Markup v. Margin

I recently wrote a post about Gross Profit vs Gross Margin, it was nice.  Piggybacking off that topic I want to explain the differences between Markup vs Margin.  More specifically, what it looks like at different points in the supply chain.  In the margin vs markup game, margin wins….always.  Distributors and Retailers work off margin.  Margin is the amount you have leftover to pay your bills after the product is sold.   Businesses try to hold on to as much margin possible for as long as they can.  Currently, at retail, I see margin slipping because prices are slowly decreasing.  There are a million factors which contribute to a price decrease, we need to save these for another post.  For now, let’s “follow the dollar” from brewery to retailer.

Facts:

Beer: ½ BBL of Pale Ale

Cost: $48

Price to distributor: $110

Price to retail: depends on distributor margin

 

Brewery —> Distributor

$48 x 2.3 (230% markup) = $110 or a 56% margin

Distributor —> Retail

Typical distributor deal  starts at 30% margin with most now creeping up to 35% margin.     

$110 x 1.44 (44% markup) = $158.40  or a 30.56% margin

$110 x 1.54 (54% markup) = $169.40 or a 35.29% margin

Reference chart:

30% Markup = 23.0% Gross Margin

33.3% Markup = 25.0% Gross Margin

40% Markup = 28.6% Gross Margin

43% Markup = 30.0% Gross Margin

50% Markup = 33.0% Gross Margin

75% Markup = 42.9% Gross Margin

100% Markup = 50.0% Gross Margin  

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