Pizza Catering Quote Calculator: Price per Head for Events
A UK pizza van quote for a wedding or party usually lands between £11 and £20 a head, with a minimum spend of £600 to £1,600. Plan 0.7 of a 12" pizza per adult when there’s a starter or dessert, half a pizza per child, and always set a minimum for small groups. The calculator below starts from your real costs, including the night of trade you give up, and gives you one price per guest.
The event
Counted as half a pizza.
HMRC rate: 55p.
Pizzas out per hour.
Your costs (ex VAT)
Dough, toppings, box.
0 if not included.
0 if not included.
Including set-up and packing away.
Wage plus on-costs, or what your hour is worth.
Gas, wood, equipment hire.
Margin of the normal evening this event replaces.
On the ex-VAT price.
Ex VAT, whatever the group size.
Price per guest
£14.10
Inc. VAT, 100 guests
Quote total
£1,411
£1,176 ex VAT + VAT at 20%
Pizzas to plan
72
≈ 1.8 h of baking
- Food (pizzas)
- £180
- Dessert and drinks
- £100
- Travel
- £33
- Labour
- £180
- Fixed costs
- £30
- Lost night of trade
- £300
- Total cost
- £823
- Event margin
- £352.71
How many pizzas to plan
| Menu | Per adult | For 50 adults | For 100 adults |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pizza with starters or dessert | 0.7 | 35 | 70 |
| Pizza is the whole meal | 1 | 50 | 100 |
| Evening food after a wedding breakfast | 0.4 – 0.5 | 20 – 25 | 40 – 50 |
Whole 12" (30 cm) pizzas. Children count as half a pizza. The calculator adds a 5% safety margin.
The costs a quote forgets
- The lost night of trade. If the wedding is on a Saturday, you’re not trading from your pitch or shop that night. The margin you would have made is a real cost of the event: leave it out and a 90-pizza wedding can earn less than a normal 50-pizza evening.
- Set-up and pack-down. Two hours before, one after, for a three-hour service. Charge for all six.
- The round trip. HMRC’s approved mileage rate of 55p a mile is a fair benchmark. Most vans include a 30–50 mile radius in the price and charge per mile or by zone beyond it.
- Gas or wood, which you don’t spread over a single night of 70 pizzas the way you do over a week of trading.
- Venue fees. Many venues charge outside caterers a pitch fee or a cut of takings. Ask before you quote and add it to fixed costs.
Set a minimum spend
A party of 15 takes the same set-up as a wedding of 100. Set a minimum spend — UK pizza vans typically ask £600 to £1,600, often framed as 50 covers — and state it up front. A client who can’t meet it isn’t your client for this kind of job.
Going rates, logistics and deposits: the pizza catering and events pricing guide. To work out your food cost per pizza precisely: the pizza food cost calculator. And how many pizzas you can actually turn out: real pizzas-per-hour figures.