How to open a beer store?

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, many phenomena left the life of Russians. One of them was a «beer», where factory workers went after a day’s work to skip a couple of glasses of beer. But the Soviet pub was not lost without a trace – in its place came a beer shop, where not only the factory workers go …

The easiest way to open a beer store is to buy a franchise «Beer & Co» .

But if you still want to do it yourself – we offer you step by step instructions from the expert of the company «Beer & Co» Maxim Sobolev .

Not only the format of the establishment has changed, but the culture of beer consumption itself. Today, a beer shop comes not for a couple of glasses of beer, but for a couple of liters. Therefore, many start-up entrepreneurs, beer lovers, are attracted to the idea of ​​opening a beer store from scratch.

At first glance, it may seem that opening a store of draft beer from scratch is easy. Going to a similar store, we see a rack, some cranes, hooks, price tags. But going into this business and writing down details and details step by step, which is to be done – you will soon realize that the list will not be limited to «find, buy and sell.» In addition, like any other business, the beer store has a number of specific features and nuances that anybody who wants to earn on sales of draft beers should know.

If you are a novice entrepreneur with no experience of doing business, prepare for the fact that when you open a beer store from scratch, you will somehow have to dig into a lot of questions concerning the retail industry. Not knowing such concepts as invoice and waybill, to open and conduct a business of a beer store from scratch will be difficult, not to mention that the absence, for example, of knowledge of how the 1c system works will essentially hamper business development. It will be much easier to open a beer store for a person who is familiar with the work of retail, not by hearsay.

But even more experienced person will have to learn a lot of nuances of this business, which we will talk about in this article.

Investment size

If you seriously consider the issue of opening your own beer store with an area of ​​40-50 square meters, you need to understand that investing in it will have about 1.7 million rubles. This figure does not include the purchase of equipment (since at the initial stage it is recommended to use the equipment of the supplier), but it includes two other key items – repairing the premises and paying for stock. At least 600 thousand rubles will go to the last one. That’s what it takes to fill the store with goods and start trading.

Of course, the amount of inventory and assortment will directly depend on the area of ​​the premises. Place an acceptable number of varieties on an area of ​​15-10 square meters will not work. In this area you will be able to place only about 12 cranes, i.е. sell 12 varieties of beer, while the optimal number of offered varieties is more than 20. But for an additional area, which will require an assortment that meets your ambitions, you will have to pay. Given that the rental rate in a highly passable place is not small, the rental amount will also occupy a certain place in the budget of the initial investment in the business of the beer store.

The remaining bills that will have to be paid to the entrepreneur who opens the beer store will not be so significant. But be prepared for the fact that there will be many. You will have to pay for the production of signboards, printing of polygraphy, and the necessary furniture – a rack, storefronts and refrigerators, you will need to buy snacks, without which no purchase of draft beer is necessary. To postpone the funds will also have to a festive opening. Thus, the total amount is quite large. Naturally, the amount of investments can be significantly reduced, but in this case there is a possibility that you will not be able to reach those revenue figures that will help you to pay back the funds as quickly as possible.

In addition, add to the list of investment costs for the opening should also pay salaries to sellers. It should be understood that the sellers themselves will contact customers, selling not only the main product – beer, but also cross-selling. The better the seller works, the better it finds a common language with customers, the higher will be the sales figures and, accordingly, your revenue. Therefore picking up sellers, you should pay attention to their communication skills, as well as appearance. In addition, the honesty of the seller has not yet been canceled, as well as the concern for his motivation to sell more. If you want to receive a stable income and do not look for a new seller every month, make the right motivation – set a decent fixed salary and bonuses for overfulfilment of the sales plan.

Important! You always need to have a certain amount of money in reserve for unforeseen expenses.

The airbag in the form of deferred funds will help in a difficult moment and will not stop the work of the beer store.

Thus, if you have the necessary amount of funds to start a business of a draft beer store, it’s worth starting immediately. By the time opening one point of different beers can take about 2 months. But the process can be delayed because of the increase in the timing of the selection of a suitable room. On average, with the search for premises, the launch period of the beer store is 3-4 months.

Step-by-step instruction

It should begin, of course, with the analysis of competitors. There is nothing complicated in this – you just have to walk through the working beer shops of the city – a dozen will be enough – and make a cut of the varieties that offer these points. So you will understand which product is most in demand by the inhabitants of your city and will be able to make your assortment without fear of guessing and not hoping to hit your finger in the sky.

Then you need to start looking for suppliers. There are two options – call the manufacturing plants, in particular their sales departments, and find out the contacts of the distributors who work in your city or region. Or, independently, on the Internet, find contacts and establish communication, find out prices, conditions, etc. As a rule, distributors of draft beer in each region are not so many. We advise you to find out which of these companies occupies an overwhelming market share, and start working with it. So you can immediately get the best quality product, enlist and take advantage of the support of an experienced player.

It is from the choice of supplier will depend on the work of the beer store.

First, the distributor can save you unnecessary waste: instead of buying the necessary equipment, you can rent it from the supplier or even get it at no cost. In this case, the supplier company will provide not only the equipment itself, but also correctly install it and configure it with the help of its own technicians.

At the same time, the equipment will be of high quality, as the distributor is interested in keeping his product and spilling correctly, without loss of flavor, and the equipment itself served as long as possible. Moreover, it is the companies engaged in wholesale distribution of draft beer and providing equipment for its passage, often provide and service. For example, they conduct technological washing twice a month, and also provide a beer store with containers – bottles and kegs, carbon dioxide, hoses and the like.

The supplier of beer also lays down the responsibility for logistics and delivery.

It is the distributors of beer factories that take care of all the logistics, working according to one of two schemes: they either independently take the beer out of the factory and distribute it to their customers, or the plant delivers the products to the distribution warehouse of the distributor, from which beer is sent to retail stores according to the received bids.

Logistics for draft beer is a very important point, since the product itself requires the high organization of this process. The more fresh the beer, the better. Behind this, they take just a draft, or «live» beer. So there will be no problems with the receipt of the goods. Usually, submitting an application before 12 pm, you will receive your order by the evening, and after making an order, after dinner, you can expect to receive beer the next day before lunch. At the same time, you can be sure that the beer received today was spilled yesterday-the day before yesterday at the plant, which is even 1500 km from your shop.

This fact should dispel fears of future owners of beer shops about the percentage of cancellation of beer and its «delay». With the proper organization of the business of the beer store, the accounting of the commodity remains, the beer does not sour, despite the short shelf life.

On average, for different types of draft beer, the shelf life is 30 to 60 days and depends on the method of brewing.

There is, for example, unpasteurized beer, the shelf life of which is not more than 10-15 days.

If you go into details, then this beer is obtained from 4 main components – water, hops, malt and yeast – and brewed according to the classical technology. But if other ingredients are added in the production – flavoring, stabilizers and preservatives – then the output is not beer, but a beer with a shelf life of more than 60 days. Beer drinks are produced by famous giants – EFES, Baltika, etc. A draft beer is a product of small local producers, whose products are represented in beer shops.

Having identified with the range and suppliers, you need to start looking for a room, repair and equip it, register a business, select staff and think through a marketing strategy.
By the way, you can open a point in the form of LLC, and in the form of IP. However, the second option is preferable, since in the case of scheduled inspections of trade outlets by the supervisory authorities, the penalties for deficiencies will be significantly lower for the IP. The tax is better to choose UTII.

A place

As Mr. Chichvarkin once said, in retail there are only three basic requirements to the store: the first is the place, the second is the place, the third is the place again. These three requirements apply to any retail, and the beer store is no exception.

Nevertheless, it is necessary to understand that in the case of a beer shop, the standard rules that work to find retail space must be adjusted taking into account the characteristics of beer consumption. So, the beer store should be located primarily in the sleeping area – in close proximity to the residence of potential customers. It is unlikely that people will buy a couple of liters of beer around the work, in the center, and take them in public transport or by car to the house. In most cases, the purchase is already made directly near the house.

Therefore, the entrepreneur faces the task of finding and occupying the most «fish» place, since this will determine the revenue of the store. To do this is not so difficult, because in any microdistrict of the city there are certain places of congestion of people with high pedestrian and automobile traffic. It can be public transport stops, exits from the metro, etc.

However, to be sure of the quality of the chosen place, you should not rely solely on assumptions. Traffic should be counted in the «peak» hours – from 16:00 to 17:00 or from 17:00 to 18:00. In this case, for different cities the rate of traffic will vary. For example, for cities with a population of less than a million inhabitants, at least 360 people should pass past the proposed location of the beer store, and more than 480 people for cities with over a million inhabitants. Automobile traffic is also important – according to statistics, about 70-80% of the client base of the beer shop calls for beer on the car.

Of course, it is more convenient to work in separate non-residential buildings, but as a rule, a suitable premise is located on the ground floors of residential buildings. So there was a situation with commercial real estate in the country, therefore it is necessary to work with what is. But in no case is it necessary to rent a basement or semi-basement room for a beer store, since it is quite possible that such a room does not have permission from the fire inspection. You should not also choose a room, the level of the entrance to which is above 1.5 m – this is due to the fact that the signboard of the store you will be installing above the entrance does not fall into the field of view of a potential buyer.

By the way, when choosing a place, one has to remember about a number of restrictions imposed by federal laws on trade in tobacco and alcohol products. For example, such products can not be sold within a radius of 100 meters (in some regions this figure may differ) from educational and medical institutions, as well as sports facilities.

Opening a store of draft beer, you need to send a request to the city administration about the possibility of retailing beer and cigarettes in a particular room before renting it. Only after receiving a document confirming the permit, you can not be afraid of the arrival of inspections.

As for the area of ​​the premises, there are no restrictions for the retail trade of bottled beer by the state. Nevertheless, it is problematic to organize a beer store with high economic indicators and establish good sales in a room of less than 50 square meters. Here you need a convenient trading hall, so that the whole assortment of beer, as well as accompanying products – snacks and snacks, was profitable.

Naturally, the search for and selection of suitable premises raises the question of the price for rent. If you want your store to be profitable – it should be in the best place. But you have to pay for it. Of course, the options with a sky-high rental rate of 3,000 rubles per square meter should not be considered, but if there is a choice to occupy a profitable place for 1,700 rubles per square meter and «a little worse» for 1,200 rubles per square meter, the choice is better in favor of the first option. Compensate for a more expensive rental rate, you will be able to deal with 200 thousand rubles a month. It is much easier to do this at a better location.

Documentation

The documents necessary for opening a beer store, today do not differ much from the permits for trade in any other commodity. According to the law «On state regulation of production and turnover of ethyl alcohol, alcohol and alcohol-containing products», neither the conclusion from the SES, nor licensing will be required to start the work of the beer store. However, we will have to issue a standard «Customer corner» for any store with information about a legal entity or IP, a book of complaints and suggestions, etc.

It will not be necessary also EKLZ (electronic control tape protected) – it is possible to work with an ordinary cash register, popularly called a «letterpress machine». Of course, later, when you open several stores for management accounting, it will become necessary to use one of the automated solutions – for example, barcoding, which will require the appropriate cash register equipment. However, at the initial stage of opening a store, these details should not be discussed.

By the way, until 2015, the outlet had to declare sales of alcoholic beverages, however, with the introduction of the EGAIS system, organizations engaged in retail beer and beer drinks are exempted from fixing sales and filing a declaration with Rosalkogolregulirovanie.

However, the use of alcohol for the sale of retail outlets remained forced through the EGAIS.

Worry about compliance with fire safety standards, if you rent a room, also do not need. Any non-residential premises that were commissioned have a draft evacuation scheme, fire alarm, etc. Thus, the tenant should not think about it, you just need to make sure that the lessor has all the necessary documents in order. Moreover, firefighters rarely show interest in beer shops. Still 4.5% beer is not pyrotechnics, it does not burn.

However, that’s not all. Go to another instance – to agree and get permission to place a store sign from the city’s chief architect. A sign or banner for a beer store is very important. But since beer is an alcoholic beverage, its advertising is banned, which means that when outdoor advertising has to invent ways to circumvent this ban. To attract customers to the store can, for example, a bright LED signboard or brightly colored walls.

Check-list of opening

• Search for rental options in passable places
• Estimation of a place of rent, calculation of the traffic,
• Conclusion of the lease agreement,
• Registration of IP and registration with the tax inspection,
• Analysis of competitors (monitoring of assortment, prices, etc.),
• Making assortment of beer and snacks,
• Search for beer suppliers,
• Search for suppliers of snacks and related products,
• Search of suppliers of container,
• Negotiations with suppliers,
• Room metering for a design project,
• Creating a design project (drawing layout of the rack, cranes, shelves, etc.),
• Drawing up an estimate of construction (list of necessary furniture, building materials),
• Search for a construction team,
• Purchase of building materials,
• Furniture ordering,
• Repair work,
• Installation work,
• Selection of software for trade (1s),
• Application for purchase / rental of equipment (specification),
• Application for installation of equipment,
• Development of advertising layouts,
• Development and coordination of the signboard, its installation,
• Development of shares, discounts and other marketing activities,
• The order of polygraphy: banners, stickers, price lists, leaflets, etc.
• Development of forms of internal accounting (inventory form, time sheet, drafting of an employment contract),
• Search for an accountant on outsourcing,
• Search and attraction of job seekers for vacancy «Seller»
• Interviewing, selection of candidates,
• Scheduling shifts,
• Drawing up and sending an application for goods,
• Festive opening.

Is it profitable to open

To answer the question «Is it profitable to open a beer store?» It is easy: «Yes, it is profitable». Draft beer has its own consumer, and the market as a whole continues to grow and will not soon come to its limit. At the same time, if in some regions the draft beer market is already quite mature and developed, for example, in Novosibirsk or Chelyabinsk, in others – beer shops began to appear just a couple of years ago, as in Kazan. Accordingly, in such regions, consumers are not yet accustomed to buying beer for bottling. And if in Novosibirsk 40-50% of all beer is sold for bottling, then in Kazan this percentage is only 2-3%. Those. The growth potential is there, and the profitability of opening such a business is obvious.

However, speaking of more real economic indicators than the potential for market growth, we should focus on such parameters as payback, revenue and profit.

The cost of starting a beer store starts to pay off with a monthly revenue of 1 million rubles. With the correct organization of work with an optimized staff, the store can go to zero with revenues of about 700-900 thousand rubles. And from the second to the third month the store will begin to pay back its investments. Thus, to pay back the beer store will take about 8 months.

The ideal revenue indicator for a working store is 2-2.5 million rubles «in the weather.» The weather, by the way, plays one of the determining factors for the success of the beer store. In this regard, the volume of summer revenue will be strikingly different from the winter one.

The most stagnant months are October and November, and not the three winter months, as is commonly believed.

In this trade depends not so much on the weather as on the mood of people. Agree, + 6 degrees and slush in November are perceived much sadder than the same +6 and slush in February.

Consider the inconsistency of weather conditions in the central part of the country from year to year. Predicting revenue in advance seems to be little possible. In one year the best month for sales may be June, and in the other May.

If we talk about profits, then the beer store will begin to bring it from the first month. But the profit does not have to be rushed to put in your pocket – this can result in a shortage of commodity balances, which in turn will lead to a decrease in sales. Therefore, for the first couple of months, the money earned will have to be invested in the increment of commodity balances. Only with the fourth month of work it will be possible to take a share of profit to yourself.

What is the profit amount?

The average income of a beer store is 200-250 thousand rubles a month. Sometimes this amount comes to 300-400 thousand rubles, with a mark-up per liter of beer in 50-60%. But you need to understand that to get these figures you will have to invest a lot of effort into the business, not only at the launch stage, but also in the first few months when the customer base is working.

It is important, when the entrepreneur himself gets behind the counter and starts to trade, communicate with clients, in the course of the matter adjusting the range, quality, speed of service and so on. So the beer store is much faster than the planned profit.