Going Commercial-ish

[Evan Floden]

I'm wondering if any of the home brewers out there who have gone commercial could share any resources regarding regulations/excise tax/requirements for selling beer from a small brew set up.

 

I have been home brewing for a while and believe I have mastered the 50L range to the extent that I think customers would be happy to part with a bit of coin. I've talked with my local (which has an agreement with Lion -Yuk!) and they would be willing to stock one of my brews on the basis that it is a local product and they believe the market for craft beer will continue to grow.

 

My question is disregarding commercial realities for a second, what are minimum regulations that I would need to comply to in order to legally sell my beer? And where can I find these?

[Stu McKinlay]

Customs (for excise) and your local council (food prep regs) are the two most important... neither of them are likely to be all that helpful so be prepared to do a bit of work.

 

If you are selling to a licenced premise, then you won't need one yourself... but if you want to sell to the public, then you will need one.  Again, your local council will go out of their way to make this difficult for you.

 

Good luck.  Check out http://garageproject.co.nz/ too. These guys are starting up with a 50L brewlength.

[Evan Floden]

Cheers Stu, much appreciated.

 

The Garage Project kind of set up is very simlar to what I had in mind.

[mattd2]

Probably would pay to set yourself up a company to limit the risk to you personally if something did go wrong. Would make tax (bussiness/income and GST) easier to deal with being a seprate entity. Also while your at it get GST register so you can write off your GST on your supplies, etc. (including a % of your rent/morgate if brewing at home, % of phone/internet bill, etc.).

I know this is getting into the commercial/business side so I don't know if you are already sorted with what you are going to do.

Good luck and keep us updated on your progress throught the red tape ;) (for all us that wish we were in you shoes).

[Chris]

The %age of costs such as mortgage, phone, internet etc are deductible from your income tax as well as being able to claim back a %age of their GST component. 

 

Remember that if you register for GST you will also have to charge it on goods you provide - sometimes the figures don't stack up in your favour (i.e. giving 15% of whatever you make straight to the tax man), 

 

I think the threshold for voluntary GST registration is around $30k.

 

Also if you're going to go down this route think about hiring an accountant. I do my own books for just a simple software development company (ring me if you need a website lol) and my lord it's a headache.

 

 

[Malcolm]

Hey guys,

Sorry for the thread necro. A friend of a friend's bar is going craft in a couple of weeks and he's offering me a tap to put my brews on. I'd pretty much be chucking him a corny or two a week of beer or cider depending on if it sells.

I've been reading up (http://www.foodsafety.govt.nz/elibrary/industry/making-and-selling-...) a little bit about the health and safety stuff and it seems that I would have to register my garage with the local council as it would be used for the manufacture of food products for sale. Is that correct?

[Ralph]

I think that is correct. The premise where the food is manufactured is what would have to be registered and it would be subject to inspection (annually?) by the local councils food authority. You will probably have to pay through the nose to get a pretty certificate to hang on your wall to say you are a certified food prep area or some such.

The CCC (who are usually spectacularly unhelpful) have helpfully posted this http://resources.ccc.govt.nz/files/Manufacturer-healthsafety.pdf