Crowdfunding for a brewery startup in Bosnia!

[balkan_brewer]

Hi guys,
My name is Nikola, I'm 29, I live in the city of Banja Luka, Republic of Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
I've just started an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign to raise a portion of funds needed to start my own nano-brewery at my late granddad's farm in a village 16 km from my hometown.
Link: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/highlander-craft-brewery-gorstak-zanatska-pivara/x/13804389#/

I am a member of a small but growing community of homebrewers in the city. We regularly meet and taste each others' beers, share advice, frown upon off-flavors, like real beers snobs we are .
Great thing is that through this hobby I met many people from different parts of the country, belonging to different nations, which is especially important in a country where civil war raged 20 years ago.
I am sure my brewery will start a true craft beer revolution and that others will follow. People are more and more interested in everything handmade, homemade, natural, preservative free, etc. which is a great thing for craft beer scene development, too.

Also, I hope my idea will inspire other young people living in rural areas not to flee to cities in search for jobs but to stay and keep our villages alive, because they offer so much opportunities. Making beer is one of them.

Therefore, your support either through donations or sharing information about the campaign will be greatly appreciated.
I hope you will recognize this idea as something good and useful for the local economy and support my goal.

Cheers!

 

[normonster]

Sounds cool man, but where is your business plan?

What about your estimates of cost? How much will it cost you to make a pint of beer on average?

What about your estimates of demand?

What level of sales will allow you to break-even after you take into consideration all of your non-direct costs (labor, depreciation, insurance, rent, etc)? If it is 100BBL a year or whatever, how many pints will you need to sell on average each day? Are there enough people there to support this level of sales perpetually?

How will your source your ingredients? Is the infrastructure good enough there to be dependable or might you face delays that result in empty taps?

Who are your competitors? How will they react?

How is the political climate?

You make the absurd claim that you will literally start a craft beer revolution, so you must be one hell of a business man and a pro brewer with a lot of experience. Where is your resume?

You might consider some of this stuff if you are actually going to do something like this. Write it all down and call it your business plan.

Cheers!

 

[balkan_brewer]

Hey man, sorry for taking this long to reply, I am just all over the place with this campaign. I think I had a dozen of interviews with media in the last 2-3 days + I had to bottle one batch of beer and make another one .

So, let's go one question at a time:

1. Business plan was the first thing I did after deciding to venture into this endeavor.
My total estimate of costs *total initial investment) is 51000 BAM (around 28000 USD). This estimate includes all possible costs: house adaptation works (building, plumbing, electricity, septic tank, obtaining necessary licences and complying to legal regulations), registration of business, equipment (custom made 250l HERMS, fermenters, cleaning equipment, equipment for manual labeling and bottling, 3 specialized pumps, hoses, valves, connectors...), basic lab equipment for yeast analysis, propagation and storage...

2. I am a rock musician and the PR of my band so I have many friends that are bar owners/going to bars regularly/journalists/editors in media/etc...so let's say that I know A LOT of people. And we here like to drink a lot and for the most people beer is the drink of choice. I already have some 50-60 people from all over the city regularly buying homemade craft beer from me (illegally, well. We have a tradition of making plum brandy, even though it is illegal to sell it, many people openly sell and advertise it. Laws are not so strict about this matter, because unemployment is high and authorities let it slip). They are mostly my friends and acquaintances. So, with their friends and acquaintances there is already a solid target group of regular consumers. This direct contact is the best possible marketing and way of establishing a sincere connection with your customers.

3. The brewery will be located on my family estate, which I own now entirely - no lease costs. If I am to make 4 batches per month (1000l in total) I need to sell around 120 bottles (0.33l) a day in total to break even. I have already talked to several friends of mine who are bar owners and some other too and currently there are 6 popular bars in the city center that will be happy to sell my beer.
Among aother things, my city is known for its bar culture. Many bars are filled with people almost all the time, regardless of the day of the week, or time of the day, especially in the summertime. So, I believe I will be able to sell at least 150 bottles a day in the beginning until I expand my sales more.

4. I have two reliable suppliers of ingredients and a couple of my friends are to establish a firm dealing with import of brewing ingredients and craft beer, so there's a third one.

5. There are no other craft breweries in the region. One brand of craft beer from Serbia is imported and sold in 2-3 bars in the city. That's all. Only exception is one family brewery that makes beer only for the hotel that family owns (for their guests, weddings, etc.). Nearest craft brewery that is yet to be registered is in Doboj, some 100 km from Banja Luka. It is possible that some of my colleagues will follow my example and start breweries on their own, but the market is just to big that either one of us would hardly pose a competition to the other.

6. Political situation is stable (no matter what you may see in the news when theme is the Balkans). There are many problems burdening the ordinary man so the chances of any kind of new clashes, violence or, God forbid, war are extremely small. Noone wants to fight for the interests of world powers who caused all the violence and breakup of Yugoslavia in the 90s in the first place.

Craft beer is something that is only beginning to emerge in my country but this is happening quickly. Huge media interest and wide support that I get from literally everyone, either through social media, this campaign, or other instances is a proof that I'm on the right track. As I said, so far, only 2-3 bars in the city (and surrounding cities) offer craft beer. When my brewery becomes alive, there will be much more and I think you can call that a sort of revolution .

Your comment did help me in fact. Once again I checked my calculations and estimates and it only confirmed what I knew already.

So, I really hope this should be enough to convince you guys to support my campaign.

If you have any further questions, shoot.
Thanks!

 

[balkan_brewer]

:rockin:

 

[warriorcoach]

So that's around a 2 barrel system. You are going to be able to do all of that which was listed for 28,000 US Dollars? Heck, it would cost that much for permits and to install the septic system here! Good luck to you friend!

 

[normonster]

Glad to see you have thought through he business side of it. I'll be over in a jiffy....



Cheers!

 

[balkan_brewer]

Thanks!

 

[JasonScott]

Good luck with the brewery. Bosnia is a beautiful country. You guys definitely enjoy your pivo!