What goes into a gin distillery business plan

What the plan is for

You write the plan for three readers: yourself, any partner and anyone you ask for money. Each reads it differently. You want to know whether the venture works. A partner wants to see who does what. A lender wants to see how the loan is repaid.

Write for all three and the plan stays honest. Our project report guide goes one step further into the detailed format that banks in India often ask for.

The product and the market

Start with the gin itself. State the style: London dry, distilled gin, flavoured or something with a clear local botanical. Be precise, because the legal category shapes your label, your costs and how you can describe the product. London dry gin in the UK and EU is redistilled with natural botanicals and may not have flavourings added after distillation. Compound gin is neutral spirit flavoured without redistillation.

Then say who buys it, at what price point and through which channel. Do not quote a market size you cannot source. Use your own research instead (see market research before launching a gin).

Production, premises and licences

Describe the still, the batch size and how many batches you can run in a week. Include the supply of neutral spirit, botanicals, water, glass and labels. If you contract, describe the partner and the agreement.

For licences, give the steps and the order, not fees. Most places share registration of the business, approval of premises, a manufacture or distillery licence, excise registration and label approval. Details vary by country and by Indian state. They also change. Mark each item with who is responsible and a realistic wait.

The numbers that carry the plan

A lender will go straight to these:

• Capital needed: equipment, premises work, deposits, first stock.
• Cost per bottle: spirit, botanicals, glass, closure, label, carton, labour and overheads.
• Selling price and who takes what margin on the way to the drinker.
• Monthly cash flow for at least the first two years.
• Break-even: fixed costs divided by what each bottle contributes after variable costs.
• Payback, NPV and IRR if you are raising investment.

A simple illustration with hypothetical units: if fixed costs are 60,000 a month and each bottle contributes 40 after variable costs, break-even is 1,500 bottles a month. Replace those with your own quotes. Then test what happens if sales run 30 per cent slower or the price of spirit rises.

People, risks and what could go wrong

Name who runs production, who sells and who watches the cash. Then list the risks plainly: licence delay, a quality failure in the first batch, a key supplier raising prices, slow sell-through and a late-paying distributor. For each, say what you would do.

A plan with no risks reads as naive. A plan with ten risks and a response to each reads as a plan.

Sales, pricing and the route to market

Show how the gin reaches a drinker. A distillery shop, an online store, bars, specialist retailers, hotels and exports all have different margins and different paperwork. Pick the two or three you can serve well in year one and explain why.

Show the price walk from your selling price to the shelf price, including what the trade needs and what duty and tax take. Our guides on pricing and positioning and on the cost of a bottle cover the method. A plan with a price that no one in the chain can afford will be found out quickly.

Finance: what to show for money in and out

Separate the money you need to start from the money you need to keep going. Start-up capital covers the plant, the premises and the first stock. Working capital covers the gap between paying for spirit and glass and being paid by customers. That gap can be long when a distributor pays in 60 or 90 days.

If investors are involved, state what you are offering and what the money will do. Do not name a valuation unless you can defend it. If a loan is involved, show the repayment schedule inside the cash flow so the reader can see whether you can meet it in the leanest month.

Where we help

We prepare business plans and investor packs for drinks projects. The work is led by Ankur Napa and can be done remotely by video call with shared data. Site visits can be arranged. We do not promise a loan or an investment. We help you present a plan that can stand up to questions.

Common questions

How long should a gin business plan be?

Long enough to answer a lender's questions and short enough to be read. The numbers matter more than the page count.

Do I need a financial model?

Yes. A written plan without a monthly cash flow cannot show when you run out of money or when you break even.

Should I include a market size?

Only if you can source it properly. Otherwise build the demand estimate from your own research and show your working.

Can you guarantee funding with the plan?

No. Nobody can. A clear plan makes your case easier to judge, but the decision belongs to the lender or investor.