Page 15 - Beverage MasterOct Nov 2020

Craft Brewery

For example, if your goal is to grow sales by devel-
oping new beer styles or introducing new package
sizes, write that into your plan. Perhaps you want
to expand into a new market and hire a new sales
rep for the territory. Write this into the written
plan as well.

Continue this process, in writing, until you’ve got
all your goals and objectives listed out. This creates
clarity and momentum for the rest of the budget
process. Once the big picture goals are clear and in
writing, it’s much easier to quantify the objectives
and build the numbers into the financial plan.

Effective Budget Basics

The operating budget involves five major building
blocks: the sales forecast, margin plan, operating
expense plan, capital budget and debt schedule.

Below, we’ll dig into each of the budget building
blocks and give you some tips to get started. Use
these ideas in connection with the budget tem-
plates and you’ll be well on your way to creating an
effective budget for your brewery.

Budget Building Block #1:
SALES FORECAST

The sales forecast is simply a projection of how
much beer you will sell. It should show the sales by
customer, by brand, by package, and by month.

If you sell through distributors, start by making a
schedule of who you currently sell to (and who you
plan to sell to). Include the historical sales for the
past 12months, and the year over year growth for
each distributor.

If you plan to open new markets with new distrib-
utors, that should be included in the schedule. If
you have self-distribution sales and taproom sales,
include the figures for these as well.

With a sales forecast, the trend is your friend. If
growth this year was 10% but you project 50% next
year, make sure you know where it will be sold.

Ask questions. Challenge assumptions. Build an
achievable sales plan.

Budget Building Block #2:
MARGIN PLAN

Let’s begin with some simple math:

BEVERAGE MASTER October - November 2020 13

BM080920 Main Pages copy.indd 13 9/28/20 1:50 PM