Sides take centre stage

Sides offer a simple way to boost profit and variety, but what’s available and what’s proving popular?

Sides, dips and sharers are becoming an increasingly important part of the fish and chip shop menu, giving operators a straightforward way to add variety, increase average spend and generate higher margin sales without moving away from what they do best.

For a customer arriving with the intention of ordering fish and chips, an additional side can be an easy upsell. Whether it is onion rings, mozzarella sticks, chicken, mushy pea fritters or a portion of loaded fries, the extra item adds value for the customer while increasing the value of the transaction for the operator.

Sides can also offer attractive margins, particularly when compared with the cost of many traditional main dishes. With ingredient costs relatively low and portions easy to control, they can generate significant profit from a small amount of product.

Georgina Colbeck, marketing director at wholesaler Henry Colbeck, says sides can also help shops appeal to a broader customer base. She comments: “Families and groups often contain people with different tastes, while younger customers increasingly expect to see chicken, bold sauces, loaded dishes and snackable options on takeaway menus. The important point is that shops do not need to reinvent their entire menu. Introducing one or two well-chosen sides, displaying them prominently and actively offering them with meals can be a sensible place to start.”

Supplier ranges

Supplier ranges have expanded considerably in recent years. Alongside traditional fish and chip shop favourites such as peas, curry and gravy, operators can now choose from mozzarella sticks, cheese bites, vegetable bites, chicken and pakora products, regional favourites such as haggis bonbons, and a growing selection of fish and seafood bites.

The development is not just in the products themselves, but in how they are being used. Georgina explains: “A side can now become a snack box, part of a mixed sharer, a meal-deal upgrade or a topping for loaded chips. This gives operators several potential uses from a relatively small number of carefully chosen products.”

Among the individual products she sees attracting interest are cheese-led items, spicy chicken, pakora and other coated products that can be cooked quickly and served with a dip.

Georgina adds: “Mozzarella sticks and cheese bites have wide appeal across different age groups, while chicken and spicier products are especially relevant to younger consumers and evening takeaway orders. Regional tastes remain important too, with products such as haggis and black pudding bites offering something distinctive for Scottish shops.

“The products that generally work best are those that are familiar enough for customers to order confidently but feel different enough to make the menu more interesting. They also need to be quick to prepare, easy to portion and suitable for takeaway and delivery.”

Central Foods MD Oli Sampson is among those championing mozzarella sticks, pointing to their versatility across different occasions. He comments: “This flexibility makes mozzarella sticks a simple way to broaden menu appeal, add perceived value and increase overall basket spend.”

Stocking the Le Duc range of vegetarian snacks, its Mozzarella Sticks combine mozzarella with a seasoned breadcrumb coating to provide the crisp exterior and melted centre customers expect. They can be prepared from frozen in a deep fryer, oven or air fryer, and are suitable for vegetarians.

Oli adds: “As the snacking culture continues to evolve, sides are becoming more than an accompaniment. For operators, the opportunity is to choose formats that deliver on flavour, texture and convenience, while giving customers another reason to increase their basket spend. With their unique visual appeal, versatility and easy preparation, mozzarella sticks are well placed to turn a familiar side into an additional sales opportunity.”

Chicken is another major opportunity for operators looking to broaden their menus, and it’s an area in which frozen food supplier Meadow Vale has seen increased sales, particularly across its wings, fillets, bites, strips and shredded chicken.

Karl Thompson, brand manager at Meadow Vale, says sides are imperative for fish and chip shops right now, particularly as operators look for ways to protect margins while continuing to offer customers value and variety. He comments: “With the rising cost of fish, chicken can offer a more cost-effective, margin-friendly alternative, helping operators generate additional profit without having to move away from the traditional fish and chip offering.”

Meadow Vale’s Boneless Wings are proving particularly popular and have picked up Gold at both the BFFF Awards and Quality Food Awards. Karl adds: “Their versatility is a big part of the appeal. They can be easily customised with different sauces and flavours, making them ideal as a side or sharing option. For operators, they offer a simple way to add variety to the menu while appealing to customers looking for bold, indulgent chicken dishes.”

Existing equipment

For some operators, the attraction of sides is that they can be introduced without significantly increasing labour or putting additional pressure on the kitchen.

Marco’s Fish & Chips in the coastal town of Ayr in Ayrshire is a case in point. When the shop’s gluten free fish and chips failed to take off, owner Marco Luni looked to find another way to utilise his two pan Allegro fryer from KFE. The answer was frozen snacks and sides from Henry Colbeck, with the menu now including items such as salt and chilli chicken, mozzarella sticks, mac and cheese bites, spicy chicken strips, popcorn chicken, chicken goujons and fish fingers.

Marco comments: “I thought, if I can get as many extra items onto the menu as I can make money from, without it actually feeling like any extra work, that makes sense. All we’re doing is putting the frozen food into the basket and frying it, so I don’t need to hire anyone, the current staff can do it.”

The additional products, priced between £4 and £5.75, have become a significant source of extra revenue. Marco estimates a mark-up of almost 200% on some products and around 150% on the chicken items.

“We get a lot of people ordering two fish suppers who then come back to the till and say, “add in a portion of this for me,’ and they eat it while they are waiting. We can take an extra £200-£300 just in one day. It makes a big difference at the end of the year.”

The two pan Allegro also keeps breadcrumbs and other frozen products out of the four pan range in the shop, helping to keep the oil in those pans cleaner.

Not every successful side needs to come from a frozen supplier. The Cod’s Scallops, which operates three sites in Nottingham, and Krispies, which has two takeaways in Exmouth and Exeter, Devon, have both developed successful homemade options.

John Molnar, owner of The Cod’s Scallops, makes his own onion rings and says they deliver a strong margin. He comments: “Homemade onion rings are a great profit margin because it’s three quarters of an onion to one portion and we charge £4.20 a portion. It takes two minutes to peel an onion and slice it then we just dust the rings in some seasoned flour and drop them in our batter.”

There is also no waste either, with smaller pieces from the centre of the onions used elsewhere in the menu. “We dice those onions down to use in our pies and cheese and onion fry-its, so they are zero waste too,” he adds.

John sees sides as one of a shop’s biggest profit generators and trains staff to actively encourage customers to try them, with prompts on the tills. He’ll also occasionally offer buy one get one free on onion rings because “we can do that and still make decent profit”, he says. 

Homemade onion rings also work well because preparation can be adapted around busy periods, as John explains: “Sometimes if we’ve got a busy night we’ll half cook some, because when you get four portions of onion rings it’s a lot of batter to drop, and sit them above the fryer, then we’ll just drop them back in the pan to finish.”

On the odd occasion they do have some left over, staff pop them on the counter for customers to try. “Before you know where you are, customers are ordering them next time they come in, so it’s such a good way of enticing them because it’s not a big cost to produce.”

Krispies in Devon combines bought-in sides, including chicken mini fillets, mozzarella sticks and onion rings, with homemade options, with its mushy pea fritters proving the biggest hit. “They’re as cheap as chips to make as we already have the mushy peas, and we sell them for £2.90. The margin is around 79%,” explains owner Kelly Barnes. “We literally take our mushy peas, add a little bit of Ceres Fishcake Mix just to thicken it up, mould them and put them in the fridge. We make about 18-20 of those every other day, although sometimes at the weekend we can go through 30 of them.”

Like John, Kelly trains her staff to upsell sides, adding: “I do think a lot of shops forget about upselling, especially when they get busier. It’s something that we constantly go on to our staff about, saying you need to talk the customer through the mushy peas, curry sauce, drinks, sides.”

Slicing equipment 

Another simple option available to all chip shops to make more of their sides has come from Brunner-Anliker, whose slicing equipment allows potatoes to be cut into speciality formats such as waffle fries and crinkle cut, as well as uniform thick-cut chips and skinny fries. By combining different cuts with stronger flavour profiles, operators can turn fries and sides into a more distinctive menu item, says Michael Eyre, product director at Jestic Foodservice Solutions. He adds: “Fried chicken loaded fries are growing in popularity, appealing to customers seeking different textures and flavours. Global influences are also shaping menus: think Cajun-seasoned fries or sriracha-topped fries. At Jestic, we would encourage operators to focus on quality, consistency, and efficiency to ensure they’re maximising the potential of their food offering.”

The principle is the same whether a shop is adding a simple portion of onion rings, a homemade fritter or a more elaborate loaded fries dish – sides should be easy to prepare, easy to incorporate into your existing processes, and capable of generating incremental profit.

As Krispies’ Kelly Barnes concludes: “Fish and chips will always be top of the game for us, but for us sides are all about being versatile and offering different options for your customers.”

Profit generator

5x Mozzarella Sticks + Dip: Suggested RRP: £4.50

With around 30 sticks per 1kg bag, you can serve approximately six snack portions per bag.

• Circa 30 sticks ÷ 5 per portion = 6 portions
• 6 portions x £4.50 RRP
• £27.00 SALES VALUE PER BAG
  

Supplied by Henry Colbeck

5 tips to elevate your accompaniment offering from Le Duc

1. Make sides more than an afterthought: Choose versatile sides that can work alongside mains, as standalone snacks or as part of sharing platters. 
2. Use frozen products: Choose quality frozen products to deliver consistent results while simplifying preparation, reducing waste and giving kitchens greater flexibility.
3. Create buzz via social media: Create social media engagement through visually appealing formats such as mozzarella sticks.
4. Put a twist on familiar classics: Give familiar favourites a refreshed look by pairing them with creative dips, toppings and flavours.
5. Build sides around occasions: Consider how sides can tap into various eating occasions, from quick snacks and lunchtime add-ons to gameday sharing and evening treats. 
   

Beer Battered Onion Rings roll in to Country Range’s catalogue

Country Range is helping operators spruce up their snack and side menus with the launch of its new Beer Battered Onion Rings that keep their crunch for at least 30 minutes.

Perfect for tapping into the continued popularity of sides, sharing dishes and loaded menu favourites, the new rings give friers an easy way to add extra flavour, texture and value across the menu.

Made with whole Spanish onions, selected for their naturally sweet, mild flavour and firmer texture, they are coated with a crisp beer batter. Larger and more uniform in size for an impressive serve, they are available in 10 x 1kg packs.

Suitable for vegans, vegetarians and lactose intolerants, they come frozen and can be cooked in the oven in 10-12 mins, air fryer in 10 mins and deep fried in less than three mins.

Country Range 0845 209 3777 https://countryrangegroup.com