The Taco Trailer business, a well-established food venture based in a small, mid-Atlantic beach community, is a fantastic opportunity with a proven track record of success. Operating for 14 years, this taco trailer generates around $1 million in revenue and an impressive $430,000 in EBITDA over the last three years, despite being a seasonal business. The business operates from Easter through Thanksgiving, closed for the winter months (December through March). While it only opens from 8 AM to 3 PM each day, the potential for growth and scalability is substantial.

One key factor in its success is the highly skilled chef who founded the business and continues to run the kitchen, making him the key employee. However, the current owner, who is not deeply involved in daily operations, is looking to sell the business due to a desire to retire, creating a window of opportunity for a buyer. Despite the owner’s limited role, the brand remains highly recognized, and the reputation for quality tacos continues to draw customers.

The growth opportunities for the Taco Trailer are numerous. The business currently does not serve alcohol, presenting a huge potential for revenue growth through the addition of beer or even a tiki bar. Expanding hours or creating a daily happy hour could further increase profits. Additionally, the potential for replication of this successful concept in other locations is another exciting prospect. With a strong brand and proven model, scaling to multiple trailers in different locations, potentially even franchising, is a feasible and highly profitable endeavor.

The owner’s current location has limited capacity for expansion, but starting new trailers in different markets could quickly increase revenue. The estimated cost of setting up a new trailer is around $150,000, and with conservative projections, each new location could contribute around $180,000 in EBITDA in its first year. As the business grows, margins could improve with economies of scale. Additionally, as the brand expands, there are opportunities for strategic partnerships, such as selling branded merchandise like t-shirts and sauces.

The Taco Trailer operates with a lean model, requiring minimal overhead during the off-season. Rent for the space is only $1,200 a month, making it a low-risk business during the closed months. This business model is ideal for someone who is experienced in seasonal operations and wants a hands-off approach during the off-season.

Given the scalability, low overhead, and strong customer loyalty, this taco trailer represents an exceptional opportunity for growth and profit. By leveraging its unique brand and the potential for expansion, this business can thrive as a multi-location franchise or chain. With creative strategies and an understanding of customer experience, it could become a leader in the fast-casual dining industry, offering more than just tacos but a memorable dining experience.

Full Transcript:

Let’s go to Chris Wyand. Chris, the floor is, yours, my friend.

Okay.

Thank you. I have, something that is a little bit different, I think, than what I’ve seen on here.

Let me see if I can Yep. Get this punched up.

Start my slideshow.

So this is a taco trailer.

Think taco truck, but it’s a instead of food truck, it’s a food trailer.

Technically, it would be able to be moved, but, it’s not. It’s in a a stationary place.

I’m sorry, Michelle wasn’t able to be here.

Crazy. She had a doctor’s appointment for six months in Steamboat while we’re living in Denver, so she even had to be out of town. And then, of course, it’s you know, we got this crazy snowstorm.

But, you know, a little bit of a little bit about you know, it’s a standalone taco trailer, small mid Atlantic beach community.

It’s fourteen year old business.

This little thing is cranking one million in revenue and four hundred and thirty thousand in EBITDA average for the last three years.

That’s a lot of tacos, Chris.

It’s crazy.

I love tacos.

Yeah. I got my Taco Beast t shirt on. I’ll show you later.

It’s a seasonal business. It’s closed December, January, February, most of March. You know, the the owner told me their their off season, they close or their season starts Easter and closes on Thanksgiving.

Open seven days a week, only from eight to three.

Small retail component, only five percent. Think selling t shirts.

Eight employees, including the current owner who works in the business, but I do not consider the current owner the key employee. The key and the key employee is the the gentleman who founded it, and he runs the kitchen. He’s the chef.

And he’s the business is actually still named after him.

So kind of a interesting dynamic I need to dig into a little more.

A little bit about us, you know, since two thousand thirteen, Michelle and I, we’ve owned and operated a commercial cleaning business in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. So it’s a small, mountain resort town. This is a small, I think, East Coast beach resort area. You know, even though we own a cleaning company, you know, really my lane as I was have twenty plus years, as an executive chef.

Most recently, from two thousand executive chef at Steamboat Ski and Resort Corporation. So I’ve been a chef, really just a ski bum, but, you know, I cooked a little bit around the on the way. While working at Steamboat, I helped create the Taco Beast, which is, you know, still running today. It’s an on think on mountain, food truck mounted on a snowcat.

Michelle ran the day to day for, the cleaning company while I still had my w two.

Now we share those d d our duties. You know, we currently live in Denver while our business is in Steamboat.

We moved down here for our our daughter to finish high school.

Just to show you the Taco Beast, you know, I think it’s kinda fun and interesting. The other reason I kinda showed this was, you know, when you talk about building rapport, this mentioning the Taco Beast, all’s I had to do was say Google Taco Beast, and it was crazy the amount of rapport I built with it is a broker deal with the broker, the owner of the business, and the broker’s lender, if you will. You know, they they had a letter from a an SBA guy that said he would do it. But as soon as I said, you know, Google Taco b Steamboat, you know, I’ve done this, they were like, you know, they were all over it.

Growth opportunities.

You know, this is one of my favorite things of this deal. You know, number one growth opportunity, they’re not selling any sort of alcohol. Let’s just sell beer.

You know? Criminal. That’s amazing.

Isn’t it? What and to me, it’s just so basic. It’s in a state where they have liquor licenses and, you know, a lot of those lots of states have the beer and wine only licenses, which are much cheaper, much easier.

You know, number two, increase hours, you know, add a daily happy hour.

If you want to get crazy, maybe some sort of little tiki bar. You know, like I said, this this, trailer is in a location that doesn’t move. They’ve actually added a little storage building. They have a little hut they sell T shirts out of, and then they actually have a walk in cooler.

So they have a kinda setup. It’s not going anywhere.

Also, replication, same proven concept, different location. I mean, the the real the real growth opportunity in this business, it it’s only you know, you’re only gonna squeeze so much out of it where it is. There are I think Chris crazy numbers.

I think, Chris, you create five of these, then you franchise it.

Yeah. Well, it it’s interesting you say that, Carl. So here’s my replication model. It’s probably super difficult to understand the way I put it together, but, you know, I did a little research.

And I’m just talking about if I only added one of these a year in a different location for a hundred and fifty grand, I can be all in. I can buy a brand new trailer, a brand new walk in. I just gotta find a place to put it. You know?

Saying that, you know, this is a little bit of the, you know, the unicorn. It’s doing a million revenue. I’m not gonna say that every brand new one I’m gonna do is doing a million revenue. So if my if I only do six hundred thousand my first year on doing one, and I only make thirty percent, which is a good ten, twelve percent less profit percentage, hundred and eighty thousand EBITDA, you know, thirty thousand a debt service.

I’m still making a hundred and fifty thousand dollars after debt service profit.

You know, the way I I did this year too, I’m that would be like the same taco trailer that I can go year two, year three, year four, year five, just adding ten percent revenue a year.

Yeah. The only kicker I kinda did is after year three, I’m assuming I can be a little more efficient. Instead of making a thirty percent EBITDA, I’m a I kicked it up to thirty two and a half for year four or five.

Very, very, very conservative. I love it.

I think it’s super conservative. And guess what? What if you got all crazy and I opened two new taco trailers a year? You know? Who knows what could happen? So that’s kinda what I’m doing.

Just a quick little you know, say, six year projection, just adding one trailer a year. You know, my original one’s still gonna be at one point one four million because I’m not gonna add that much to it. But I could be doing another three million bucks in the additional five trailers, You know, each each one, one, two, three, four, five, you know, and just doing one a year. You know? My that takes my EBITDA to about one point six million.

After debt service profit, one point three million.

So it’s kinda crazy thinking about these. And, again, this is it’s definitely my lane. I’ve been a chef at for ski resorts for twenty five plus years.

So I understand the seasonality of the business, you know, hiring seasonal employees, the way you run a seasonal business. And the beauty of this thing is, you know, for four months, you lock the doors and go home.

You know, in the first deal we were looking at, we’re talking about, man, we need to have some money to make it through the off season.

These guys lock the door and go home. The rent they’re paying on their space is twelve hundred bucks a month.

Wow.

So at the end of the day, those four months you’re closed, your overhead is twelve hundred bucks a month. Now I’m not saying that’s another reason I didn’t put forty percent in my profit percentage because I may not get quite that deal. But you’re taking all the major overhead out of the traditional restaurant.

So just some other things, bolt ons, complimentary businesses we might do. Might actually, you know, start some food trucks with the same kind of thing. You know, I started thinking because I was googling, how much does a trailer cost?

I’m like, in this particular state, it is there is, like, four or five different companies that are making food trucks, free trailers. So I’m like, you know, if I’m gonna start adding a bunch of these, maybe I need to buy one of those companies.

Do you know what I would do, Chris? Right? I’ll tell you what I would do with this business. Right?

You you’ve nailed this. I love this a lot. So by creating the the brand awareness and by having the people, visiting these things when they’re in the area, what I would then do because you can’t DoorDash from the trucks themselves. Right?

What you could do is you could get you could set up a little kitchen in the middle of nowhere, and you could basically put this on DoorDash so that, obviously, when people are in the area they’re visiting, they they they go to the established trucks. But then you could replicate the same food and DoorDash yet, but way higher than forty percent margins.

So that would be another come another kind of add on that you could do down the line once the whole brand awareness is kinda built up. But I absolutely love this. This is so cool. Yeah. I’m really hungry.

This has made me hungry.

Yeah.

You know, to me, a great taco starts with a tortilla.

You know, is there a regional tortilla company somewhere you could look at?

You know, salsa sauce. You take some signature recipes, and you start you know, they already have a little retail component. Well, what if you we sell you some salsa along with, a t shirt?

In a kind of a different vein, you know, many years of working in food and beverage, you know, you’re gonna end up with a relationship with a refrigeration guy and a guy who fixes works on kitchen equipment. That’s so maybe you gotta have that, your own little company there. And then number six, I was like, if you put all this stuff together, you know, could you franchise it?

Crazy. Yeah. No. I love this. This is really, really cool.

So what’s what’s the deal structure on the on the existing business?

Questions here.

Let me see if if I can, ask the asking price on the original Asking price is right now one million dollars.

Okay.

Here. I’m gonna stop my share for a minute. Sorry. I am technologically challenged.

Let me get the What’s his reason for selling, Chris?

She is tired.

She’s old. She’s probably sixty years old.

I need to dig into a little bit more on the it’s an interesting dynamic. The guy who started it and is still runs the kitchen does not own it.

It was praised to me, and the owner was an artist. And and this is a very remote area of, you know, mid Atlantic beach, remote as you can be, you know, without giving everything away. It’s actually on an island, which is probably why no one’s done it. But it was the owners you know, she put it as I took it over from the original owner.

Obviously, they have a good relationship, because he’s still working there. So, she just you know, she’s probably not a food and beverage person. She’s probably made some money and just wants to get out. You know?

This oh, that here. Let me put the, here’s the financial input. I mean, it’s super, super clean if you look at the numbers. I mean, they didn’t have any add backs.

They didn’t put any add backs on. And the owner is not taking any sort of salary, so it’s all in the profit.

But the chef is in that in the salaries, which is part of that SG and A number. They had a couple add backs that were, like, about fixing equipment that I was like, well, technically, that’s not really an add back. But because, yeah, maybe I gotta fix the fryer this year. But next year, I may not fix the fryer, but I’m spending money fixing something.

Hey, Chris. If you’re going through a model, we can’t see it. Absolutely.

Oh, I am. I’m sorry. Oh.

Alright. Right. Don’t worry about it.

Let me go let me get back to I I almost think the numbers are irrelevant on this, to be to be honest with you.

I I think the opportunity is just so powerful. I’ll I’ll tell you what I would do. Right? If this was my deal, I’ll tell you what I would do.

Right? So I I I go I’d I’d go and see if you can get a little bit of financing against the assets or worst case, just just an investor for, like, a hundred grand. Right? And I’d I’d pay the seller a hundred k upfront, and I would say to her, look.

This is my vision.

This is my plan. The fact that she’s tired, she won’t mind this. I’d say, look. This is my this is my vision.

This is my plan. Just picture what you’ve just showed us. I’d say, hey. Would you be interested in coming as my partner?

Let’s let’s blow this up to be a ten, twenty million dollar business. This is what we’re gonna do.

You know, give her fifty hundred k as a closing payment. She drops her business into the group.

You you split the partnership. So let’s say you have sixty percent. She has twenty. Your investor comes in and takes twenty as as well.

Acquire that business, and then you I I think with with the SBA and with other investors, you then execute on the growth. But I would definitely challenge you to do at least two a year, because it’s not like opening a a manufacturing facility. These things should be very, very quick and easy to set up.

And, yeah, I’d I’d look to try and add two a year. And then with the cash flow that you generate, you’ll be able to attract additional financing.

So then I I think you you could hire somebody that their job is just to basically commission the new trucks, get them up and running so you could probably accelerate that growth curve as well.

Yep. And, you know, the the one I’ve thought about that, Carl, and this would be my question.

Even though she owns the business, I’m not sure she’s the key person. To me, the key person in this is the is the original founder and the guy who runs the kitchen now. He’s got all I mean, it’s still his name on the business.

Yep.

And to the point where when we started looking this just, like, a week and a half ago, Michelle joined a Facebook group of this resort area.

And it just so happened that when she signed up and clicked on the Facebook group, on that exact day, someone had just asked, hey. We’re coming over. Where do we go for lunch?

And somebody immediately responded to this taco trailer.

Yep.

And then the guy who’s the original owner and really runs the thing, she sells the the owner now sells t shirts and does back office. Office. But the guy, he responded immediately, oh, I’m sorry. We don’t open until the end of March. So he’s still actively you know, I’m not sure he’s not the key person, but I don’t I’m trying to understand that dynamic and figuring out, you know, the best way to go.

Yeah. I think there’s so much you could do with this, and I think you could get super, super creative on this as well, potentially.

Yeah. I I I really like this a lot. Happy to chat offline about this, Chris, if you want.

Okay. Yeah. I would love to.

Would love to.

Yeah. Well well, we let let me noodle on this overnight, and then, yeah, I’ll give you a call, and, yeah, I’ll give you some thoughts on this. I think this is a really cool idea.

Yeah.

Here’s the financial I’d be willing to get in I’d be willing to get involved in this as an investor as well.

I think this is a really, really cool opportunity. So I’ll tell you a funny story. I was in Australia a couple of weeks ago, and I went to this, I went to this brewery in Brisbane.

And we we just went out there just hey. Let’s just go in and have a drink. Right? I spent a thousand bucks in that place.

They upsold me on everything. Right? We we we started drinking the beer, and then we bought a whole bunch of merch. And then there was a food truck as part of it. So we had some food. It wasn’t tacos. It’s like barbecue.

And, then we bought the sauce and all this kind of crazy stuff. Right? So once I was in there, started having a few drinks.

Thousand bucks later, I bought half the store, and it was incredible. So I can kind of imagine a similar vibe.

Places like this. Right? It’s all about the customer experience. It’s all about how does the customer feel when they’re consuming the product, when they’re in that environment. The taco is not the business. They’re not in the taco business.

They’re they’re in the customer experience business. Right? This is like this could be like the apple of the taco industry. Right? I think you could do something pretty freaking incredible with this, which is why I made it my favorite deal of the day.