Selling syrup by the barrel

[tonka]

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!!

[fred]

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

[n8hutch]

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 .

[tonka]

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.

[maple flats]

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.

[ennismaple]

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

[maple flats]

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.

[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.

[tonka]

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.

[tonka]

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?