Planning for a Craft Brewery Delivery Vehicle

As an aspiring craft brewer you need to make sure to earmark funds within your business plan for a delivery vehicle or series of vehicles (depending on your size and scale).  Here at My Beer Brand, we work closely with each of our clients to complete a thorough analysis of the vehicle business need and then identify a short list of solutions. Based on our work with current and past transportation clients we would like to share five important questions you should be asking yourself when considering a delivery vehicle for your new business.

1. Will I have time or funds to hire a delivery driver to self-distribute or should I work with a distributor right away?

2. Will my future or current brewery location have a loading dock or will I need to ground load all of my deliveries?

3. Is refrigeration necessary to transport my finished product from the brewery to customers?

4. What type of end product will I need to transport? Will I only have kegs or will I also have cans or bottles to deliver to customers?

5. Do I have time to maintain the vehicle properly or should I leave this up to someone else?

Hiring a Commercial Real Estate Agent is Worth its Weight in Gold

So you’ve gotten your new craft brewery business plan in order and your on the hunt for the perfect spot to call home. How are you going about finding and looking at property or space? If you don’t have professional representation from a commercial real estate agent you may be stuck searching for a long time without any results.

Hiring a local commercial agent is beneficial for so many reason including the following:

Local Market Expertise
Smart and knowledgeable commercial real estate agents know your local real estate market. They know the area, the trends, the local business owners and the landlords. Having this information and resource at your side will help to make your property search way less painful and time consuming.

Access to Listed and Unlisted Property
Each commercial real estate agent tends to specialize on one particular segment of commercial real estate. One may specialize on lease negotiations while another may just work exclusively in industrial or warehouse type properties. Regardless of their speciality, all agents have access to your local MLS and information about properties that may not be publicly listed for rent or sale.

Scheduling and Seeing a Property
Many states have laws that only allow licensed commercial real estate agents to schedule and show potential property to their clients. Make sure to lean on your local agent to schedule and show properties for you. In some situations your agent may be able to preview a listing for you to make sure it is a space that will fit your needs. If not, they can quickly let you know and not waste a single minute of your precious time.

Connections, Connections, Connections
Like many other local service providers, commercial real estate brokers are some of the most well-connected professionals you will find. If your situation calls for legal, accounting, design, architectural or almost any other type of expertise, your agent will be able to provide you a recommendation.

Rest Easy
Commercial real estate can be a very complicated process with many possible pitfalls along the way. Having a professional working for you means that you will be able to continue to focus on creating the best beer possible while your agent focuses on providing you with the best service and communication possible.

For more information about connecting with a licensed commercial real estate broker in your local area please contact us here at My Beer Brand. We would be more than happy to help you!