selling your product

[Bobbybreach]

hello everyone, this year will be the first time I make maple syrup. I have most of the equipment ready to go so far. I still just need to do a few small things. im using a homemade oil tank evaporator with a 2x4 continuous flow pan and ill have about 100 trees tapped. my biggest problem is what is the best way of selling it? I figured I would try to sell to small delis and farmers markets but any extra advice would be appreciated. also how many OZ jar should I sell it in? how much do I sell retail and whole sale? I live in NY and I see a 16 oz jar range from $10 up to $20. I don't wana over charge but I also don't want to work for free. I want my product to sell at a reasonable price. advice is appreciated

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

My advice would be to see what it is selling for in your area first then gauge from that for your pricing. $10/pint is average for most, higher priced syrup may be either be certified organic or in more expensive bottles/glass perhaps?? At that quantity, I would start with getting the word out between family and friends. Small shops and farmer's markets can be a good place to sell syrup but understand you are introducing another person who will want a piece of the cut so you may not get as much for it. Maybe you can find someone already set up at a farmer's that sells other goods and would be willing to sell yours. just some thoughts and good luck. I think we all would like to sell retail but the time it takes to do it just isn't there for most.

[Bobbybreach]

thanks for the advice. how do you go about selling it wholesale?

[Parker]

Your goal should to be to turn the portion of your syrup that you want to sell into value added product and sell that...lots of pwople sell syrup..less sell stuff like maple nuts, lolipops, cream candy and sugar,,with a little practice you can make way more than selling syrup,,,
Plenry of great recipies here,,, good luck,,,parker

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

thanks for the advice. how do you go about selling it wholesale?

What Parker said....No sense in even looking wholesale for that quantity. You'll have 10x in it what you get out of it. Find other uses for it if you can't sell all the syrup. We did great with lollipops at our first craft fair this fall and actually ran out.

[Super Sapper]

The nuts and mustard go over real good but you need to offer samples. I have found that a lot of people that have little interest in buying at first change their mind quickly after sampling. It can increase sales 2 to 3 times over not giving samples.

[milligkl]

my first year I made around 90 gallons and found a restaurant that ended up taking my entire supply (throughout the year, would deliver twice a month). I have a pretty big customer base now almost exclusively of restaurants. You'll get more in revenue from the restaurants than selling to the large wholesale companies and there are growth opportunities with developing relationships with chefs and suggestions on new menu items or uses for maple.

I would start by researching "farm to table" restaurants in your area and whether they put a big emphasis on local. Look at their menu, if they say "local maple syrup" that doesn't mean a farm partnership is established (unless the farmers name is on the menu) it likely means a distributor is buying from a farmer and selling it at a fairly large markup to the restaurant. Restaurants that just do a weekend brunch and have 1-2 menu items that do a good business and are a pretty decent size go through anywhere from 1-3 gallons a month. Start with a restaurant that does a weekend brunch after your season is over and make sure you'll have enough to supply them. Say you produce 20 gallons and they go through 30 gallons a year, maybe wait until June to start supplying them and then expand your number of taps for next year. Contact the Executive Chef, ask to set up a meeting with them to sample your product. Bring a price list along and have some background information about your company and operation.


This is just my 2 cents, I wouldn't want to be wasting my time at farmers markets when people don't go to buy syrup they go to buy produce, not to mention having to pay fees to go to the farmers markets and spending your time selling the syrup. Some restaurants I will deliver as many as 8-10 gallons at a time, typically about 2-4 but consider this: it takes 16 of the 8 ounce bottles to sell a gallon.

[maple flats]

At 100 taps, if an average season and you use gravity tubing you will get about 25 gallons. that will sell quite easily before the next season. My first season I made 10.5 gal, kept 2 for family use and sold the rest out before summer's end, all retail. Even now at 700 taps all on vacuum I sell less than 5% wholesale (to one greenhouse who buys it, then retails it at 3 farmer's markets), and even when I had 1320 taps all on vacuum, it was at a similar dollar amount wholesale.
I don't do farmer's markets myself. While I did 1 year I found I spent more time than wanted, paid too much to be in it and the sales were OK but not great. That said, there are lots of producers who do them, I just had too much other work to do to justify standing all day to retail $200-$400. I now sell about half of mine across the whole country online and the rest is sold as customers who have had my syrup before, call to get more. When I sell online, I bill them using PayPal and once paid, I ship mostly half gallons in jugs, 2/USPS medium flat rate box, however I do ship other sizes, in fact yesterday a shipment went out at 2 qts in the USPS med. flat rate, along with 4 other boxes, each to different customers as 2 HG in a box. The shipping cost + a small handling charge was included in the invoice they paid.
I think you are trying to plan this out too much. Just jump in and have fun. In the beginning (my first 5 years or so) I sold most of my syrup at work to my fellow workers.

[berkshires]

Sounds like you're getting a lot of good advice! One little issue, though. I don't know if I'm confused, or maple flats is confused, but he said:

At 100 taps, if an average season and you use gravity tubing you will get about 25 qts.

I would expect you'd get something more like 25 gallons, not 25 quarts, from 100 taps.

GO

[maple flats]

Sorry, I misspoke, 25 gal is correct. I'll go back an correct the error.