Priceing a bottle of syrup

[Haynes Forest Products]

How did you arrive at the price to charge for a bottle of syrup. I understand that you have your cost of the BULK syrup that you either made or bought ,you have the cost of the container , your labor and your profit.
If you buy it or make it the bulk price of syrup is what the wholesale price that your buyer is paying. There is this line between what it cost me to make and what I can buy it for. Containers and bulk syrup are the easy part of the equation its the labor and profit that driving me crazy. Im a hobbiest / producer and with that disclaimer I sell all my syrup bulk at the going rate and keep about 25 gallons to sell and give away to friends. I cant use what I charge at my hourly rate when i go to work as a base line. I have a possible customer that wants to buy all my syrup bottled and labled. So I came up with a formula that I think works under all market conditions. I would rather sell wholesale close to home rather than drive it 150 miles out of the way have a truck load of empty buckets to clean and store.

cost of 1 oz of bulk syrup X 10% X number of oz in the bottle + cost of the container + $1.00 to fill the bottle install back label only and deliver to the store COD.

What do I need to change or adjust or rethink

[paul]

Haynes

I think you should add 30% to the cost of your syrup and container. You need to reheat refilter and can. you need to pick up your containers. theirs a cost to doing all this.
just my two cents

[Haynes Forest Products]

Paul I decided to go to 25% as far as the containers Im only dealing with one person so Im going to suggest that they place the bottle order and pay for it and Ill pick up on my yearly trip to Roth Sugar Bush.

[DaveB]

I look at a number of different factors...cost of product (to me) and market conditions. The cost of the product to me is what it would cost for me to make it or replace it (my wholesale purcahse price) + packaging cost + energy costs (transport or heating). Once I know my price, I need to figure out profit. I add 8% to my retail offering, based on my per gallon price. I always round up to the nearest dollar. Saves on moving and counting change. If I'm selling wholesale, I calculate a whole dollar addition so my margin always stays the same.

The market price comes in at what the market will support. Some markets wouldn't support a price $50 per gallon, mine happens to. Some would support more.

I think the hardest cost to figure is energy and transportation. I usually take my total fuel cost to pick some syrup up or move it around and the propane needed to finish it. Electricity is basically a few pennies and it's probably rolled in with the rounding any way.

I don't figure labor or what my time costs me. My time is my profit and a certain volume of sales. Most food vendors just add 8-10% to their costs when they sell wholesale, so I figure if it works for companies like US Foods, it's good enough for me!

Dave

[Father & Son]

Alot of excellent thought processes here that I hadn't even considered. I try to find out what the producers around me that have been doing this for alot longer than I have are charging and align myself with them. No way do I want to undercut them and take their customers (eventhough the amount of syrup I make and sell in a year doesn't compare to them).

Recently I was in Ohio and saw a producers prices and was just amazed at the difference a few miles can make. If that producer were to increase his prices, he would probably loose business based on his surrounding competition.

Jim

[ennismaple]

Our wholesale prices are around 25% lower than retail. Less than that and you're further ahead selling it in a drum.

[Haynes Forest Products]

That is the problem I have is I have had a store in town ask for my price on bottled syrup and I declined to try and undercut a good friend off the shelf. I have sold my syrup to 4 differant producers that sell to retailers. I tap one persons woods and another producer drops what he is doing and will jump on his tractor snow plow and clear 1/2 mile road no charge and another lends me whatever I need so the last thing I want to do is undercut there living. I have a chance to bid in a new retail outlet and at this point all is fair game and its the best product/price that wins. I also know that when Im back in Colo if they run out of syrup I will call my friends/producer and get them thair product to sell.

This is the formula I decided on.
current price of bulk syrup on the day I bottle lets use $2.00

$2.00 X 11lbs = $22.00 + 25% = $27.50 divided by 128oz = $.21 X oz of the bottle + cost of container + $1.00 labor to fill, label, deliver.

using this formula (1) 12oz bottle of syrup sold wholesale would be $4.96

This is how I made my price list I sent it of to the customer so time will tell

[paul]

haynes
at that price you should sell every bit of syrup you make. a pint of syrup here is selling for 7.00-9.00 thats 16oz

[Haynes Forest Products]

My goal is to make 25% more selling it to a retailer and get paid to sit in a chair in front of my bottler and making mony on some labor. The real fun starts when your holding onto a bottle that has HOT syrup filling it and you grab that cold Coors Light and sneak a sip and the syrup bottle is just about full and you dont know what to drop the beer or the syrup. THE HORROR

[gmcooper]

Haynes,

Do not forget there will be some shrinkage as far as reheating, filtering and bottling. If you have a drum with 330 lbs syrup in it you are not going to get all of that into containers. Also most of the time with hand filling you are going to get more syrup in the container than the label calls for. This is not a bad thing as you never want to be under and get caught but it will eat up a small % of syrup. I usually bump up my base price for bulk when I figure my syrup cost per container just to cover shrinkage.
From your figures I came up with a $2.52 for syrup, $1.00 for labor, and $1.44 for the container, cap and all labels? Are you using plastic or glass?

Good luck
Mark

[Haynes Forest Products]

The bid was for some plastic mostly glass. I prefer glass I tend to over tighten plastic caps and that leads to leaks. Back labels are cheap. I do agree with George Costansa you do get shrinkage. I find that when I sell bulk you end up with buckets with alot of sap hanging on the walls and all it does is spoil. I bottle every time the finish pan gets full.

[michiganfarmer]

I price syrup according to what it is selling for in the area. I try to get at least $38/gallon, then enough to cover the container.

I have been buying equipment for almost 10 years trying to build the operation up, so I really have no idea what my costs are.

Unless someone buys 5 gallons at a time, I will dump it out before I let it go for less than $38/ gallon.

[Haynes Forest Products]

MF If you check out the prices in the local store that only tell you what to charge the public not a retail store. I coulnt ask my friends and fellow producers what they get for thair syrup wholsale in bottles and then go out and undercut them.

[michiganfarmer]

MF If you check out the prices in the local store that only tell you what to charge the public not a retail store. I coulnt sak my frinds and fellow producers what they get for thair syrup wholsale in bottles and then go out and undercut them.

The retail store dictates how much I charge them.

I dont understand how I am undercutting anyone by retailing my syrup for the same price as everyone els.

[Haynes Forest Products]

MF: What I ment was I didnt want to ask friends what they are charging and then us that info to outbid them. What I find is that roadside markets and specilty food stores tend to charge a little higher price. I think its the (mine is better because its made down the road by Elves) syndrome. To me its like buying a car if you walk out of the dealership feeling like you took THEM to the cleaners all is good. I think My formula works for me and if I get the contract I dont care how much money I leave on the table Im happy with MY price.