Local honey price

Ade'sBee's · Jun 19, 2010

Just been to my local health food shop who's been there for around 30 year's and was chatting to him about honey, he sell's a local beek's own labelled honey for £6.20lb ... so £3.20 a jar that i will sell at is a steal!!! He said he will buy any honey that i have at full price so we all win :party:

gavin · Jun 19, 2010

Is it a good thing to be driving the price down for locally produced honey? Are you really saying that £3.20 per pound covers all of your costs, from bees and equipment, treatment, feeding, jars, labels and your own time to transport costs and all the extra costs of ensuring that you are producing honey for sale according to all the guidelines required should Trading Standards come to call? I don't know what others think a fair price is for a quality, locally produced product, but £6.20 per lb doesn't sound too bad to me.

G.

sputnam · Jun 19, 2010

I sell mine at £4.50 retail, £4.00 wholesale for 1lb normal honey.
£5.00 retail and £4.50 wholesale for chunk honey.

Stephen.

Poly Hive · Jun 19, 2010

Please sell at a sensible price otherwise you are doing every one no favours at all.

PH

macow · Jun 19, 2010

Blimy!! Way too cheap. Undervalues your product, the effort of both you and your bees and affects everyone else. In rural Italy and last year local honey was 6-7 euros for 12 oz but then they appreciate good food.
Well produced British honey is a premium quality product, dont undervalue it. Obviously the bloke at the Health Food shop dos'nt

M

dudley · Jun 19, 2010

An old neighbour used to sell honey at the gate. He has passed away now and my bee's have taken over his patch.
But his price was always much more expensive than anywhere else. When asked why is you’re honey so expensive he replied, “It’s not too expensive, everyone else is too cheap. If I have honey left at the end of the season, then it’s too expensive”.

That’s my motto now. Please don’t under value this wonderful thing.

Steve.

Widdershins · Jun 19, 2010

Selling too cheaply only under estimates the amount of hard work our ladies have to do to make the stuff.
Also, your hard work/hours as a beekeeper.
If you are selling to a Health Food Shop, the customers will pay a decent price, as opposed to those who want to buy cheap rubbish from, say, a supermarket.

lambofood · Jun 19, 2010

v useful this, thanks. I have been wondering what to price mine at and i thought £4 would break it even. would hate to think i was undercutting anyone though, does anyone know if any associations have ever met about this and agreed a price accross the board for their area?

Blodwen Price · Jun 19, 2010

surely that would constitute a "price fixing cartel" and be illegal.

What you have to do is work out your costs, putting a realistic value on your time, and coming up with a fair price that reflects all that.

There's nothing to stop you undercutting neighbours of course, but they may remember this if you want help etc in future! Also remember that some people are trying to make a living, not just selling surplus from their hobby.

lambofood · Jun 19, 2010

yeah, you are probably right about the price fixing!

well, I'll stick with the 4 quid and if someone starts smearing propolis on my windscreen then I'll get the idea that unless i up my prices i will end up wearing concrete sandals and going for a swim in the middle of the night

Repwoc · Jun 19, 2010

lambofood said:
yeah, you are probably right about the price fixing!

well, I'll stick with the 4 quid and if someone starts smearing propolis on my windscreen then I'll get the idea that unless i up my prices i will end up wearing concrete sandals and going for a swim in the middle of the night

Are you afraid that if you charge more then you won't sell it all? Honey has got a pretty long shelf life so it's not likely to go off, and if it doesn't sell at the higher price then it's a simple matter to reduce it. On the other hand, once it's all sold cheaply it's too late to put the price up.

Let the market decide.

Repwoc · Jun 19, 2010

Ade'sBee's said:
Just been to my local health food shop who's been there for around 30 year's and was chatting to him about honey, he sell's a local beek's own labelled honey for £6.20lb ... so £3.20 a jar that i will sell at is a steal!!! He said he will buy any honey that i have at full price so we all win

If he can sell all your honey at £6.20/lb then he would probably be willing to pay a lot more than £3.20/lb. If you charged him £5.00/lb he would still have a margin of almost 20%, which is a fair retail margin.

And you would win even more!

It depends on what the other local beek is charging of course, but even if he is charging less than £5.00/lb, he's bound to run out of stock sooner than later then you could be the sole supplier.

At £3.20/lb you must be pretty close to the break even point; however let's say you are making a profit of 80p/lb, or 25% margin. If you could sell all your stock for £5.00/lb then your margin will be increased to 52%. If you sell 500 jars instead of making a profit of £400.00 you will make £1,300, ie over four times as much.

Don't undervalue your premium (and relatively scarse) product.

Ade'sBee's · Jun 19, 2010

beedons said:
Ade - out of interest who is your mentor? He must be a bit peed off if you are going to undercut him as well. By the way, do you belong to Thanet Beekeepers? If so, not sure how the other members will take this.

Yes i belong to Thanet beek's and my mentor is a she... I havnt had any honey from mine yet (only started them this year) i want to get what i can of course , my mentor sell's hers for £3.50lb which is a increase of 20p this year..was just going to follow her price but not any more £5.00lb upwards for me :drool5:

jezd · Jun 19, 2010

Selling at £3.xx is a crazy price and devalues beekeeping and the product, I simple dont understand why beekeepers act as a charity to the masses when selling the product. £5.xx is a true value price IMO.

Having said that its complicated issues when you talk direct prices, event prices, reseller prices, catering and bulk prices.

Jez

Ade'sBee's · Jun 19, 2010

Ok now i really do feel stupid ..had no idea that it should be £5.00 upwards but was just following my mentor,why she sells at £3.50 is crazy,mine wont be that price for sure...

Poly Hive · Jun 19, 2010

Because she feels safe selling at that price and to be honest she probably does not make much of an effort to present her product.

For a bit of extra effort well over £5 is obtainable.

PH

Ade'sBee's · Jun 19, 2010

I agree, local honey from desease free hives is much more desirable than pasturised supermarket stuff from non Eu countries...I have just been to a cheese shop in Whitstable today and paid £18 for 4 wedges of cheese that are locally produced with no problem regarding price , the que was out the door!!!!!!! Maybe they would like to branch into selling some liquid gold along side the smelly stuff lol

thedeaddiplomat · Jun 19, 2010

You're all just show offs

Or wild optimists.

So far I have managed to extract 5lb of honey (which I would have had to sell at about £400/lb to break even).

So either I am the only beek in the UK who has got no honey to sell - or you are all counting your bees before they perform

Ade'sBee's · Jun 19, 2010

thedeaddiplomat said:
Or wild optimists.

So far I have managed to extract 5lb of honey (which I would have had to sell at about £400/lb to break even).

So either I am the only beek in the UK who has got no honey to sell - or you are all counting your bees before they perform

Had 70lb from 2 hives so far

whizzwheels · Jun 19, 2010

I've had 16lbs off my bees that I obtained last year, just left them along to increase the population last year. Put the super on mddle of April this year and took it off end of may full of honey. They then proceded to fill it half fll on nectar with ina week of returning the super back to the hive. :drool5:

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