Brewers: Dealing with Wholesalers, how do you do it?
There are so many bars out there that deal almost exclusively with wholesalers or larger brewers that, for small brewers like us, a huge number of venues—especially in cities—are effectively off-limits.
But imagine if every one of those bars chose to support smaller brewers directly with just one cask a week or even two casks a month. It would make a massive difference. Bars would also benefit by offering something more interesting than the same beer line-ups chosen by wholesalers based mostly on price and margin.
Right now, a lot of beer ranges look and taste the same. That doesn’t attract drinkers who like to explore local beers when they travel. As long as it’s not a complete takeover by one brewery, having a variety of local brews keeps things exciting.
You’d think that after more than 10 years, we’d have this side of things nailed down—but it’s still tricky. It often falls apart when we talk prices or try to ensure our casks come back. Though Ecasks, for example, add £9.40 per Ecask, so we’ve stopped using them.
Horsforth Brewery have been pushing for more Leeds pubs to support Leeds brewers, which seems like a complete no-brainer: locals supporting locals while keeping beer ranges fresh and interesting.
Wholesale – Here’s how the numbers work for us:
Our per-cask margin is £20. Out of that, delivery costs around £3.50–£4 per cask, and collecting empties (once they’ve been picked up by the wholesaler) costs another £3.50–£4. That’s £8 gone straight away, leaving £12 in profit, though now we dedict the Wholesaler discount of £8 to try sell the beer.
All in this usually puts us about £2 better off than using Ecasks with a £5 wholesale discount. So, if we’re lucky, we might make up to £4 per firkin.
Because the casks are ours, we do need them back. We’ve increased our cask stock so we can have more out with wholesalers for longer. Wholesalers can also choose from our full range, or we can fill to order to build up a pallet from upcoming brews.
One thing we can’t bend on: payment terms. Our cashflow can’t support more than 30 days. Payment needs to be made within 30 days of delivery—no exceptions. Those 60+ day terms some people want just aren’t fair; it’s effectively asking other small businesses to fund their debt.
So yeah—if any brewers out there want to share how they handle wholesale, drop us an email:
info@wishbonebrewery.co.uk
Cheers,
Wishbone Brewery
