OnTap Magazine

GOING PRO Brewing beer is one thing, but actually managing to sell it is a whole different challenge. Murray Slater investigates the options when it comes to getting your beer into the hands of consumers. O ur industry is very much in fluZ following a boom period of around eight years. Breweries are consolidating taMing on eZternal investment building state-of-the-art production facilities and distributing nationally. On the flip side many brewery start ups have closed # lot oH time investment and eHHort was put into recipe Hormulation production and branding. Yet by far the biggest challenge that oH the route to marMet was not really given much consideration. Here lies the greatest reason for start-up failures. Many brewers seemed to have a pfield oH dreamsq philosophy thinMing that iH they brewed it the craHt beer lovers would drinM it Sadly it was a mistake that ended more than one business and a mistaMe that other brewers can hopefully learn from. Self-distribution seemed to be the choice oH many start ups in the early bright eyed bushy tailed days 6he romantic notion of the brewer driving around in their beat up old bakkie fully loaded with kegs to deliver to carefully chosen retail partners had a place and time. It gave the brewer the chance to interact with the frontline customers while retaining control of the product and how it was stored and served. Plus it cut out the chunk of change usually handed over to third party distributors. But the market has moved on from these early pioneer days and increased competition has all but closed the door on this romantic model. DISTRIBUTION OR BREWPUB? 6hese days iH you want to distribute Hurther than your bacMyard youore going to have to sign up with a distributor. Of course theyore going to taMe a piece oH the pie s typically in the range – but in exchange they will give you the opportunity to focus on the product and its development and manufacture while they tackle the business of getting your beer on the shelf. Distributors will also give you reach and therefore the potential of that holy grail of growth and volume 9hen it comes to selling beer in the distribution model the margins are small and so to maMe a profit you need to move large volumes. Industry wisdom has it you need to be producing around litres per month to sustain this model. Many brewers seemed to have a “field of dreams” philosophy THE ROUTE TO MARKET DISTRIBUTION DESTINATION: VS 32 | Summer 2018 | ontapmag.co.za