food truck of ‘Balls and Glory’ for a while. Through this experience she learned about the do’s and don’ts on the market and about the further possibilities and adaptations she could make to her own truck. After some deliberation Eloise decided to commit to her dream and explore the adventure.

The key partners: Luc Deleersnyder, the father of the entrepreneur, is the sole importer of the exotic meats in all of Europe. This comes with some advantages for Karibu, including the possibility for ‘just-in-time delivery’. The just-in-time delivery system makes sure that the meat is always fresh and there aren’t any kind of huge wastes, which is one of the biggest problems in the food truck businesses. The other partners Karibu deals with are local bakeries for the buns, Colruyt for the ingredients and an online company for the napkins and cutlery.

Another advantage her father offers to Karibu is that because of his exclusive import, he can protect his daughter against copycats. Eloise Deleersyder thus can order in customized portions or quantities whenever she wants to and she can easily try out new kinds of meats without the risk of big financial losses. At the moment, her dad protects her against two interested, Dutch gentlemen that also want to make use of the exotic meats in their food truck. This however is not an option for the family of Eloise. If the competition still remains determined to work with the special meats, they’ll have to purchase them at bigger firms where the price is a lot higher and so they’ll lose all competitive advantages.A last unique selling proposition the Karibu truck possesses is the outlook and coating of the truck. Most food trucks stay very basic but with her food truck, the entrepreneur wanted to stand out while remaining in line with her products. For these reasons, the truck was panted in a Zebra-motive and she made use of several types of African, exotic attributes such as the crocodile on her roof. The outlook does not only seem more appealing, it also strengthens the experience.

The price of the products is being calculated on the basis of the purchase price of the ingredients. The total sum of all costs ( meat, vegetables, dressing, napkins,…) is being divided by the number of final products that can be made with these products. This sum is being multiplied by three, and that’s how the final price is determined.

For the foundation of Karibu, no specialized organizations had been consulted. But, like previously mentioned, the manageress did work in the food truck of Balls and Glory to gain some experience. The help to learn more about the legal side of starting a new company and the business activity, she received from her dad and an accountant. At last, Eloise Deleersnyder could also count on the help of her network for the technical side of the food truck interior being the water and electricity connection.

The website explains the visitor who the entrepreneur is and what activities Karibu conducts,… Next to this, there are also pictures available, a listing of the different products and the contact information of the owner. By spreading business cards to as many people as possible, Eloise Deleersnyder tries to gain recognition and popularity. The promotion however is mainly based on posts on social media and press releases. At one of her first events on ‘Barrio Cantina’, a food truck festival in Ghent, the truck was interviewed and this interview was spread around the news. This publicity proved to be very useful because it generated a lot of offers from various public and private events. Word-of-mouth publicity is also a huge factor of publicity because people have the urge to share their innovative, original and never before experienced burger through pictures they post on various types of social media.

Growth

The initial start of the company wasn’t without difficulties. In the food truck market, it’s hard to make a name for yourself and you have to agree to all small events to gain some contacts and recognition. At first, Eloise had to contact all possible interesting events herself to obtain a spot at their events. After a while, the creative mind gained popularity and now the food truck is being recognized on all major food truck events and she even receives requests for the festivals.

The company tries to grow in an organic way, meaning that the owner tries to be careful when and what she spends money on. To create a huge profit during the first year of business was thus no possible option. Also the manageress noticed that she could save more money on the cost of the work forces. The reduction of this cost also made sure the profits rose.

Customers

Karibu focusses on all consumers, people of different age groups. The targeted consumers naturally don't include vegetarians but that is about the only boundary/ limit that is set.The opinions concerning the consummation of meat of exotic animals are divided. Not everyone likes the idea of eating kangaroo or crocodile. Next to this fact there is also some disbelieve concerning the authenticity of the products. The owner of Karibu lets these people taste the product and asks them to then form their opinion.

Competitors

The main competition for Karibu is the other food trucks on food truck festivals because they can also serve as potential clients. The indirect competition includes snackbars, restaurants,… in fact all places that sell food as part of their business activities.

Conclusion

The main opportunities for this food truck are the expansion to a second or third truck to be able to provide the services in more places at once. Also an extension of the assortment is considered to be an opportunity. Furthermore there are also dreams of combining the business with a small restaurant and explore new foreign cities.

The main threats this company may have to deal with are the weather conditions that are able to hinder the consumption of the products at festivals, the possibility that the competition grows in a more exponential and bigger way, the end of the food truck hype and most of all the willingness of people to keep an open mind and taste the different kinds of new flavors others might be deterred by.

The most important thing Eloise has learned while starting and conducting her business is that there’s a lot more work than she initially thought. She also appreciates the help she receives more and tries to remain very disciplined because if you’re not, the owner thinks it’s impossible to keep your business.Some pieces of advice, the creator of the Karibu food truck has for other entrepreneurs and other starters are:

Be disciplined and do not postpone your big, difficult tasks.
Make check lists and maintain them.
Try to agree to as much offers as possible in the beginning in order to gain recognition.
Try to set out a detailed plan of action before starting the business.
‘Less is more’, try to create something beautiful with a small amount of money

Posted on 21/03/2016