Is Catering Profitable in Canada? What the 2024 Government Data Shows

Yes, for most caterers. Government financial data for Canadian caterers (NAICS 72232, data year 2024) shows 74.8% of them were profitable, with average revenue of $463.3k, average expenses of $425.2k and an average net profit of $38.1k, a margin of 8.2%. Statistics Canada puts the 2024 operating profit margin of special food services, the group that includes caterers, at 6.9% across Canada and 5.7% in Ontario, against 3.9% for full-service restaurants. The spread behind those averages is wide: 25.2% of caterers lost money.

The first set of figures comes from Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED), which publishes Statistics Canada's financial performance data by industry. Its caterers profile covers small and medium-sized businesses with annual revenue between $30,000 and $5,000,000, incorporated and unincorporated alike, and counts 4,009 businesses in the 2024 data set. All the figures are averages across those businesses, so they describe the industry as a whole, and a single caterer's results can sit anywhere in the spread shown below.

Where the money goes is the most useful part of the profile. Cost of sales takes 45.6% of revenue on average, mostly purchases, materials and sub-contracts at 36.4%, with 9.3% for direct wages and benefits. Indirect labour and commissions take another 19.2%, rent 7.5%, advertising 1.3% and insurance 1.1%. Total expenses come to 91.8% of revenue, which leaves the 8.2% net profit. The gross margin, revenue minus cost of sales, averages 54.4%. In dollars, of every $100 an average Canadian caterer took in during 2024, about $46 went on food, materials and the staff who made it, about $19 on other labour and about $8 on rent.

The average hides four very different businesses. ISED splits caterers into quarters by profit margin. The bottom quarter, with margins of 0.0% or lower, averaged a net loss of 13.1% of revenue. The lower-middle quarter, between 0.0% and 10.1%, averaged 4.5%. The upper-middle quarter, between 10.1% and 28.0%, averaged 17.1%, and the top quarter, above 28.0%, averaged 50.9%. The split between winners and losers is just as sharp: the 74.8% that made money averaged $71.0k of net profit on $464.9k of revenue, and the 25.2% that lost money averaged a $59.7k loss on $458.4k of revenue. ISED flags that loss figure as "use with caution", but the pattern is clear: the two groups took in almost the same revenue, and their costs decided the result.

What separates the top quarter from the bottom one? The same ISED table answers it line by line. Gross margin rises from 50.3% in the bottom quarter and 49.9% in the lower-middle quarter to 56.0% in the upper-middle and 77.0% in the top quarter, so the most profitable caterers spend far less of each sale on food, materials and direct labour. Rent falls the same way, from 10.0% of revenue in the bottom quarter to 6.6% and then 3.4% at the top. Total expenses run at 113.1% of revenue for the bottom quarter, 95.5% and 82.9% for the middle two, and 49.1% for the top. A wider gross margin and lower fixed costs are what the top quarter has in common in the data.

How much do caterers make in Canada? ISED's revenue quarters answer that for the owner deciding how big to grow. The smallest quarter, with revenue from $30k to $70k, averaged $46.2k of revenue and $9.7k of net profit. The next quarter, $70k to $180k, averaged $113.6k and $16.9k. Caterers with $180k to $533k averaged $318.1k and $29.6k, and the largest quarter, $533k to $5M, averaged $1,375.3k of revenue and $96.1k of net profit. Dividing one by the other gives a margin of 21.0% for the smallest group falling to 7.0% for the largest. In a sole proprietorship where the owner does the cooking and draws no wage, that net profit is also the owner's income, so a small caterer keeps a high share of a small number.

Rent is the line that separates a home-scale caterer from a growing one. ISED's smallest revenue quarter averaged $3.2k a year in rent; the largest averaged $97.0k. A caterer that rents kitchen time by the hour keeps rent close to the bottom of that range while it builds a client list, and moves to a lease once the bookings justify one. Our catering startup cost guide lists the published Ottawa prices for hourly kitchen time, the City licence and the other first-year lines.

Statistics Canada's own survey gives the second view. Table 21-10-0171-01 reports an operating profit margin of 6.9% for special food services across Canada in 2024, up from 6.5% in 2023 and 5.1% in 2022, and above the 6.1% of 2019. In Ontario the same group earned 5.7% in 2024. Full-service restaurants earned 3.9% nationally and 2.6% in Ontario, limited-service eating places 3.7% and 3.0%, and the whole food services and drinking places subsector 4.1% and 3.1%. StatCan's release for 2024 says operating revenue for special food services, which includes food service contractors, caterers and mobile food services, rose 10.9% to $7.8 billion, helped by return-to-office requirements.

The two sources measure different things, which is why 8.2% and 6.9% can both be right. ISED reports net profit for caterers alone, limited to businesses with $30,000 to $5 million of revenue. Statistics Canada reports operating profit for the whole special food services group, which also contains food service contractors and mobile food services. Read together they say the same thing: catering earns a thin but positive margin, a little wider than restaurants, and the owner's cost control decides which side of zero a given business lands on.

Payback is the question a buyer of a catering business or a catering franchise should work out on paper before talking money. The formula is short: payback in years equals the total initial investment divided by the cash the business returns each year after every cost, including fair pay for the owner's own hours, royalties and tax. Two inputs need checking. The investment must include working capital and every fee, and the yearly cash must come from documented results of comparable units. An average from an industry table cannot stand in for that second number.

Royalties show why. The Canadian Franchise Association writes that a royalty is "often six per cent of topline sales", and a franchise lawyer answering in the CFA's Franchise Canada magazine gives a continuing royalty of usually five per cent plus an advertising fee of typically two to three per cent of gross sales. Applied to ISED's average caterer revenue of $463.3k, a 5% royalty is $23.2k a year and a 6% royalty is $27.8k; a 2% to 3% advertising fee adds $9.3k to $13.9k. Five plus two, 7% in total, comes to $32.4k against an average net profit of $38.1k. A franchise system may well run a different cost structure from the industry average, and the only place to see that structure is the franchisor's own documented figures.

That is where franchise law comes in. In Ontario, O. Reg. 581/00 under the Arthur Wishart Act says that if an earnings projection for the franchise is provided, the disclosure document must state the reasonable basis for it, the assumptions behind it and a location where the information that substantiates it can be inspected (s. 6, para. 3). An estimate of annual operating costs carries the same three requirements (s. 6, para. 2). Under s. 7(1) of the Act, a franchisee who suffers a loss because of a misrepresentation in the disclosure document has a right of action for damages, and under s. 7(2) the franchisee is deemed to have relied on the misrepresentation. A revenue or profit figure offered in a meeting deserves the same test: ask for it in writing, inside the disclosure document, with its basis. Our guide to the Arthur Wishart Act walks through the rest of the document.

For an independent caterer the same arithmetic works in reverse. Start from a menu price per guest, subtract the food and packaging cost per guest, then the kitchen hours, delivery and the share of insurance and licence fees each event carries. What is left, multiplied by the events you can realistically book, is the yearly cash the payback formula needs. ISED's cost lines make a reasonable first check: if food and materials come out far above 36.4% of the price, the menu or the price needs work before the business does. Our guide to low-cost food franchises compares the published investment figures on the franchise side.

OH! is a family business that Anastasiia Stepanenko started in Ottawa in the summer of 2026 and runs with her mother, Nataliia. OH! publishes no earnings, revenue or payback figures for its own business or for any franchise, and none appear on this page. OH! is preparing a partner program; any offer will come with a disclosure document before anything is signed or paid, as Ontario law requires, and interest can be registered on our catering franchise page.

Average caterer in Canada, 2024 (ISED, NAICS 72232, revenue $30,000 to $5,000,000)

How much caterers make in Canada, by revenue quarter (ISED, 2024)

Operating profit margin, 2024 (Statistics Canada Table 21-10-0171-01)

Is Catering Profitable in Canada — the short version

• ISED, 2024: 74.8% of 4,009 Canadian caterers were profitable; average net margin 8.2% on $463.3k revenue.
• Cost of sales averages 45.6% of revenue, indirect labour 19.2%, rent 7.5%; gross margin 54.4%.
• 25.2% of caterers lost money; the top quarter by margin averaged 50.9%.
• Smallest caterers ($30k–$70k revenue) averaged $9.7k net profit on $46.2k.
• Statistics Canada, 2024: special food services 6.9% operating margin in Canada, 5.7% in Ontario; full-service restaurants 3.9%.
• Payback = total initial investment ÷ yearly cash after every cost, owner's pay, royalties and tax.
• Ontario: any earnings projection in a disclosure document needs its basis, assumptions and an inspection location (O. Reg. 581/00 s. 6, para. 3).

Sources: ISED — Canadian Industry Statistics, Financial performance, Caterers (NAICS 72232), profit margin view, 2024; ISED — Canadian Industry Statistics, Financial performance, Caterers (NAICS 72232), revenue view, 2024; Statistics Canada — Table 21-10-0171-01, Food services and drinking places, summary statistics; Statistics Canada, The Daily — Food services and drinking places, annual, 2024 (9 March 2026); Canadian Franchise Association, Franchise Canada — Your guide to franchising; Canadian Franchise Association, Franchise Canada — What are the key components of the franchise agreement?; Government of Ontario — O. Reg. 581/00, General (Arthur Wishart Act), s. 6; Government of Ontario — Arthur Wishart Act (Franchise Disclosure), 2000, s. 7.

OH! Catering is preparing a franchise for styled share tables and Ukrainian dishes. Read about The OH! Catering franchise.