Dear Snjezana,
It seems like you are going for the big time. Signing up an
Exclusive contract of beer for distribution in the US is
definitely not a home-based operation and is beyond the scope of
Power Homebiz Guides. I can only suggest some pointers on what
you can do.
If you are planning to do the importation yourself, I
recommend that you check with your local authorities or the
Bureau of Commerce or the Bureau of Customs and check out the
requirements and regulations on importing beer and/or liquor and
related products. Definitely, you should have a license to
import as well as a license to distribute these products. Visit
your city hall and check at the Business Permits Division.
In the meantime, have you done any kind of study on how would
you compete with other brands which are already in the market?
Since we are talking about imported beer, have you checked how
big the market is and how do you intend to penetrate that
market? How would you promote the beer? How will you deliver? Do
you have a warehouse? Will you have trucks to deliver the beer?
Remember, you are talking about USA, a pretty big country.
How will you convince stores to buy and sell your beer? Most
stores will not buy products that are unknown in the market. You
will need a very very big budget to introduce your product in
the market. Will your suppliers help you on this?
And, when the stable beer companies notices your attempt to
introduce a new product to compete with them, they will have the
tendency to sacrifice a "promotional price" period and
drastically lower their price to say half. Are you ready to face
this eventuality?
On the other hand, as you said you have signed up an
exclusive contract with the European brewery but you did not
mention whether your contract is for you to do the importing or
you will be acting as a Representative of the brewery. If you
are a representative, you may try to look for the beer importers
and offer your beer on "Indent" basis.
Indenting means the importer orders from you but they open
the Letters of Credit directly to your principals. Then you
collect your commissions or mark-ups from your principals.
Again, as you said you have an exclusive contract, and in
international trading, the principals normally respect their
words like their signatures. Therefore, there is no way that
your customers can cheat on you by going directly to your
suppliers. They can always do that but as long as your
principals protect you, they will always give you the credit.
Also, if you were doing the business as representative, you
won't need the alcohol license. All you need will be your
Business License as an International Trader.
Hope this helps.
About
the PowerHomeBiz.com Guide:
Nach Maravilla is
the Publisher of Power Homebiz Guides. He has over thirty years
experience in sales and marketing of various products, which
covered as he jokingly describes, "from toothpicks to
airplanes" He also had extensive experience in
International trading and he always excelled in special promotional
ideas for retail outlets.
