Selling syrup by the barrel

Today I was at a local town selling syrup and had a few different vendors who approach me about my syrup. One guy was looking for maple sugar for his mini donuts he makes and sells, the second guy uses maple syrup on his kettle corn popcorn and also in a lemon aid drink he makes, and the third guy who owns a smokehouse was interested in my syrup for his coal slaw. The guy who's looking for maple sugar, figured he himself could go through 40 lbs a year, he also has a brother who is also looking for maple sugar, not sure on quantity, for his food vendor business, my first question is what are some of you who make maple sugar charging per pound and for bulk orders? (10lb, 20lb, 40lbs) My second question is regarding the guy who owns a smokehouse with the coal slaw, he claims he goes through a gallon of syrup a day, using that much syrup, I have the idea of offering selling him syrup in a stainless steel drums (40 gallon) to keep cost down on his end and to make my life easier by not having to bottle 40 gallons up. For those of you who sell syrup by the drum (15 gallon, 30 gallon, 40 gallon) How do you go about charging per drum of syrup? by the pound? by the gallon? Thank you all in advance!!

by the pound. and charge more than what the bulk market is selling for

I would sell it however is easier for you, if you dont have a certified scale handy I would sell by the gallon, its really hard to base your prices off what other people charge. You need to figure out what it costs you to make a gallon of syrup and what your time is worth and decide what you want to charge, the Economy of Scale is huge when it comes to sugaring, some guys can probably produce syrup at 1.50 lb maybe less others will be at 3.00$ a lb just to make the stuff. So when you got one guy that can make syrup for 18 dollars a gallon he can sell it for 30 and feel ok doing that, but if it costs you 35 a gallon to produce then you better be getting at least 50 dollars a gallon or more .

I understand there are so many variables when it comes down to figuring cost to make a gallon of syrup, not everyone's operation is the same. Just curious what some of you guys charge per pound just to get an idea.

Call someone like Bascom and ask how much a # you could buy some for? Then go from there. Then see if that price would be good for you or if you would lose money. Also, get a good deposit on the drum, refundable when it is returned. Do not try to under cut Bascom or any other big buyer/seller.

For private sales of drums we've generally gone midway between the buying and selling price of bulk syrup.

Ennis, I suspect tonka has fewer taps than your 4600, thus his cost of production is likely higher.
tonka, also calculate if you have enough bulk syrup to sell, you don't want to sell out in bulk then lose full retail sales.

In the last year or so I have bought Bulk NH Filtered Syrup for as little as 2.50lb and as high as 3.25lb, as a producer I would not sell syrup to a customer anywhere near this cheap, I dont produce enough im not on that scale, I have a few retail accounts that buy 5 gallons at a time and they are all paying over 4.00lb. I Have a good paying Day Job so I'm not interested in selling Syrup for Peanuts, if I cant get good money it can sit in the sugarhouse.

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Originally Posted by n8hutch

In the last year or so I have bought Bulk NH Filtered Syrup for as little as 2.50lb and as high as 3.25lb, as a producer I would not sell syrup to a customer anywhere near this cheap, I dont produce enough im not on that scale, I have a few retail accounts that buy 5 gallons at a time and they are all paying over 4.00lb. I Have a good paying Day Job so I'm not interested in selling Syrup for Peanuts, if I cant get good money it can sit in the sugarhouse.

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I sell my bulk syrup for $35 per gallon, maybe I need to raise my price. Just kidding, I'm keeping my price where it is. I get more selling to other producers at that price than Bascom's will pay so I'm happy.

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Originally Posted by Russell Lampron

I sell my bulk syrup for $35 per gallon, maybe I need to raise my price. Just kidding, I'm keeping my price where it is. I get more selling to other producers at that price than Bascom's will pay so I'm happy.

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Russ brings up a good point. Its tough to comment since every market/customer is different. I would certainly rather buy from Russ or another Trader than Bascoms. Nothing against Bascoms I get a lot of supplies there still, but I would rather get syrup from a name and a face and support a fellow sugar maker directly. Don't sell yourself short just because it is "bulk". Bulk to you and I may mean something different than a >20K tap operation. Its ok to carry some syrup over til next year also...think of it as insurance.

My point was/is that I personally dont think that it's a good idea as a producer to sell to anyone that is not a producer at the Bulk price, it hamstrings you, you get a good customer buying 10 gallons a month and your selling it at the Bulk Price to them and then you run out and you have to buy syrup at the bulk price and handle it bottle/Transport/ insurance and all the things that come with it and your loosing money on that account until your making your own syrup again, or you tell the customer that your out of syrup and risk loosing them. Selling syrup to another producer is a different situation. The costs are much different and there is many more reasons that you might do it.

I was not suggesting you buy or sell to Bascom, just that their price be used as a guide.
I have bought bulk from other producers, in fact I bought 80 gal just after the season. I offered $.20/# more than Bascom was paying and bought it at the end of April. I also bought 130 gal last year, also at the end of the season, same deal, different producers. Both were local producers.
I sell retail more than I produce is why I buy it and I buy syrup that is real good quality. I bought less this year because I produced a lot more. Last year was a shorter season for me because of having cancer.

Thanks for everyone chiming in! Last season I was at 2000 taps and growing each year. I figured if syrup is being bought in barrel and the barrel is being returned when delivering a full barrel, I feel the syrup is worth between $40 and $45 a gallon, cheaper then what I sell retail but more then bulk pricing like a couple of you guys suggested. I typically have enough to make it till next season with syrup which I like because in my area there are maybe a couple producers that are I know of that are running 2000+ taps so I'd really have to do some looking if I need to buy from another maker to keep the costumers supplied.

Im going to bring this back to life for a moment. I may have another buyer, a local brewery one of my buddies works at. I contacted him earlier this summer to see if they would be interested in some syrup for any type of beer they make and he said his boss is really interested. My buddy just contacted me tonight to see how much syrup I have left and price per gallon. with this whole covid thing going on it has limited where I can sell my syrup, of the 550 gallons I made, I have about 400 gallons left. I made a list of my expenses and came up with a cost of around $16.00 per gallon for my 2,100 tap operation (not sure if its high, low, or medium). My buddy said they would be looking for 100 gallons of syrup depending on price. If I figured right on how much it cost me to make a gallon of syrup ($16.00 per gallon) and including I'm delivering the stainless steel barrels do you think $40 a gallon is a fair price?

That's more than what I've paid in the past 3 years, but only you can decide if it is a fair price to you.

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Originally Posted by maple flats

That's more than what I've paid in the past 3 years, but only you can decide if it is a fair price to you.

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Your a producer Dave I think that is the point that you are missing. You dont think Bruce bascom is wholesaling to restaurants at 2.10 lb.

The brewery is a consumer, even of its bulk consumption. They should pay more than us producers.

But I will agree with the sentiment that you should only sell at a price that you are comfortable with. If you think that you can make a Gallon of syrup all things considered like your time at 16.00$ per gallon I would say that you are doing a fine job at producing at 1.50lb.

Do these people already buy syrup from someone else?
I would go with your gut. But I personally think that 40 a gallon might leave room for another producer to sneak in under you if they are looking to get 400 gallons.

At $40 per gallon, that is $3.64 per pound. There probably is not anyone selling bulk at this price to an end user. If your buyer will pay it, great, but most likely they will start looking around after a while if they continue to use that quantity of syrup. They will have a pretty easy time finding someone to sell to them at $3 or less per pound.

Thank you guys for chiming in! This is the first time dealing with what I consider a large quantity order of syrup and wasn't quite sure how to go about pricing the 100 gallons the brewery is looking for. I honestly dont know if they have bought syrup locally due to there are not really any producers in the area that are in the 2,000+ tap operation so I can only assume they have ordered it from out of state supplier. When I talked to my buddy after he talked to his boss about it, my buddy said he was pretty excited about it. I think I will call a bulk buyer like someone suggested in the previous post and see what they say. Thanks again guys!

We sold some extra dark to a brewer that I'm friends with. It was just for one batch so only 5 gallons. We sold it for $40/gallon or $200. Would maybe drop it a little if it was a large volume but I think your price is fair. Sure- if they shop around, seems like someone will always under cut you. Bigger operations can usually produce for less, that's the way it works. But I still wouldn't give away our syrup. My $0.02.