Paying to have syrup bottled

[PerrinFarm2]

Here's the deal.

Up until now, we've always just sold our syrup in bulk. Long story short, I would like to look into retail sales. We don't own any bottling equipment, and I really don't feel like buying low end equipment, then doing a lot of work for a an only fair result.

What I would like is to bring my product to somebody who does a lot of bottling, and have them do a short run of just my product for a cost per pound or something. (specialization and trade, i'll specialize in making syrup and pay somebody else to specialize in bottling)

Does anybody know of somebody in central VT that does this?

I've thought that perhaps i could start a company. set up a bottling system in a 12 or 14' enclosed trailer, with positive air flow filtration and the rest of a high end system, and sell bottling services to maple,cider, and other producers of bottled product. Anybody think that there would be a demand for this type of service?

BZ

[3rdgen.maple]

Im thinking not much. Bottling is the easiest part in my opinion.

[KenWP]

Theres a goofy company in Sherbrooke that belive it or not people buy wine kits from and they finish it in the store and bottle it and you take it home as homemade. I almost choked when I heard that.
The church back home had a canning plant where different groups went in and canned bulk foods for themselves. Was sort of neat to do if you like canned crap. I never bothered doing it form my self.
The bottleing is the easyiest thing to do. It's getting it past the filtered part that is all the work. Once your there it's down hill.

[Bucket Head]

I'm not that familiar with Vermont, but there must be bottlers nearby. I know a lot of syrup out there was'nt touched by whoever's name is on the lable. Many syrup retailers in all the syrup producing states outsource.

What do you consider "low end" bottling equipment? What "high end" bottling equipment would be justified for a 700 tap operation? Quite a bit of syrup can be bottled relatively easily with a good sized canner.

I guess you'd have to weigh the equipment price and time against whatever a bottling outfit would charge. But I'm sure the bottling charge would be the greatest for the smallest amount to be bottled. The more you have, the cheaper it gets.

Steve

[PerryW]

I would think many of the nearby sugarmakers that have retail sales would be interested. They would have all the equipment to do the job.

It takes a couple hours of my time to bottle up a 10 gallon batch so I'd probably can up syrup for someone else for $3-4 per gallon (plus container cost). A larger operation could probably beat my price.

[sfsshadow]

even if you spent $1000 on a canner,labels,etc,the payback on your investment would be fast. $30 gal.bulk vs $50 gal.retail.

[PerrinFarm2]

BucketHead - I envision a setup with a really high quality filtering setup. A steam container cleaning. Dosed filling, and keeping all the bugs out using positive air flow filtration. This would be setup in an enclosed trailer. I would contract with clients to go to there location and do a bottling run.

Sfsshadow - I doubt that I would recoop the cost very quickly if I were to count my time.

I based on the increase in profit in selling retail I think that I could handle passing $3-4 per gallon to the customer.

[3rdgen.maple]

Perrin I was just reminded about the laws in NY on another thread and was curious about the ag laws in VT about bottling someone elses syrup. If a producer in VT ran out of syrup and need to buy bulk from a packer do they need to be certified to repack it in their own containers? If they do you may just be onto something if your setup gets certified and you can do that for other producers it just may be welcomed instead of them having to go through the government hassle of certification.

[maple flats]

If you still feel the need to find a bottler, Bascom offers that service. I have no idea what it costs but I have seen that they will pack your product or theirs with your label. I'll keep doing my own. It is not too costly and the learning curve is short. You can find most everything in equipment used if you want.