Ask ten caterers how they price a wedding and you'll get ten different answers — most of them some version of "what we charged last time, plus a bit." That works right up until a big event quietly loses money and you can't figure out why. The fix isn't a fancier spreadsheet. It's a repeatable pricing method you trust enough to hold the line on.
Start with true cost per plate
Every price you quote should start from what a plate actually costs to produce — not a guess. That means rolling up three things for each dish on the menu:
- Ingredients at current market rates, including the bits everyone forgets — oil, gas, garnish, packaging.
- Direct labour — prep and service hours attributable to that dish, at what you actually pay.
- Wastage — a realistic buffer for the portions that never make it to a guest.
Do this once per dish and your cost-per-portion becomes the floor no quote should ever fall below.
"If you don't know your cost per plate, you're not pricing — you're gambling. The house doesn't always win."
Layer in overhead and margin
Cost per plate keeps you from losing money on food. But it ignores the rent, the vans, the salaries between events, and the profit that lets you grow. Add an overhead percentage across every event, then a target margin on top.
Set your target margin as a business rule, not a per-quote decision. When it lives in your pricing system, you stop discounting away your profit in the heat of a negotiation.
Build tiered packages, not one flat rate
Clients anchor on the middle option. Give them three — Silver, Gold, Platinum — and most will choose Gold, which is exactly where you should put your healthiest margin. Tiering also makes upsells feel like choices rather than pressure.
Hold the line — with data, not gut
When a client pushes back on price, the caterers who stay profitable are the ones who can show why the number is the number. With costs and margins visible on every quote, "can you do it cheaper?" becomes a conversation about scope, not a race to the bottom. That's the difference between winning the job and winning the business.
Price from cost, protect your margin, and let your packages do the selling. Do that consistently and profit stops being the thing that's left over — it becomes the thing you planned for.
Rohan Mehta
Rohan writes for the GROWBZ Team on pricing, operations and growth for catering businesses across India. Ten years in hospitality before software.
Comments (3)
This is exactly the mistake I was making — quoting from last time instead of from cost. Rebuilt my Gold package this week and the margin jumped instantly.
The tiered-package point is gold. Clients really do gravitate to the middle option. Wish I’d read this two seasons ago.
Would love a follow-up on how to handle clients who only care about the lowest number. The "scope not price" framing helps though.