How much profit do stores make on beer & spirits?

CS9

Just wondering how much profit the stores make on selling beer,spirits, alcohol?

Beer Nut

On beers its typically around 25% for the brands and about 35% for the imports, spirits is again in and around 25% for your main branded spirits and then it can vary for the more lesser known brands, wine is where the profit margains are it can range from anything from 25% right up to 60 even 70%.

Hope that helps

tippguy

wont be shopping in your offie so beernut. if you want to compete with dunnes and tescos etc. margins can be less than 10% on some stuff. maybe its different for independants where they can use unusual wines and take the margin there but on well known brands theres never anything greater than 25%

Beer Nut

I don't work in an off-license my dad used to own one and they were the figures I could remember.

your right tough on the main brands like blossom hill there probably selling that at cost price if not even cheaper.

You would also be surprised to see some of the margins they make on some of their wine! quite astoundingly high.

tippguy

oh i'd believe it for specialised wines which cant be compared to anywhere else..but i wouldnt be misleading 'CS9' incase he was thinking of opening his own offie and got himself a right land when he saw the margins on a litre of bacardi for example :eek:

Beer Nut

Right i was onto my dad there it was annoying me those figures and your right on the brand name spirits it was anywhere from 7%-15% and again the figures for the brand name beers, apparently my memory has wavered a bit in the last 10 years or so.

But on the import beer and specialized wine it was typically around 30%.

Sorry for some of the innacurate figures, I have just booked a memory test!

Red Sleeping Beauty

I took a trip to Musgraves cash and carry there the other day with my ma to see if I could save a few bob on a bottle of whiskey and once you pay the vat you're paying the same price that you'd pay in a shop. I bought a bottle of Cointreu for about €27.50 and that's more or less (give or take a few cents) what Dunnes sell it for. Supervalue near me sells it at €30 I think.

rubadub

Are many beers sold at a loss? I thought supermarkets were below cost selling. O'Briens always have €1 cans, and tesco do not, I can never understand that (except tesco 2 or 3% own brand maybe). Surely O'Briens are not below cost selling?

remotesensor

The cost of slab of Bud/carls/hein/miller from the supplier is €36.80. Add 21.5% vat on to that and it comes to €44.71. As far as I know that's the cost of beer to the shop. I think they make 2 or 3 euro on each bottle of mainstream spirits.

Red Sleeping Beauty

rubadub wrote: »

Are many beers sold at a loss? I thought supermarkets were below cost selling. O'Briens always have €1 cans, and tesco do not, I can never understand that (except tesco 2 or 3% own brand maybe). Surely O'Briens are not below cost selling?

What €1 cans have they ? Is it possible O'Briens have bought in bulk and got a special deal or something ? They had a few specials on the bottled beer last I saw. I think they had the Budvars and Staropramens cheaper. Dunno who's supplying them though.

Brockagh

I know someone in the trade. Irish distillers, for example, allow the off licenses about 5% to 8% on their products, while they sell the same stuff in the US and allow them 30%. The conclusion... Irish Distillers are absolutely ripping off the Irish consumer.

rubadub

remotesensor wrote: »

The cost of slab of Bud/carls/hein/miller from the supplier is €36.80. Add 21.5% vat on to that and it comes to €44.71.

From a particular supplier though, do you know who that is? As mentioned there is no real savings in musgraves, many times it is more expensive. We "borrow" bottles of vodka from out local pub and the last time we replaced one the manager asked how much it cost us and said he pays more, another lad we know has seen him buying in musgraves, I was shocked to hear that.

I have bought crates of those brands at well below €44.71.

Alan Rouge wrote: »

What €1 cans have they ? Is it possible O'Briens have bought in bulk and got a special deal or something ?

They have got €1 cans 95%+ of the time I go in. Usually Hollandia or Amsterdam (made by grolsch). They used to have bavaria too, this is now more common in supermarkets usually in mulitpacks at a bit over €1 per can, like 6 for €8, or 8 for €10. Dutch gold has also increased a bit and is usually in multipacks too.

O'briens regularly have budvar at 5 for €10 nowadays. I expect they are bypassing the irish middleman/distributor. I reckon the €2 shops bypass the "official distributor" too, they always have bars (well in date) far cheaper than most supermarkets.

Red Sleeping Beauty

You borrow bottles rubadub ? Em

remotesensor

rubadub wrote: »

From a particular supplier though, do you know who that is?

Yeah it's comans suppliers. You may have bought slab's at a price well less than that but there is a number of reasons; promotions, short-dated stock, retail outlet buying in bulk, below cost selling etc.

When you buy a crate of carlsberg etc during the year when there are no promotions on you will pay anywhere from 45 to 50 quid for a slab.

rubadub

Alan Rouge wrote: »

You borrow bottles rubadub ? Em

yeah, he does actually know!

We are probably the biggest drinkers in our local so he has to look after us! The lads usually offer to leave a "deposit", but he never takes it.

A mate of mine was in college in carlow and they were let drink cans in some pubs, I couldn't believe it, one lad had a flagon blatantly on a table and they didn't care. If he threw him out they would all leave with him, so they figured they were better off just tolerating it, and making the profit. Haven't had the balls to try that in my local just yet, but business is so bad they might just ignore it!

grenache

Alan Rouge wrote: »

What €1 cans have they ? Is it possible O'Briens have bought in bulk and got a special deal or something ? They had a few specials on the bottled beer last I saw. I think they had the Budvars and Staropramens cheaper. Dunno who's supplying them though.

O'Briens are doing Budvar, Staropramen and one other central European beer who's name escapes me, at 5 for €10. Thats a fantastic deal. Budvar's supplier is Noreast (Dundalk), Staropramen used to come from some crowd in Midleton but i think its switched supplier now.

Getting back to the OP's question, as already stated 25-30% if the norm for profits. The offie i work in undercuts Dunnes and Tesco on wine like Blossom Hill (€5.99) and Eaglehawk (€6.99) and thus makes smaller profits, in order so they can make up to 40% profit on other brands like Wolf Blass Presidents Selection, Montgras, etc. We typically make a 30% profit on spirits such as Smirnoff and Bacardi. Smaller independent off licences are always a couple of quid dearer for spirits in particular.

Rabies

Not everyone pays the same price from a supplier.
Its not like a normal consumer supermarket.

rubadub

O'Briens current €1 cans are tuborg, and they come in 6-packs with €7.99 written on the box.