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On Premise vs Off Premise


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You sell your spirits on premises (bars&restaurants), you sell you spirits off premises (retail stores). Which does better for you?

Pardon me if this is too intrusive a question, but I'd like to hear others' feedback on the ratio of on vs off premise sales.

Also, which did you find easier getting picked up by?

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The majority of our sales are through off premise accounts. We even have individual locations that serve on premise as well as off premise, bottle sales. Those locations sell more through bottle sales then through drinks. Your mileage may vary!

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Definitely off premise beats on premise by a wide margin.

Sales to bars are very nice addition. But unless your product is in their "well" of the standard spirits used for cocktails and drinks, you won't sell a lot. A supportive bar with supportive staff can help; they'll make your product more visible or more often recommended.

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Off premise sales are about 300 to 1. If you want to be picked up by a major distributor you must be occupying enough shelf space for them to see you. Stores only have so much space and money. Each time you sell a case you are taking away from the big guys. There is some magic number, for us in Colorado it was around 250 liquor stores and 6 restaurants before it happened. Coop

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This is great information. I'm a liqueur maker, not yet licensed and setting up my operation. Does anyone have any indication of the ratio for liqueurs? I would expect it will be a similar ratio. Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated.

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what type of liqueur do you plan on selling? That will matter significantly.

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To be a healthy brand you should ideally be seen on and off premise.

We sell more product off premise, but spend a lot more time and effort with the on premise accounts. Why? Because while you may be able to get your product on a shelf in a store, how are you going to drive people to buy it at the store if they aren't trying it in bars? How long will a store keep your product on the shelf if it isn't moving? We've seen several good brands lose their store presence because they NEVER had a presence in area bars. On premise sales will lead to more off premise sales.

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The industry view has always been that new products are created on-premise because that's where you can get sampling and immerse your potential customers in the total brand experience in ways that are impossible to do off-premise. When you have created interest and demand on-premise, customers will begin to ask for your product off-premise, doing the selling job for you.

As micro-distillers you are also local businesses and have a third 'premise' -- your distillery -- that the big guys don't really have. Even if they also welcome visitors, you are accessible to virtually all of your potential customers, they aren't. So, local laws permitting, you can at your own place fill both the on- and off-premise function. That doesn't replace the standard marketplace strategy but it's a very powerful complement to it.

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