United Kingdom
Coffee trailers for sale
A coffee trailer for sale here is drawn around the machine, the grinder and the water treatment first, because those three decide the counter length, the plumbing and the electrical design of everything else.
The failure mode in a coffee unit is always the same. The machine is chosen last, the supply cannot carry it, and the operator spends two years working around a counter that was never laid out for a queue.
So the machine group count and the grinder come first, water treatment follows the local supply, and the counter is set to the working pattern of one operator or two.
What the machine decides
| Group count | Two group or three group, which sets both the counter length and the supply |
|---|---|
| Water treatment | Specified against the supply at the sites you will actually work |
| Supply | 230 V single phase, or 400 V where the total connected load requires it |
| Counter | Set to one operator or two, with the queue side decided before the frame is built |
| Refrigeration | Under counter, sized to the milk volume of a peak service rather than to the space left over |
| Serving | Hatch position and awning specified for the side the queue forms on |
The range
Units this is usually built from
Every one is built to an order and configured to the specification agreed with you. Nothing here is stock.
Coffee 220
The single-operator coffee unit: two-group machine, grinder, treated water.
Coffee 300
A three-group machine with room for a pastry counter and a second person.
Dessert 220
Soft serve and freezer capacity, on a floor built for the load.
Before you pay
The approval route comes first
A unit that cannot be registered where it is going cannot be used there. So the route is established first, in writing, and each country's route is published with the regulator's own source and the date it was read.
Getting it registered in the United Kingdom
Supplying a new category O trailer for road use in Great Britain without a certificate in effect is a criminal offence, and the certificate is an EU Certificate of Conformity, a national small series certificate or an Individual Vehicle Approval certificate. Which route applies to your unit is established in writing before you pay, with the authority and the documents named. The route for United Kingdom, with the regulator's own source and the date it was read.
Questions
Asked before an order, not after
Can it run off a 13 amp socket?
Rarely. The connected load is calculated from the actual appliance schedule and the answer is given in writing before you order.
Two group or three?
That follows from covers at peak and how many people work the counter. Tell us both and we will say which.
United Kingdom
What is different here
What is true here and not in Australia. 8 things that decide a specification in this market and do not apply in the other one, each with the instrument or the authority it was read from.
Decides the unit
01Two chapters of the hygiene annex were lifted off a mobile unit. The rest were not
Chapter I of Annex II to Regulation 852/2004 sets the general requirements for food premises and excludes premises specified in Chapter III. Chapter II does the same for rooms where food is prepared. Chapter III, the one written for movable premises, is nine short paragraphs. Nothing lifts Chapters IV to XII, so equipment, food waste, water supply, personal hygiene and training bind a trailer exactly as they bind a restaurant.
What it changes. The brevity of Chapter III reads as permission and is not. The specific obligations that decide a build sit in the chapters that are rarely quoted, which is why the water, the waste and the wash up are settled on the drawing.
Read from Regulation 852/2004, Annex II 2026-09-07
A third of the hygiene rating is the building, and a trailer is the building
The Food Standards Agency describes three elements checked at inspection: how hygienically food is handled, the physical condition of the business including cleanliness, layout, lighting, ventilation and pest control, and how the business manages food safety. To reach the top rating of five a business has to do well in all three. Two of those elements are what people do. The middle one is what was drawn.
What it changes. Layout, lighting, ventilation and pest proofing are decided at the drawing and cannot be recovered by a procedure or a training record afterwards. It is the part of the score a specification actually controls, and the part a used unit hands you already fixed.
Read from Food Hygiene Rating Scheme, guidance for businesses, Food Standards Agency 2026-09-09
Displaying the rating is voluntary in England and required by law in Wales and Northern Ireland
The Food Standards Agency states that a business in Wales is legally required to display its rating in a visible place at or near each customer entrance, and that a business in Northern Ireland is legally required to display it at or near each customer entrance, readable before a customer enters. In England the same page says only that a rating can be displayed. Three nations, one scheme, two different legal duties.
What it changes. On a fixed shop the customer entrance is a door. On a trailer it is the serving hatch, so a unit destined for Cardiff or Belfast needs a flat, visible, washable place for the sticker that is readable with the hatch open, and that is a decision on the drawing rather than a decision on delivery day.
Read from Food Hygiene Rating Scheme, displaying your rating, Food Standards Agency 2026-09-09
Decides the business
04Supplying the trailer without a certificate in effect is a criminal offence, not a paperwork delay
Under the Road Vehicles (Approval) Regulations 2020, supplying a recordable trailer for use on a road without an EU Certificate of Conformity, a national small series certificate or an IVA certificate having effect is an offence. The penalty is an unlimited fine in England and Wales, or up to three months imprisonment for an individual, or both. For a large trailer, defined by unladen weight over 1,020 kg or any semi-trailer built to carry goods, regulation 23 requires the supplier to notify DVSA, provide the pertinent information and obtain consent before supply, and consent is withheld until import VAT and customs duty are paid.
What it changes. It puts the approval route on the critical path rather than beside it. A unit that arrives before its certificate does cannot lawfully be handed over, which is why the route is established before the specification is frozen rather than after the build.
Read from The Road Vehicles (Approval) Regulations 2020 2026-09-08
Decides the operation
05Who may tow it was decided by the year they passed their test
A licence obtained before 1 January 1997 usually carries a combined vehicle and trailer entitlement up to 8,250 kg maximum authorised mass. A licence obtained from that date covers a trailer up to 3,500 kg, which is category BE, and anything heavier needs category C1+E with a provisional licence, a lorry theory test and a practical test. Six of the twenty three units we specify sit exactly on the 3,500 kg line.
What it changes. The plated mass is a licensing decision about the buyer, not only an engineering one about the trailer. It is settled before a specification is frozen, because a unit the buyer cannot tow is of no use to them.
Read from GOV.UK, towing with a car 2026-09-07
Three obligations land on the operator inside 2027, from three departments
The micro firm exemption from workplace recycling separation in England ends on 31 March 2027, and the guidance names construction sites and the contractors' food and packaging waste on them. Martyn's Law can commence from 3 April 2027 at the earliest, after which an event expecting 800 or more becomes a qualifying event carrying the enhanced requirements. The deposit return scheme for England and Northern Ireland starts on 1 October 2027.
What it changes. None of the three asks anything of a trailer, and two of them change what the operator standing in it has to do. Knowing which is which before ordering is worth more than any option on the list.
Read from The obligation timetable, with each instrument and read date 2026-09-09
The deposit scheme names a coffee shop in the exclusions, not in the definition
A groceries retailer under SI 2025/67 is a supermarket, grocery store, convenience store or newsagent. The definition then excludes premises whose main business is takeaway, a coffee shop whether or not food is consumed there, and a hospitality venue such as a bar, restaurant or club. Only a groceries retailer with MRP premises has to operate a return point, and MRP premises exclude a vehicle that is not permanently stationary.
What it changes. The trade is bracing for a reverse vending machine on every counter. What most units will actually need is a deposit charged, an opt-out decision, and two sentences displayed where a customer chooses.
Read from The Deposit Scheme for Drinks Containers Regulations 2025 2026-09-09
Registration is free, cannot be refused, and buys nobody a look at the unit
The Food Standards Agency says a new food business must register with the local authority at least 28 days before trading, that registration is free, and that it cannot be refused. A business operating in more than one location registers each premises with the authority that premises sits in. There is no application to approve, no plan to submit and no inspection before the doors open.
What it changes. Nobody official looks at the build before it trades, so the first time the unit is assessed it is already serving customers and the assessment becomes a public score. Everything structural has to be right on day one, because nothing checks it before then.
Read from Getting ready to start your food business, Food Standards Agency 2026-09-09
Specify a coffee trailer
Machine preference, covers at peak and where it will trade.