Although they might no longer sail the high seas, shipping containers can still serve a noble purpose in housing small foodservice businesses in situations which may not be conducive to a permanent building. A renovated shipping container is the perfect way for a start-up business to get a foothold in the industry. They are cheap, durable and, above all else, mobile, meaning that exorbitant rent can be a thing of the past.
Cool Beans Café, a container café on the grounds of the Mangawhai Activity Zone, made headlines recently when owner Morgan Redfern decided to stop serving animal-based products, forcing a small dairy farming community to embrace plant-based alternatives. The move was a success, and Redfern’s café is as popular as ever. The current container iteration of Cool Beans, which was previously a small coffee cart, has been in action since the end of 2017 and has meant that not only can Redfern increase his output, but there is also space for customers to eat and stay sheltered from the weather. Cool Beans is only open on weekends (full-time over summer and school holidays) when use of the Mangawhai Activity Zone is at its peak.
While Redfern is winding down proceedings, the owners of Mizzoni are just heating up. The cult pizza truck, started in Hamilton, now has a semi-permanent pop-up in the small town of Ohakune. During the winter ski season the population of Ohakune balloons and skiers take advantage of the woodfired pizzas straight from the oven, served from a renovated shipping container situated on a formerly unoccupied patch of land near the town centre. The seasonal crowds of Ohakune mean that to own a permanent location would be an irresponsible spend, and a shipping container can lock up tight during the months it is not in use.
That being said, shipping containers are not only suitable for seasonal businesses. The Waterview Coffee Project was started in 2013, two years after construction of the Waterview Tunnel began, in a small block of shops in the Auckland suburb. The container café has grown to become an important hub for the local community and space for the local school, kindergarten and community groups to hold events and fundraisers.
“[Waterview] was an area which didn’t have any identifiable town centre or hub,” said co-founder Matt Poland. “Now it has a place for the local kindergarten, the local schools, and community groups to run activations or events, to raise funds for their causes.”
Burns & Ferrall is offering the chance for one lucky company to walk away with a fully equipped, fully functional commercial kitchen housed inside a custom-built recycled container, worth over $125,000. Simply spend $1000 at Burns & Ferrall to go into the draw.
