Why Is Opening a Churrería One of the Most Profitable Businesses in Hospitality? The numbers don't lie.
Low upfront investment, high margins and a product that never goes out of style: here's why so many restaurateurs end up trading the bar for the fryer.
It's midnight and the owner of your typical neighborhood bar still has the shutter half down, pouring the last round before closing the till. Rent, staff, stock that spoils if it doesn't sell, margins that keep getting tighter. And then he thinks of that little churrería on the corner, closed hours ago, whose owner has already been home for a while.
Sound familiar? You may have run those numbers yourself at some point: flour, water, salt and oil turned into something people line up to buy. It's not magic. It's a business with a logic that very few sectors of hospitality can match.
For nearly 70 years we've watched churrerías come to life from the inside. And we always get asked the same thing: does it really pay off as much as people say?
The Business With the Cheapest Raw Materials in the Sector
Think about what you need to serve a portion of churros: flour, water, salt and oil. Four pantry ingredients, with no complicated shelf life, no need for huge walk-in fridges or exclusive suppliers. That alone puts you in a different position from a restaurant, where the cost of raw materials eats up a large chunk of the margin before you even turn on the stove.
Let's run real numbers: with good flour, each kilo yields up to 140 regular thin churros, or up to 50 filled churros. The cost in raw materials and energy usually accounts for only 8% to 10% of the sale price: for every euro your churrería brings in, between €0.90 and €0.92 remains as gross margin before deducting fixed costs and equipment. These percentages are typical in Spain; in other countries they can vary, and may even be more favorable depending on how exclusive or differentiated your product is.
What's more, churros are sold freshly made. There are no big walk-in fridges full of stock about to expire. And if you're left with some unfried dough at the end of the day, it's no big deal either: the cost of that unfried dough is very low, so throwing it away barely affects your bottom line. Compared to a restaurant's food waste, it's a whole different league.
Churrería vs. Other Hospitality Businesses
Churrería
- Very inexpensive raw materials
- Made-to-order production, almost no waste
- Can run with very few staff
- Low average ticket, but very high turnover
- Earlier and tighter closing hours
Traditional Bar or Restaurant
- Varied and more expensive raw materials
- Perishable products that generate waste
- Kitchen and dining room need more staff
- Higher average ticket, but lower turnover
- Long shifts, much later closing time
A Product That Never Goes Out of Style (and Travels Well, Too)
Coffee with churros has been a ritual in Spain for decades, but the product has known how to reinvent itself, and not just here. In Latin America it's paired with cajeta or dulce de leche, in the United States formats like the churro ice cream sandwich are a hit, and in countries like Japan or Korea, highly Instagram-worthy versions are served, designed to go viral as much as to be eaten. Wherever there are churros, there's joy, and that joy doesn't care about generations: the grandfather who has churros for breakfast on Sundays and the teenager who orders them to post on social media turn out, surprisingly, to be the same customer.
On top of that, something has changed the rules of the game in recent years: takeaway and delivery. A product that fries in minutes, is served hot, and travels well is exactly what delivery platforms are looking for. Many churrerías that started out serving only at the counter now generate a very significant share of their business outside the premises.
What Really Matters
- The margin doesn't come only from the sale price — it comes from how cheap the raw materials are compared to what customers are willing to pay for a freshly made product.
- The less staff you need to produce quickly and with quality, the more profitable your business is: the right equipment does that work for you.
- Takeaway and delivery are no longer a nice-to-have — they're a revenue stream that can match or even exceed in-store sales.
- A product without complex shelf-life issues means minimal risk even if you miscalculate your daily production.
- A churrería's hours don't just close earlier than a restaurant's or bar's — they're also more contained and predictable, giving you far more control over your time and your team's.
What Suits Your Business Best?
If you're just starting out, the smart move is to launch with a starter kit: a manual churrera and a fryer, the essential base for producing with quality from day one and with a contained investment. If demand grows down the line, you can always expand with a dough mixer or other equipment that saves you time and effort.
If you have guaranteed high demand, a full production setup lets you scale up without losing quality. That's the case, for example, for businesses that — due to fairs, events, festivals — need very high production spikes during peak hours. The same goes if you're considering selling churros on a recurring basis to other hospitality businesses or to other types of institutions (care homes, cafeterias...).
If you're thinking about taking the leap, or already have your churrería and want to know if you're making the most of it, tell me how you work and I'll tell you, with no obligation, what the best option is for you.
info@maquinaschurros.com · maquinaschurros.com