Where Does the Money Come From?

If it costs you £1.01 to produce a can and the supermarket is selling the competition at £1.20, where do you actually make money?

You make it on margin, and margin comes from selling at a higher price point. Your beer can't compete at £1.20, so it has to justify a premium. That means selling on quality, on story, on brand, on being local, on being different. The customer has to believe your beer is worth paying more for, and enough customers have to believe it often enough to sustain your business.

Wholesale to pubs and shops might get you £1.80 to £2.20 per can. That's a margin of 79p to £1.19 per can. Sounds workable — until you remember that wholesalers and distributors take their cut too, and pubs are closing, and payment terms mean you might wait 60 or 90 days to see that money.

Direct retail — from your own taproom, website, or at events — might get you £3.00 to £4.00 per can. Better margins, but far lower volume. You can't run a brewery on taproom sales alone unless you've got significant footfall, and most small breweries don't.

From that margin, you still need to cover everything this book has been warning you about: equipment repairs, insurance, accountancy, SALSA accreditation, marketing, vehicle costs, and all the other expenses that don't appear in a simple per-can calculation. What looks like 79p of margin per can evaporates quickly when you account for the full reality of running a business.