Save More on Your Malt Orders by Utilizing Totes and Direct Container Loads
As your brewery grows, it’s important to look for ways to save money whenever possible. After all, a few dollars saved here can mean you get that extra tank or a canning line that much quicker. As a malt supplier, we heartily recommend taking advantage of any potential savings available on your malt purchasing. I will outline a few of my favorites below.
A full pallet of malt contains 40 bags, or 2,200lbs of malt. If you have the space to set up a tote rack station, you can begin taking advantage of significant cost savings right away. We can tote up any single malt into a 1,100lb or 2,200lb tote, sometimes called a supersack. Depending on your set up, this tote station can be used to empty the full volume of malt into a single recipe, or meter out just enough malt for each recipe. We offer immediate cost savings on these totes and can fill a tote with any single malt, no additional lead time necessary.
A 1,100lb tote will save you $.02/lb off our highest volume discounted rate.
A 2,200lb tote will save you $.04/lb off our highest volume discounted rate.
*GWM is sometimes still sold in 1,000lb and 2,000lb tote sizes with same discounts.*
To take advantage of these discounts, you can install a beautiful computer-automated tote dispensing station, or simply a metal rack with some load cells. I’ve even seen customers put their totes on top of a postage scale or pallet jack with a scale on it, and just scoop out the needed malt with a bucket. These types of savings will give you an immediate return of $100+ per pallet, which makes the ROI on installing a tote rack typically end up being quite reasonable.
As a quick side note, we do also offer recipe tote building, although it doesn’t have the same type of discounted pricing. To explore what sort of savings might be available to you if you were to utilize totes, please reach out to your Territory Manager.
My other favorite method of cutting down on your malt costs is by ordering direct from our import maltsters. Whether you are getting bags, totes, or even bulk, we can arrange to have a container shipped directly to your door. You can mix and match the malts within the container so long as they are all from the same maltster and each pallet contains a single malt. A typical direct container can accommodate 19 pallets.
Your TM can provide you with specific pricing, but these direct containers will usually result in significant savings, usually even more than the tote savings outlined above, even with the cost of freight built in to boot. That being said, they do come with some nuances that should be kept in mind.
Space: You need to be able to unload a full container-load of malt into your facility in one go. If you have off-site storage, we can always send the containers there as well.
Lead Times: It will take some time for the malthouse to load up and then ship this malt across the ocean to us, so you’ll need to plan accordingly. That first order can take anywhere from 8-12 weeks, depending on the maltster. We can always stagger your orders to ensure that after the first one arrives, the rest are delivering right when you need them. Here’s a summary of current lead times:
Toronto, Champlain, and Asheville: 10 Weeks
Chicago, and Garland: 12 Weeks
All Western Facilities: 14 Weeks
If you go through a lot of Bairds, Best Malz, MFB, Thomas Fawcett, or Loughran, and have the space available, I would highly recommend reaching out to your TM to see what sort of savings will be available by ordering direct.
These are just two of my favorite ways to help a brewery save money on their raw ingredients. I especially recommend making the room and setting up a tote station for almost every brewery that’s in their planning or expansion stages.
And once you find yourself ordering a lot of a particular maltster’s products, it’s worthwhile exploring the cost savings of going direct. I hope these tips will help you realize some savings with us as you continue to grow and make excellent beer!