Pargyle... How much sales competition do you have to force your prices down to a subsistence level????
My local association has 100+ members - mostly selling at £5.00 a pound. There are over 100 apiaries within 3km according to Beebase and we are not looking at sales to punters on holiday or rich ones with second homes in the area. The local market in Fareham has two stalls selling honey ... both with prices on par with what I get from at the door sales. One of them sells plastic 5lb tubs for £20.
One local producer has the local farm shop market and specialist outlets pretty much sewn up and they sell retail for the same sort of price I sell for - so I suspect their cost price is probably £3.50 - £4.00 a pound ... and I know they take jars on a sale or return basis. I don't want to compete in these outlets at those prices or on those terms.
I can dismiss the objection that my honey costs far more than the supermarkets ... but it's hard to counter the one that says - "
I can buy local honey **here** for **this price**
- what is different about yours ?"
My hex jars have gold lids, a nice label and anti-tamper seals and it's lovely tasting honey which has won prizes at honey shows. I push the fact that my bees are treatment free, work in combs that don't have foundation and the general way my bees are kept. I avoid the word natural but I do use raw honey .. I stress that my honey is not heat treated or blended and being coarse filtered contains local pollens - and they get the message but .... these are 'technical' answers to a 'price comparison' objection and it takes time to explain and convince.
I also sell on the taste test ... and concentrate sales in my immediate area as I can also sell the line 'my bees will have foraged in your garden'.
It doesn't help anyone's cause when the likes of Rowse are preaching in an advert on the TV about the attributes of their "British" honey - and then sell 340gm jars of runny honey in Asda for £2.00 a jar ... some people really don't notice or understand the 'blend of non-EU honeys' labels until you have time to explain it.
https://groceries.asda.com/product/honey/rowse-pure-natural-honey/910000280262
They even have Soil Association certified on their 'Organic' honey ... although I do wonder how much UK Organic honey is actually in the jar at £3.29 for 340gm ?
https://www.rowsehoney.co.uk/our-honeys/
I don't consider supermarket honeys as competition but my customers shop in them and I'm sure that they can and do make a price comparison - and have to justify to themselves that my product is worth the additional cost.
I win quite a few customers selling the attributes and benefits of my honey and have some regulars who have moved from other suppliers ~ but there is always going to be a price point that the market will bear and this will vary where there's a difference in clientele across various parts of the country.
I've spent most of my life in sales and marketing - and a lot of it was in the fragrance industry - try talking to a person you are selling a perfume or aftershave to about what price it is and you will be dead in the water ... as I said earlier - you have to sell the sizzle not the sausage - and honey sales fall into the same sort of category for us local producers. Unfortunately, unlike perfume or aftershave, it's considered by many purchasers as a commodity and your brand of honey can only be semi-exclusive. You have to find the things that add value to your offering and sell whatever exclusivity you can find.
I'm getting £6/lb soon to be nearer £7/lb. Judging by some other posts it's not quite subsistence but I think it's about all the market will stand around me at the moment. If you have some ideas that will allow me to increase my prices without losing sales I'm all ears.
