How to Grow a Catering Business in the UK

Catering has always been a bit of a side hustle for most restaurants. Someone calls about a corporate lunch, a wedding enquiry lands in your inbox, or a bigger-than-usual order pops up and helps take the edge off a quiet week. It was never really part of the plan. It just happened when it happened.

That’s starting to change.

Across the UK, more operators are treating catering less like an occasional add-on and more like something they actively plan for. Not because it is new, but because the conditions around the core restaurant business have shifted. Margins are tighter. Demand is less predictable. And for many teams, the week still depends on a handful of services carrying everything else.

TL;DR: Catering can become a reliable growth channel, but only if it’s structured properly. Focus on repeatable demand, scalable menus, and tighter operations. Growth comes from consistency, not just volume.

Deciding what kind of catering you actually want

One of the easiest ways to stall a catering business is to treat every booking as a good booking.

At the beginning, that approach makes sense. You say yes, you build relationships, you bring in revenue. It feels like momentum. But over time, the mix of work you take on starts shaping the way your business runs. Some events are high effort and unpredictable. Others are simpler, repeatable, and easier to plan around.

And the difference between those two becomes more obvious as you grow.

So growth often starts with a quieter decision. Not how to get more orders, but which orders are actually worth building around.

Consumer behaviour offers a useful signal here. According to the Toast Consumer Preferences Survey 2025, 36.5% of UK consumers say they have used catering services in the past year, with birthdays and weddings leading demand. At the same time, food quality and price sit at the centre of decision-making. 

That mix tells you something. The demand is there, but people are choosing carefully. It’s not just about convenience anymore. It’s about whether it actually feels worth it.

For some restaurants, that leads towards more structured, repeatable corporate catering. For others, it’s fewer bookings, but at a higher value. And quite a few land somewhere in the middle, using catering to steady quieter periods rather than stacking it on top of their busiest services.

There is no single right answer here. But there is usually a wrong one, which is trying to do everything at once.

Menus need to be designed for how catering actually works

A catering menu has a different job from a restaurant menu.

In the dining room, everything centres on the moment the food reaches the table. Timing, presentation, atmosphere all come together there. Catering is different. The food has to hold up through everything around that moment. Prep at scale, the journey to the venue, time spent waiting, and then being served in a setting you don’t fully control.

That changes what “good” looks like.

The menus that tend to scale are rarely the most complex. They are the ones that are structured. Ingredients overlap. Prep can be batched. Packaging has been thought through in advance. From the outside, it still feels flexible. Behind the scenes, it is controlled.

At a certain point, building every menu from scratch just stops being practical. It slows things down, creates inconsistency, and leans too heavily on individual decisions. So operators start to shift. They build a core set of menus they can adapt. Not fixed, but stable enough to work from.

Growth tends to break at the operational level first

From the outside, catering growth looks like a demand problem. More enquiries, more bookings, more revenue.

Inside the business, it usually shows up somewhere else first.

Prep starts to stretch out. Staffing gets harder to predict. Communication between front and back of house becomes a bit more tangled. Small inefficiencies that once went unnoticed start to build up. Nothing major on its own. But together, they begin to slow things down.

That is why growth in catering is often less about adding capacity and more about tightening how the operation runs.

Industry data reflects this. Staffing remains one of the biggest day-to-day challenges for restaurant managers, and many say better scheduling would make the biggest difference to how their business runs. 

In the kitchen, consistency carries more weight. Structured prep routines help, and daily checklists keep things on track. It’s not about big changes. It’s the small, repeatable ones. Clearer prep, better visibility, more intentional staffing.

It’s not unique to catering, either. The same pattern shows up across the industry. When the operation is easier to run, growth becomes easier to manage.

Moving from one-off orders to something more predictable

A busy catering calendar can still feel uneven. Weddings, large events, seasonal demand. Strong revenue, but inconsistent. Some weeks are full, others quieter. It can feel like growth, without quite feeling under control.

More stable catering businesses usually have something else underneath that. Repeatable demand.

That might be regular office catering, partnerships with venues, or community events that come back year after year. It does not need to be complicated. It just needs to be consistent enough that you can plan around it.

Each event then becomes more than a one-off transaction. It becomes part of a longer relationship.

This is where experience matters as much as execution. Word of mouth still carries real weight in hospitality, and catering is no exception. A well-run event often leads to follow-on opportunities, but only if there is a clear way for people to come back.

Sometimes that is as simple as making reordering easier. Sometimes it is about following up more deliberately. Often, it is just about being easier to deal with than the alternatives.

Small things. But they compound.

Technology matters most when it removes pressure

Technology only really earns its place in catering when it makes the difficult parts of the operation easier.

That might be taking orders more clearly, managing menus more efficiently, or understanding performance across events. The goal is not to add more systems. It is to reduce the points where things slow down or go wrong.

This is especially relevant in the current UK market. Many operators are already increasing investment in technology, particularly where it helps manage labour pressures and improve consistency.

In catering, having a level of visibility becomes more important over time. You start to see which events are genuinely profitable, which menus hold up under pressure, where costs build, and which clients return.

Without it, growth can look strong on the surface, while becoming more difficult to manage underneath.

Growth still depends on getting the fundamentals right

As catering becomes more deliberate, the basics matter more, not less.

In the UK, food businesses must register with their local authority before operating, and catering services must meet the same standards around food safety and allergen information as restaurants. HMRC guidance may also affect how catering revenue is structured.

This is not always front of mind early on. But it becomes more important as volume increases.

Clients rarely describe this as compliance. They experience it as professionalism. Clear information, reliable delivery, a process that feels organised. Those details shape trust more than anything else.

And trust, in catering, tends to drive repeat business.

Catering growth is really about building something that holds together

The most useful way to think about catering is not as an add-on. It is as a second operating model running alongside your restaurant.

For catering to work, it needs its own structure and pace, and a clear way of being managed. Without that, it can add as much strain as it does revenue. With the right setup, it begins to smooth demand, improve margins, and create more opportunities for your brand to show up.

That balance is what many UK operators are working towards right now. Finding ways to grow without making the business harder to run.

Catering can absolutely play a role in that. But only when it is built to support the operation, not just sit on top of it.

FAQ

What is the most profitable type of catering?

It often depends on your setup, but repeatable corporate catering and structured event packages tend to offer more predictable margins. High-volume, one-off events can generate revenue but are often less consistent operationally.

How do you get more catering clients?

Most growth comes from word of mouth, repeat business, and being easy to rebook. Clear menus, a smooth enquiry process, and consistent delivery make it easier for clients to come back or recommend you.

How can I make my catering business more efficient?

Efficiency usually comes from small operational improvements. Structured prep routines, better visibility on upcoming orders, and more deliberate staffing decisions all help reduce pressure as volume increases.

What licences do I need to run a catering business in the UK?

You’ll need to register your food business with your local authority and comply with food safety and allergen regulations. Depending on your services, HMRC requirements and additional licences may also apply, so it’s worth checking early.