Picture this. A bloke in Bolton - or Birmingham, or anywhere in between - has just signed a five-year lease on an empty shell unit off the high street. Bare walls. Concrete floor. A single gas meter in the cupboard. Four weeks until opening night.

He's ringing me on a Tuesday morning asking what he actually needs to buy.

I'm Andrew Pickersgill, MD of eCatering. Thirty years on from my first job fitting out chippies in West Yorkshire, I've had some version of that phone call most weeks of my working life. The answer is never one-size-fits-all. It depends on the menu, the covers, the power supply, and - more than anything - what you can sensibly afford before a single chip hits the oil.

So here's what I'd actually tell that Bolton operator. No fluff, no padding. Just the best catering equipment for a takeaway across three realistic budgets, with the prices we're selling at in April 2026.

What matters most when choosing equipment for a new takeaway

Before you spend a penny, five things decide whether your kit works on a busy Friday night. Get these right and everything else follows.

Power supply. Single-phase or three-phase? Most takeaways doing volume chicken, chips and pizza will need three-phase. If the unit hasn't got it, you're looking at a DNO upgrade - £1,500 to £4,000, and a six-to-twelve-week lead time. Check this before signing the lease. Not after.

Extraction. A proper canopy is not optional. It's an EHO point, a landlord point, and an insurance point. A bespoke DW172 canopy with a fan box and ductwork can run £2,500 to £6,000 installed. Skimping here will cost you a closure notice within a month.

Fryer capacity and recovery. The number one bottleneck in any takeaway. If your fryer drops temperature when you load a basket of frozen chips and takes three minutes to recover, your service collapses at 7:30pm. Simple as that.

Refrigeration you can trust. A chest freezer for stock. Undercounter fridges for the prep line. A bottle cooler if you're selling drinks. Retail-grade domestic stuff will not pass an EHO inspection.

Cleaning and hygiene programme. Most new operators forget this entirely. A decent cleaning regime (degreasers, sanitisers, oven cleaner, a washing-up programme) protects your EHO rating from day one.

Miss any of those and the rest of the list doesn't matter. Let's get to the kit.

Our recommended equipment - Entry, Core and Premium

I've broken this into three tiers based on what we actually sell to first-time takeaway operators every week. All prices exclude VAT, April 2026.

Entry tier - £5,000 to £10,000 (total ~£6,330)

For a bare-bones operation doing 30-60 orders per service. Kebab shop, small chippy, single-unit chicken joint. This is the Quattro-led build - our own-brand budget range, the workhorse tier.

• Quattro FCE008 twin countertop fryer - £190.32

• Quattro FCE004 13L single fryer (dedicated allergen pot) - £115.96

• Archway 2-burner kebab grill (if you're running a kebab concept) - ~£899

• Gastroline prep counter - ~£750

• Contender PRO500 dishwasher - £1,072

• Quattro SVH028 extraction hood - ~£368

• Undercounter fridge + bottle cooler - ~£750

• Bain marie, microwave, small wares and a KINN starter cleaning pack - ~£2,200

• If toasted sandwiches or wraps feature on your menu, add a commercial panini press - compact single plate models start under £200 and handle steady lunchtime service without taking up counter space.

Total lands around £6,330. Tight, but genuinely workable for a first site. Browse the full range at /collections/quattro and /collections/commercial-fryers.

Core tier - £12,000 to £20,000 (total ~£13,809)

This is where most serious takeaways should start. 80-120 covers per evening. A proper menu. The Contender-led build - our mid-range own-brand that does the heavy lifting.

• Lincat Silverlink DF66 twin countertop fryer - £999

• Contender FCE091 16L Pressure Chicken Fryer - £502.99

• Archway 3-burner kebab grill - £999

• Contender twin-deck pizza oven - £971

• Gastroline 3-door prep counter - £1,199

• Contender 485L chest freezer - £388.82

• Lincat CS4 chip scuttle - £449

• Upgraded dishwasher, extraction and shelving - ~£2,500

• Mid-range undercounter fridges plus display unit - ~£1,800

• KINN cleaning programme and small wares - ~£700

Around £13,809 all in. This kit will do a proper weekend without choking. See more at /collections/contender.

Premium tier - £25,000 to £40,000+ (total ~£29,000 to £42,000)

High-volume operators. Full menu - chicken, kebabs, pizza, burgers, sides. The kind of site doing 150+ covers a night on Fridays and Saturdays.

• Falcon Dominator Plus 30L gas twin fryer - £3,999

• Lincat J12 floor-standing fryer - £1,399

• Archway Twin 3-burner kebab grill - £1,799

• Contender pass-through hood dishwasher - £1,635

• Bespoke DW172 extraction canopy - £2,500 to £4,500

• Full refrigeration suite (walk-in, chest, display) - ~£6,000

• Henny Penny PFE 500 pressure fryer (optional, for dedicated chicken operations) - £12,699

• KINN full-year cleaning programme - ~£1,200

• EPOS, fit-out and small wares - ~£3,500

This is the kit that pays for itself inside eighteen months if you're doing the volumes. /collections/kinn for the full eco-friendly cleaning range.

Real-world scenario: a takeaway doing 80-120 covers per evening (~480 across the weekend)

Right. Let's put the Core tier to work.

Picture our Bolton operator again. He's three months in, open Wednesday to Sunday, hitting 80-120 covers per evening service (6pm to 10pm). Peak pressure lands between 7pm and 8:30pm. Across Friday, Saturday and Sunday - the weekend that pays the rent - he's pushing roughly 480 covers.

Here's what that looks like in equipment terms. At 1.2 items per cover (chicken meal plus sides, or a pizza plus chips), that's about 576 items across the weekend. Peak service crunches down to roughly 40 orders per hour at 7pm on a Saturday. Every fryer basket needs to recover in 60 to 90 seconds or the queue backs up out the door.

The Lincat Silverlink DF66 handles the chip volume without blinking - twin tanks, fast recovery, proven in chippies across the country. The Contender FCE091 pressure fryer cooks a full basket of chicken in eight to nine minutes instead of twenty, which is the difference between a £300 Friday and an £800 Friday. The Contender 485L chest freezer keeps enough frozen stock on hand for the full weekend without you running to the cash-and-carry on Saturday morning. And the Contender twin-deck pizza oven runs both decks at different temperatures - one for thin-base, one for deep-pan - without having to choose between them.

Four bits of kit. One smooth weekend.

For a deeper dive on fryer sizing specifically, read the commercial fryer buying guide.

Exclusive brands worth considering - Quattro, Contender and KINN

We build three of our own brands because the market needed them. Not because we wanted another logo on a van.

Quattro is our budget range. Entry-tier workhorse kit - fryers, bain maries, sinks, extraction hoods. Designed for operators who need something reliable at a genuinely affordable price. Not premium. Not trying to be. Just honest equipment that turns up, does the job, and lasts long enough to pay back twice over.

Contender is our mid-range. This is where the Core tier lives - the Contender PRO500 dishwasher, the FCE091 pressure fryer, the 485L chest freezer, the twin-deck pizza oven. Contender is built for operators who've outgrown Entry but aren't spending Falcon money. It's the hero range.

KINN is our premium eco-friendly cleaning and hygiene line. Degreasers, sanitisers, oven cleaners, dishwash chemicals - all formulated to hit EHO standards without the harsh chemistry. A proper KINN programme on day one protects your rating and keeps your team safe. See it at /collections/kinn.

One note on kebab grills. We don't badge our own - the market for those is dominated by Archway, and frankly their kit is better than anything we'd build ourselves. So that's what we stock.

Finance options - how to spread the cost

Nobody opens a takeaway with forty grand in cash. Here's how our customers typically fund a new fit-out.

iwocaPay. Split orders between £150 and £30,000 into three interest-free instalments. Fast approval, no paperwork, no early-repayment penalty. The default for Entry and Core tier builds.

Leasing. If you've been trading eighteen months or more, leasing spreads the cost over three to five years with tax-deductible monthly payments. A Core tier kit at £13,809 over 60 months works out at roughly £275 per month before interest - less than most operators spend on weekend bank staff.

PayPal Credit. For smaller top-ups - a replacement fryer, an extra fridge - PayPal Credit offers four months interest-free on anything over £99.

Full finance breakdown at /pages/finance.

When to bring in a Key Account Manager

If you're spending more than £10,000, you should be talking to a human being. Not filling a basket.

That's what our Key Account Managers do. They walk your unit, scope your power supply, measure your kitchen footprint, and build a kit list that actually fits the space you've signed for. No guesswork, no returns, no extraction canopy that's six inches too wide for the ceiling void.

Our Commercial Director Andy Whitehead leads that team. Andy's been doing this for twenty years and his patch covers Bolton, Birmingham, Cardiff, Dundee and most places in between. Here's what he said to me last week, and I'm pinching it because it's exactly right:

"The one thing first-time takeaway operators skip is extraction scoping. Every week I speak to someone in Bolton, Birmingham or Cardiff who signed a lease before checking the three-phase supply or the canopy spec."

- Andy Whitehead, Commercial Director, eCatering

He's right. It's the single most expensive mistake in the sector.

Meet the team at /pages/meet-the-team.

FAQ

How much does it cost to equip a new takeaway in the UK?

Budget £6,000 at the absolute bottom for an Entry-tier Quattro-led kit, £13,000 to £20,000 for a proper Core-tier setup, and £25,000 to £40,000+ for a high-volume Premium build. All excluding VAT, installation and extraction. The £6k figure assumes you've got existing extraction and three-phase power.

Do I need three-phase electricity for a takeaway?

Most serious takeaways do. Twin-tank fryers, pizza ovens, pressure fryers and pass-through dishwashers typically need three-phase. A basic chippy running a single fryer and a bain marie might get away with single-phase. If in doubt, ask a Gas Safe engineer or our KAM team before you sign the lease.

What extraction canopy do I need for a takeaway?

A bespoke DW172 canopy sized to your cooking line - typically 2m to 4m long, with a fan box, ductwork and make-up air. Budget £2,500 to £6,000 installed. Never buy a generic off-the-shelf hood for a commercial takeaway. It won't pass EHO.

What's the best fryer for a takeaway?

Depends on volume. For 30-60 covers, a Quattro FCE008 twin countertop at £190 does the job. For 80-120 covers, step up to a Lincat Silverlink DF66 at £999 - the industry standard. For 150+ covers, a Falcon Dominator Plus 30L at £3,999 is the gold-standard gas fryer in the UK. See the full range at /collections/commercial-fryers.

Should I have separate oil for allergens?

Yes. Absolutely. Running chicken, fish, vegan items and gluten-free in one pot is a cross-contamination lawsuit waiting to happen. Even on Entry tier, we recommend a second small fryer (the Quattro FCE004 at £115.96) dedicated to allergen-safe items. It's £116 that could save your business.

Can I lease takeaway equipment?

Yes - most of it, if you've been trading eighteen months or more. For brand-new operators, iwocaPay offers three interest-free instalments between £150 and £30,000 with no trading history required. See /pages/finance for the full options.

Ready to kit out your takeaway?

Here's my honest take, thirty years in. Spend the Core tier budget if you can. Don't skimp on fryer recovery, extraction or the chest freezer. Run a proper KINN cleaning programme from day one. And ring a KAM before you sign the lease - not after.

If you're within four weeks of opening, call us. We'll get the kit on the van and an engineer on site in time for your soft launch. Not a week after.

Browse the full takeaway equipment list, read up on choosing a commercial dishwasher, or get straight on with our Contender range.

Good luck. See you at opening night.

- Andrew

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Prices shown excluding VAT as of April 2026 and are subject to change. Totals are indicative and exclude installation, delivery, extraction and power supply upgrades. Gas installations require Gas Safe certification. Always check product specs.