As more and more breweries join, it becomes more and more difficult to enter the craft beer market. So formulating a brewery business plan is the key to success. Whether you are an experienced entrepreneur or just stepping into the business world, the key to the success of any brewery is to develop (and follow) a business plan.
The brewery business plan will be your brewery’s road map to success, can determine the right audience and market for you, and help you control business operations and financial conditions. The brewery business plan is a dynamic document that provides the basis for your brewery to develop and adapt to market conditions.
If you plan to want investors to promote and raise start-up capital, then a complete and comprehensive brewery business plan will be what you need most. Investors want to see the potential for market growth, and you have carefully considered your financial model to ensure that you have a stable income stream.
The brewery business plan will be your brewery’s road map to success, can determine the right audience and market for you, and help you control business operations and financial conditions. The brewery business plan is a dynamic document that provides the basis for your brewery to develop and adapt to market conditions.
If you plan to want investors to promote and raise start-up capital, then a complete and comprehensive brewery business plan will be what you need most. Investors want to see the potential for market growth, and you have carefully considered your financial model to ensure that you have a stable income stream.
Brewery Business Plan Guide
What is a brewery business plan?
The business plan provides a snapshot of the status of the brewery or small brewery and outlines plans for an increase in the next five years. It can explain your business goals and strategies to achieve them well. Of course, it also includes market research to support business plans.
Why does your brewery need a brewery business plan?
For any business owner, experiencing growth is exciting. But if you talk about the pain of growing up, it will make you spend long days and sleepless nights. Having a solid business plan for your brewery helps to develop a reasonable growth strategy for your team from the start. Although this is a great tool that can be used to ensure that you achieve your goals as planned, your business plan needs to show your team and potential investors the profitability and success of the brewery.
Growing up
As a brewery owner, you hope that the brewery can operate smoothly under your command. To maintain the success and profitability of your business, you need to outline the growth goals you are trying to achieve.
- Do you plan to stay in one place to develop your business or do you want to expand the number of breweries in the next few years?
- Consider the number of people you hire now and the number of people you want to hire when you reach your sales goals.
- Do you consider selling beer only on-site at your location, or offering your beer in trending grocery stores and restaurants?
Investor
Whether you plan to expand production within existing space or invest in other locations, the financial viability of these strategies will depend on how much revenue you generate in the next few years. If sales have not reached the target, you can also choose to extend the time frame of the growth target. Of course, you can also outsource additional funding opportunities to help you develop a brewery. With a reliable business plan, you will have the toolkit you need and prove to the loan provider why they should bet on your craft beer business with confidence.
Business decision
Owning a brewery is a great exercise opportunity, but it does not mean that opening a brewery is an easy task. In the long-term operation of a brewery, sometimes you need to make difficult decisions quickly. You need to spend time developing a business plan for your brewery and updating it regularly so that you can always keep up with the pulse of operations and goal tracking. Because you have a thorough understanding of all aspects of the brewery business, you will be able to make informed decisions that benefit the brewery project.
Bank loan
When applying for a bank loan, the bank will review your business plan and believe that you can repay the loan and interest. To gain this confidence, the loan officer must not only confirm whether your financial situation is reasonable but also review a professional business plan. A complete and professional business plan will make them believe that you can run the business successfully and professionally.
What should be included in your brewery business plan?
Some elements should always be included when developing a brewery business plan. Although there are some general business plan templates that you can use, your business plan is designed for your brewery, which means you need to change your goals according to your needs. You should consider including the following parts in your brewery business:
Executive Summary
Every business plan starts with an executive summary to provide a high-level overview of the brewery’s history, mission, team, location, growth goals, and financial goals. Although the executive summary of the business plan is at the beginning of the plan, it is usually the last written part because it provides a summary of every key part of your plan.
The goal of the executive summary is to quickly attract readers, asking them to explain the type and status of your brewing company. For example, are you a startup company? Are you a craft brewery that you want to develop? Or do you run a chain of beer shops?
Next, you need to outline each subsequent part of your plan. For example, a brief overview of the craft beer industry; a detailed description of your direct competitors; an overview of your target customers; provide a snapshot of your marketing strategy and plan; identify key members of the team; provide an overview of your financial plan.
The goal of the executive summary is to quickly attract readers, asking them to explain the type and status of your brewing company. For example, are you a startup company? Are you a craft brewery that you want to develop? Or do you run a chain of beer shops?
Next, you need to outline each subsequent part of your plan. For example, a brief overview of the craft beer industry; a detailed description of your direct competitors; an overview of your target customers; provide a snapshot of your marketing strategy and plan; identify key members of the team; provide an overview of your financial plan.
Brewery details
In this chapter, readers will be introduced to the concept of your brewery and the products it provides. There are four main sections in the brewery details section:
Brewery concept
Explain how the brewery concept was conceived and the milestones achieved so far. Milestones can be tied to cards such as finding locations, hiring consultants, establishing beneficial relationships, and types of breweries (for specific categories, you can see the article “What is the difference between various types of breweries?“). In addition, please consider what kind of experience you want to create for your customers. Owning a brewery is not only about the service you provide to your customers, it tests the quality of your service to them from the moment they enter your brewery to the moment they leave. Therefore, it is equally important to consider the overall customer experience.
What is the difference between various types of breweries? Read More »
When discussing craft beer and micro-brewed beer, they have similarities, but there are also differences. Different people have different understandings of terms because they are too confusing. However, Micet Craft hopes to help craft beer lovers to distinguish them here. What is the difference between various types of breweries? Microbrewery The microbrewery is classified according
What is the difference between various types of breweries? Read More »
When discussing craft beer and micro-brewed beer, they have similarities, but there are also differences. Different people have different understandings of terms because they are too confusing. However, Micet Craft hopes to help craft beer lovers to distinguish them here. What is the difference between various types of breweries? Microbrewery The microbrewery is classified according
Mission statement
You need to write a statement explaining what your brewery stands for, who it serves, its belief in the production of high-quality craft beer, and the type of beer you want to provide to your customers. Your brewery mission statement is a sentence that summarizes the goals your brewery will achieve and treats your ultimate goals as the ultimate driving force behind your business. Your mission statement should be short and high-level enough to be displayed on marketing materials. It needs to express your business straightforwardly.
Products and services
You need to list the brand of your brewery and the services it provides, and explain what makes your brewery different from other breweries. Whether your product is more delicious or fresher, this section will explain why your product is special—if it is actually special. Don’t just stop at the product itself, but also consider the unique experience your customers can expect when they frequent your brewery.
Critical success factor
This section describes the factors that must be completed to successfully start and operate a brewery. The key factors for a brewery’s success include finding the right location, having the right brewing process, choosing the right brewery equipment, and establishing a repeat customer base.
Legal structure
What legal structure will you adopt? Is your brewery business a sole proprietorship, partnership, or company? Who will be involved, and what role will each of them be responsible for? Are some people responsible for multiple tasks? Be concise in this section of the introduction, because you need to comply with many brewery licenses and laws. Later you will be able to understand the team structure in more detail in the business plan.
Short-term and long-term goals
You need to introduce your personal and business goals in this section. Your short-term goals will describe what you will accomplish in your first year as a brewery owner. In the long-term goals, you need to design bigger and longer-term thinking, such as how to expand your business or expand into new markets. The content of this part should be as detailed as possible and realistic.
Menu and service
In this section, you can make a sample menu to help you show your concept in more detail. If you plan to provide catering or any other services, you also need to include detailed information about these additional services in this section. In addition, you have to describe any other products you will sell, such as food or retail products.
Place
In this section, you need to mention the community you are considering for the location and why. Answer the following questions and consider how they will affect your brewery business:
- Attraction: What nearby features will affect your brewery?
- Competition: Are there other breweries or related companies in this area?
- Demographics: What kind of people will live or work nearby?
Visual effects
Use as many visual details as possible to describe your brewery concepts, such as colors and design elements. Conveying these details is very important, it can help customers have a clear understanding of your brand. If you are collaborating with a design agency or interior designer, please mention it here and provide visual suggestions or brewery logo mockups they designed for you.
Market analysis
In the past few years, the craft beer industry has become increasingly saturated. No matter how good your beer is, your brewery will face a certain level of competition, and it is important to know where you are in it. Even if you are the only brewery in town, the competition will come from local bars, restaurants, and local shops selling craft beers. Market analysis should be included in the essence of your brewery business, which helps to understand the performance of your competitors and the gaps you can take advantage of.
In addition, you also need to conduct a SWOT analysis of your brewery business and explain in detail your advantages over other breweries, bars, and beer suppliers. Knowing where your competitors allow you to make informed business decisions and successfully navigate a competitive market. The market analysis includes the following parts:
- How much beer is on their menu?
- How often do their menus rotate?
- Do they offer monthly beer clubs or memberships?
- Do they have a customer loyalty program?
- Do they provide a tour of the brewing process?
- Are their craft drinks available at the local grocery store or can only be purchased from their bar?
In addition, you also need to conduct a SWOT analysis of your brewery business and explain in detail your advantages over other breweries, bars, and beer suppliers. Knowing where your competitors allow you to make informed business decisions and successfully navigate a competitive market. The market analysis includes the following parts:
Market segments
Here you need to outline your target audience and consider the demographics, psychology, and segmentation details of the target market.
Customer
Create customer profiles containing demographic and psychological information. What types of people frequent your brewery, and what are their similarities or differences. Get qualitative and quantitative data through analysis, and refer to external resources that provide statistical data about your customer base. Please note that each customer group of the target group will have a unique profile.
Market trend
Here you need to include relevant statistics about the past and present trends in the target market. This can be anything related to the needs of the brewery, or it can be social and economic factors that affect similar businesses in the area. In addition, you need to indicate whether you have conducted your own research or hired a professional supplier to conduct research on your behalf.
Compete
This section determines who you think is your competitor, and establishes direct and indirect competition within the target community. Your direct competitors are breweries that provide similar customer experiences and beer types. Indirect competitors may have a different concept from your brewery, but they will still compete for a share in the target market.
Benefit
After detailing your competitor analysis, you should explain what makes your brewery stand out. What services does your brewery provide to your target audience that others cannot currently provide? Explain why customers should choose your business rather than your competitors.
Chance
Considering your competitors and target customers, you need to determine the gap between supply and demand here. Describe how you will resolve these gaps and provide customers with better choices. From the beginning of the type of beer you are about to offer to business hours, everything your brewery has in terms of providing better customer delivery can be highlighted in this section.
Challenge
In this chapter, we mainly consider the opposite of opportunity. Here, you can highlight the advantages of your competitors over your business. They provide the market with what your brewery does not have, and they have an advantage. Provide a reason why your brewery is facing these obstacles. Most importantly, once the brewery officially opens, how do you need to resolve these obstacles.
Organization
Whether you are managing a team of small winemakers or a team of more than 20 people for larger operations, there may be some form of organizational structure. According to the department of your craft beer business, clearly outline your team structure, and list the leadership team and the teams reporting to them one by one.
Product Inventory
As a product-based company, the most important thing is to fully grasp the inventory situation. Without suitable stock materials, you will not be able to brew products or package beer for sale. Having a proven product inventory process ensures that your brewery maintains efficient operations, avoids the possibility of production suspensions, and avoids situations that would hinder your growth goals.
Create a workable plan to provide inventory visibility for every member of the team. If you lack understanding of a product, how will your team discover it? You also need to develop a process for purchasing additional supplies and materials. In order to quickly track your inventory, strategic brewery business plans also require a process to accurately predict inventory orders. Although inventory management will help you understand when inventory is low, inventory reorders forecasting will help you determine the best time frame for purchasing.
Create a workable plan to provide inventory visibility for every member of the team. If you lack understanding of a product, how will your team discover it? You also need to develop a process for purchasing additional supplies and materials. In order to quickly track your inventory, strategic brewery business plans also require a process to accurately predict inventory orders. Although inventory management will help you understand when inventory is low, inventory reorders forecasting will help you determine the best time frame for purchasing.
Marketing strategy
If you can’t let customers come in and consume, then even if you own the best brewery in the city, it doesn’t make sense. Unfortunately, the existence of a brewery is not enough. Competition in the food and beverage industry is usually very fierce, and customers have many choices. You need to explain in this section how to introduce your brewery to potential customers. Whether it is the use of advertising in community newspapers or catalogs for localized marketing or the use of social media for online marketing, effective strategies must be implemented to succeed.
Before considering how to market a brewery, you need to have a general understanding of each marketing method, estimate the project budget you need, and how many customers you can attract. In addition, the following questions need to be answered:
Before considering how to market a brewery, you need to have a general understanding of each marketing method, estimate the project budget you need, and how many customers you can attract. In addition, the following questions need to be answered:
- How will you ensure that customers rate your brewery very highly?
- How do you upsell to help increase the value of each customer per visit?
- How do you ensure that customers will continue to buy products in your brewery?
Business strategy
Planning a brewery is difficult, but running a brewery is even more challenging. There are many influencing factors when operating a brewery, so the operating strategy in the brewery plan should include the following elements:
- Location: Explain where your brewery will be? How big will the facility be? Why is this the perfect location? How will you refurbish this location and so on?
- Quality control: Maintaining product quality is critical to the success of the brewery. Failure to grasp the latest product status may result in video inspection violations. You need to elaborate on the steps you will take to ensure that you can always produce high-quality products.
- Customer service: The brewery is a service-oriented enterprise that provides services to customers. Customer service is the key to ensuring that customers are satisfied enough for the next purchase. You need to describe how you will perform customer service and how you will handle any customer complaints.
- Sales process: Explain in detail the process from the moment the customer enters the door to the receipt of your product and finally leaves. Who will guide them where to sit? How to provide services for them? How is the meal fee charged? What will happen after they leave?
- Staffing: Finally, you need to elaborate on your staffing plan. Consider who you need to hire to run your brewery properly. When will you hire them? How will you train them? How much will you pay them?
Sales strategy
In this section, you need to outline what you plan to include in the brewery’s marketing strategy. Consistent customers and sales are the keys to the long-term operations of your business. To ensure this, you need to customize a comprehensive marketing strategy to allow the target group to enter your brewery.
Position
You need to describe the strategies used in the plan to attract target customers and maintain the primary consideration. You can use the differentiating factors outlined in the market section to guide your positioning strategy. Which services do you provide that your target customers cannot obtain from your direct or indirect competitors? In addition, you need to consider how to communicate these services to your audience.
Price
You need to describe your pricing strategy and compare it with your competitors based on the competitive analysis section. Questions that will help you decide your pricing strategy include:
- What are your production costs?
- What are the costs associated with each product?
- What is the market price of similar products? (I.e. what price your competitors charge)
- How does your pricing compare to market prices?
- How is your pricing competitive?
- What kind of return on investment do you expect from this pricing strategy, and in what time period?
Online promotion
The following are three common marketing strategies used for online marketing promotion:
- Social media: If you plan to create and maintain social media accounts such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, please explain how you will use them to promote your business and brand.
- Website: Describe the overall concept of your website and how it aligns with your brand. Provide a visual model, including the main elements and design style. In addition, please indicate whether you plan to build a site internally or pay for professional services.
- Advertising: List all your paid digital advertising channels, such as review sites, banner ads, and social media ads. If you will work with an agency or contractor, please list them and what they will do for you in this section.
Traditional promotion
Combining traditional promotions with digital marketing may be a good idea. Each strategy attracts your target audience in a different way. Traditional promotional methods are often closer to human nature and touch, such as grand opening events. Target customers can experience your brand and products in different ways. During the opening of the brewery, participating in some consumer events can make you the focus so that people can taste your products. In order to get more customers for your brewery, you can consider special internal promotions on specific days of the week of opening.
Business operations
You have described your vision, market, and how to market your business earlier, now is the time to start explaining how you will actually execute the plan. This means you need to introduce who will experience the daily work of your brewery.
Team and staff
Introduce the main business management categories related to your brewery and identify your core team members. This includes everyone from brewery consultants to management to employees. List each person’s qualifications, skills, and responsibilities, emphasizing how each role will help you achieve your business goals.
Supplier
List your suppliers based on type (ie ingredients, technology, furniture, brewery equipment) and introduce the products they provide. In addition, include their credit and payment terms. Consider how these suppliers fit into your overall brand in terms of the quality and sourcing practices they provide.
Insurance
Since your brewery needs insurance, please investigate the mandatory requirements based on your business location. From general liability to workers’ compensation, getting the right brewery insurance plan will ensure that you are protected in the event of an accident and will convince any investor that your business will not fall into financial trouble. List each type of insurance your brewery needs, the provider you choose, and what each plan covers.
License
Figure out which permits your brewery needs are similar to insurance requirements. The required licenses and permits can be everything from business licenses to food business licenses to alcohol licenses. You can start your research as soon as possible by checking the website of the local government office. List all licenses and permits required by your brewery and employees in this section.
Finance prediction
Financial planning is an important part of your brewery’s business plan. Especially when you need debt financing or trying to sell to investors, they want to see the financial viability and potential of your brewery. Previous industry research can help you minimize assumptions when constructing financial models.
As a brewery owner, you understand that your success is often defined by the company’s profits and revenue. Gather a few bank statements, income statements, cash flow statements, loan information, and any additional documents that can help demonstrate your brewery’s profitability. Keep in mind that there’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes of running a brewery — and with so much on your plate, using accounting software is vital to keeping accurate records and checking in on how the business is doing. Your financial plan must demonstrate the growth and profitability potential of your brewery business. To do this, you need to divide your forecast into four main parts:
As a brewery owner, you understand that your success is often defined by the company’s profits and revenue. Gather a few bank statements, income statements, cash flow statements, loan information, and any additional documents that can help demonstrate your brewery’s profitability. Keep in mind that there’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes of running a brewery — and with so much on your plate, using accounting software is vital to keeping accurate records and checking in on how the business is doing. Your financial plan must demonstrate the growth and profitability potential of your brewery business. To do this, you need to divide your forecast into four main parts:
- Revenue (forecast sales)
- Controllable cost (production cost, labor cost)
- Expenses (rent, supplies, utilities, marketing, etc.)
- Start-up costs (costs related to opening a brewery, such as the purchase cost of brewery equipment)
Business plan summary
Your business plan summary connects the main points communicated across all parts to form a cohesive story. Use the last part to finally emphasize how your brewery differs from the existing options on the market, and how it will be financially sustainable. Make sure to include the following parts:
- Why your business is successful-repeat in a few sentences how your brewery is different and why your business is successful.
- Requirements for success-if you need funds, please repeat the question here.
- Thank you letter-thank your audience for reading your brewery business plan and reminding them that you value their time and feedback.
If you are considering opening a brewery, then developing a business plan will be your top priority. Developing a business plan for your brewery is a very worthwhile effort. If you can follow the above and complete it, you will be called a true expert. You will truly understand the brewery and brewery business, your competitors, your business operations, and your potential customers. Making a complete brewery business plan can give you an idea of what it takes to start and develop a successful brewery. If you need help, Micet Craft will provide you with a turnkey solution, and we look forward to working with you.
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Get a turnkey solution for brewery equipment
If you plan to open or expand the brewery, you can contact Micet Craft directly. Our engineers will design and manufacture brewery equipment according to your brewing process. Of course, we will also provide you with a complete turnkey solution. Also, if you plan to expand the brewery, we will provide you with customized solutions.