Skip to content
  • Our data is copyright protected — copying without permission is prohibited
  • We handle no money, ever
  • No business is promoted for payment
  • Tell us if something is wrong — we check and fix it
AyRojgar

Event catering

Cooking and serving for three to five hundred guests at events. The booking advance comes first, but catering services carry 15 percent VAT, not the restaurant's 5 percent.

  • Last reviewed: 19 September 2026
  • Version 1
Event catering

Event catering

Starting capital
৳1,50,000 – ৳8,00,000
Editorial estimate
Manpower
5 – 25 people
First sale
14 – 30 days
Official source
Break-even
4 – 10 months
Editorial estimate
Kind of work
Mobile service · Hard

About the business

Cooking for three to five hundred people at a wedding, a gaye holud, an akika, a milad or an office function, and serving it on a fixed day at a fixed hour. The big difference from a restaurant is the direction the money runs. A restaurant buys, cooks and then waits to see whether customers come. Catering is the other way round: the date is fixed first, the head count is fixed first, the booking advance arrives first, and only then is the market done against that number. So there is no unsold food to throw away, but being a day late or a hundred plates short is ruinous. The tax is heavier too: dine-in at a restaurant carries 5 percent VAT while catering services carry 15 percent, and a per-plate rate quoted without allowing for that 15 percent eats the margin. Food safety registration is compulsory - Tk 1,000 new, Tk 500 to renew, valid three years, and granted only after the kitchen is physically inspected. Input prices do not hold still: on 15 September 2026 mutton was Tk 1,200-1,350 a kg, beef Tk 780-850 and polao rice Tk 170-215, with mutton up 13 percent and soybean oil up 11 percent over the year. The rate you accepted three months ago is not the rate the market will honour on cooking day. Only the caterer who costs every dish, item by item, survives this.

Unit economics

ItemRangeEvidenceSuggest a correction
Monthly working capital৳51,000 – ৳81,000Editorial estimate
Selling price৳326 – ৳330 / unitMarket quote
Variable cost৳170 – ৳270 / unitEditorial estimate
Gross margin17% – 48%Editorial estimate
Time to first revenue14 – 30 daysOfficial source
Break-even time4 – 10 monthsEditorial estimate
Cash cycle0 – 7 daysEditorial estimate
Waste / loss3% – 8%Editorial estimate
Daily capacity300 – 1,000Editorial estimate

What you need to start

  • Large degs and pots, burners, LPG cylinders (12 kg at Tk 1,585, BERC-regulated, effective 2 September 2026), hot boxes, serving dishes and vessels, and a vehicle to move it all.Equipment
  • Food registration from the Bangladesh Food Safety Authority under the Food Safety (Registration and Licensing) Regulations 2026: Tk 1,000 new, Tk 500 renewal, valid three years, compulsory for catering and granted after a physical kitchen inspection.Licence
  • VAT registration from the National Board of Revenue. Catering services are taxed at 15 percent, against 5 percent for dine-in at a restaurant. A TIN is needed as well.Licence
  • Fire licence from Fire Service and Civil Defence for a large kitchen using gas cylinders, plus environmental clearance from the Department of Environment where required.Licence
  • Trade licence from the city corporation or municipality naming catering as the trade: form Tk 10, licence book Tk 50, standard tax Tk 30, stamp Tk 150-300, licence fee Tk 100-60,000.Licence
  • A cook's hand and a head for numbers: how many kilos of meat and rice for how many guests, and when to put it on so hot food reaches the table on time.Skill
  • Wholesalers for meat, rice and spice, an LPG dealer, a crockery hire shop, and someone who can supply waiters for the day.Supplier
  • A kitchen with water, drainage and waste handling, and open space to set up large degs. This is the room inspected before registration.Workspace

How the work is done

  1. 1Fix a kitchen with water, drainage and waste disposal. That room is physically inspected when food safety registration is granted.
  2. 2Have the trade licence name catering as the trade. A wrong trade description on it blocks every licence that comes after.
  3. 3Take Bangladesh Food Safety Authority registration: Tk 1,000 new, Tk 500 to renew, valid three years. It is compulsory for catering.
  4. 4Take TIN and VAT registration from the NBR, and remember that catering services carry 15 percent VAT, not the 5 percent charged on dine-in.
  5. 5Build a costing sheet with the weight of every ingredient in every dish. A 150 g mutton portion is Tk 180-203 on the plate, and mutton rose 13 percent in a year.
  6. 6When you quote, add gas, cooks' and waiters' wages, transport, hired crockery and the 15 percent VAT on top of the per-plate ingredient cost, and only then your margin.
  7. 7Take the order in writing: date, time, head count, menu, per-plate rate, the advance, and the rate if the count goes up. Orders taken by word of mouth turn into a fight on the day.
  8. 8Do the market only after the advance is in hand, and buy the meat and rice for a large order on the morning of the previous day, when the price is known and the goods are fresh.
  9. 9Move the food in hot boxes on a timed run. Rice and meat standing too long go off, and one event that makes guests ill ends the next order.
  10. 10Collect the balance on the day. For an office or institutional order, get it in writing beforehand when the bill will be passed.
  11. 11Put aside part of what the November to February wedding season brings in, because there is almost nothing during the monsoon and Ramadan.

Seasons

  1. JanHigh
  2. FebHigh
  3. MarNormal
  4. AprNormal
  5. MayNormal
  6. JunLow
  7. JulLow
  8. AugLow
  9. SepNormal
  10. OctNormal
  11. NovHigh
  12. DecHigh
HighNormalLow

Where it works well

  • Strong fitChattogram · A big city with its own mezban tradition and a port economy full of institutional functions, so orders come from both sides.
  • Strong fitDhaka · The largest number of community centres and convention halls, and corporate events as well, though licensing and VAT scrutiny are strictest here.
  • Strong fitGazipur · Regular orders from factory annual functions and mass meals for workers, with less competition than in Dhaka.
  • Strong fitNarayanganj · Dense settlement with many community centres, and Dhaka's wholesale markets close by for buying.
  • Strong fitSylhet · Remittance families hold large weddings and spend more per head, and events crowd together in winter when relatives come home.
  • PossibleBogura · The northern trading hub, with community centres and wholesale meat and rice markets both at hand.
  • PossibleCumilla · Community centres are multiplying along the highway and remittance families hold large weddings.
  • PossibleKhulna · A divisional city where both institutional functions and wedding orders are available.
  • PossibleRajshahi · University and college reunions and seminars alongside the winter wedding season keep work coming.

Risks and cautions

  • HighCompliance: Catering carries 15 percent VAT while dine-in carries 5 percent. New operators often quote at the restaurant rate, and then ten taka in every hundred billed comes out of their own pocket - several thousand taka on a single 300-plate event. The restaurant owners' association counts 10 to 12 separate approvals needed to open a food business at all.
  • HighDependency: The rate is quoted two or three months ahead but the market is done the day before. On 15 September 2026 mutton was Tk 1,200-1,350 a kg and had risen 13.3 percent in a year, soybean oil 11.4 percent and packet maida 14.3 percent. A 10 percent rise on a 150 g mutton portion is Tk 20 a plate, and Tk 10,000 on 500 plates.
  • HighSpoilage: The food is cooked once and eaten in one hour. Rice and meat standing in hot boxes spoil, faster in hot weather. Food trouble at one event does not just lose that order: the food safety registration is at risk and the next orders in that neighbourhood stop coming.
  • HighDemand: The income arrives in four or five months of the year. Orders run from November to February, weddings stop during Ramadan, and open-air events do not happen in the monsoon, while the kitchen rent, the vehicle and the permanent staff cost twelve months.
  • MediumLate payment: A family event settles on the day, but office, factory and institutional orders wait for a bill to be passed. One or two large bills stuck mid-season leaves nothing to do the market for the next event.

Sources

What changed

No corrections have been published yet.

Questions and answers

No questions yet. Be the first to ask.

Stories about this business

What went wrongA woman trained in catering in Shyamnagar, Satkhira, in a Prothom Alo report

The catering training came; the money to buy anything did not

Catering training taken in 2022 never became work, because there was no money for equipment or ingredients. A survey of 2,000 trained women found 44 percent had set up nothing six months on.

Reasons
Working capital

Similar businesses

Food processing

Sweet shop

Making sweets from chhana and selling them over a counter. Sweets run Tk 380-600 a kg and doi Tk 210-300 a litre, but milk is Tk 120-140 a litre, so the margin is the milk price.

Capital
৳1.5 lakh – ৳9 lakh
People
2 – 8
First income
14 – 45 days
Editorial estimate
Food processing

Dried mango production

Buy raw mango at ৳15–40/kg in season, dry it and sell all year. 8–10 kg of fresh mango makes 1 kg dried.

Capital
৳1.5 lakh – ৳4 lakh
People
2 – 4
First income
30 – 60 days
Market quote
Food processing

Honey processing and bottling

Buying raw honey from keepers, straining and bottling it under your own label. Bottled honey runs Tk 800-2,100 a kg, but a BSTI CM licence is compulsory and the sample test alone is Tk 7,500.

Capital
৳1.5 lakh – ৳8 lakh
People
2 – 6
First income
45 – 150 days
Editorial estimate
Food processing

Chanachur and snack making

Goods go to shops on credit and the money comes back in 15-30 days, so working capital is the limit, not the machine. Branded chanachur is Tk 300-333 a kg; a small maker has to sell at Tk 200-250.

Capital
৳1.5 lakh – ৳8 lakh
People
2 – 12
First income
30 – 130 days
Editorial estimate