Beer, as well as cider, poiret, mead and other beer-based drinks are alcoholic products. When selling beer, you must take into account the rules governing the sale of alcohol, but with some peculiarities. Are you interested in this line of business? Then read our article, in which we will talk about the most important issues when trading beer and beer drinks:
- can an individual entrepreneur sell beer;
- Do you need a license to sell beer?
- what restrictions exist on the sale of beer;
- Do beer sellers need to connect to EGAIS?
- when you don’t need a cash register when selling beer;
- what OKVED codes to choose for selling beer;
- What kind of reporting on sales volumes must be submitted?
Can an individual entrepreneur start selling beer?
Let us answer right away that individual entrepreneurs have the right to sell beer. Why does this question even arise? Are there any prohibitions on the sale of alcohol related to the legal form of the seller (individual entrepreneur or LLC)? There really is such a ban; it is established by Article 16 of Law No. 171-FZ of November 22, 1995.
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According to it, only organizations are allowed to sell strong alcohol. Why this is so is not explained, but the fact remains that only legal entities have the right to trade in strong alcoholic drinks and wines. An exception is made only for individual entrepreneurs - agricultural producers who sell wines and champagne of their own production.
Regarding the sale of beer, the same article states that “Retail sales of beer and beer drinks, cider, poiret, mead are carried out by organizations and individual entrepreneurs.” Please note - this is a retail sale! The fact is that there is also a provision in Article 11 of Law No. 171-FZ, and it allows the wholesale trade of alcohol and beer only to legal entities.
Thus, individual entrepreneurs have the right to sell beer and beer-based drinks only at retail. And in order to produce and sell beer without restrictions, you need to register a company.
Advertising for bottling beer business
A business plan for bottled beer must take into account the development of a promotion concept. Remember that by saving on advertising, you can lose up to 50% of customers. Therefore, the issues of developing the style and name of the company, as well as the mechanism for attracting customers, should come first. Much depends on the name. It should be memorable and bright, associated with the chosen format of the point, differ from competing points and show the profile of the activity.
If you don’t have the money to organize standard template advertising (placing banners, posters), you can always use unique business PR methods. To understand what we’re talking about, see the example of a sports bar advertisement – the creatives did their best here!
Do I need a license to sell beer?
But here everything is simple - a license to sell beer is not required. Again we read Law No. 171-FZ, Article 18 on the issuance of an alcohol license: “... with the exception of the production and circulation of beer and beer drinks, cider, poire, mead.” So, selling beer without a license in 2020 does not threaten anything, there are no sanctions for this. True, certain restrictions and requirements for organizing the sale of beer still exist, and we will talk about them further.
Pricing policy and assortment selection
Today on the beer market, 68% of all production belongs to varieties of the lower and middle price categories. As a rule, the domestic population does not consider beer to be a refined and expensive drink, so most of them are not ready to buy expensive premium beers.
It is better to distribute the assortment in this way:
- 10% – premium beer (price above 160 rubles per liter).
- 30% – mid-price segment beer + (price 100-160 rubles per liter).
- 30% – middle class beer (price 60-100 rubles per liter).
- 30% – economy beer (price – below 60 rubles per liter).
Terms of sale of beer
This is perhaps the most important information that you should familiarize yourself with before organizing a beer trade. Considering that beer is an alcoholic drink, it is clear that it should not be available at any place and time.
Beer alcoholism develops quickly and unnoticed, which is especially dangerous for children and women. And if for beer traders large sales volumes mean profit, then buyers of the foamy drink pay for their excessive consumption with their health. We must be understanding of the prohibitions established in Article 16 of Law No. 171-FZ; ultimately, they act for the benefit of the entire society.
1. It is prohibited to sell beer in the following facilities and adjacent areas:
- children's, educational and medical institutions;
- sports and cultural facilities;
- public transport of all types and its stops;
- gas station;
- markets, train stations, airports and other places of mass gathering of citizens (with the exception of catering establishments);
- military facilities.
2. Beer can only be sold in stationary retail establishments, so the building must have a foundation and be entered in the real estate register. That is, temporary structures such as stalls and kiosks are not suitable for selling beer, with the exception of catering establishments. As for the area of a retail facility, if, in addition to beer, strong alcohol is sold, then the following restrictions apply:
- not less than 50 sq. m. in cities
- at least 25 sq. m. in rural areas.
When selling only beer, there are no space restrictions.
3. Beer sales hours are limited to the period from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., except for public catering outlets.
4. Sale of beer to minors is strictly prohibited. In this case, the following are punishable for the sale of alcoholic beverages (Article 14.16 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation):
- seller – from 30 to 50 thousand rubles;
- official (individual entrepreneur or head of an organization) – from 100 to 200 thousand rubles;
- legal entity – from 300 to 500 thousand rubles;
If there is any doubt about the buyer's age, the seller must request identification. In addition, selling beer to minors may result in criminal liability. Please note that police often conduct control raids involving young people in order to provoke such illegal sales. It's better to play it safe and ask for a passport, even if the buyer looks old enough.
5. From January 1, 2020, the production and wholesale trade is prohibited, and from July 1, 2020, the retail sale of beer bottled in plastic containers larger than 1.5 liters is prohibited. Fines for violation: from 100 to 200 thousand rubles for individual entrepreneurs and from 300 to 500 thousand rubles for legal entities.
6. Additional restrictions on the sale of beer may be established by local authorities. Thus, in many municipalities the sale of beer is prohibited in retail outlets located in multi-apartment residential buildings. We recommend that before you start selling beer, you find out all the rules from the local administration or the Federal Tax Service.
Beer on tap, like a business
Of course, a novice entrepreneur will always be interested in how much it will cost him to open a business and whether he will invest in the available funds. Let's figure out how much it costs to open a beer outlet. If you are going to open one small point (with an area of approximately 20 square meters), then the required financial investments will not be so large - about 15-20 thousand dollars. This amount includes payment for renting premises and purchasing equipment. If your distributor provides you with free equipment (and many of them often do this), then the cost will be even less. Also, when drawing up a budget, you need to take into account the cost of renovating the premises.
The above describes an option for opening a beer store if you have a minimum amount of funds. But still, for the success of the store, it is better to sell a large number of different types of beer, and a small room is not enough to accommodate all the taps and other equipment. For example, for twenty types of beer it is necessary to place equipment that will occupy an area of at least 40 square meters. Don’t forget about advertising, because this is one of the important components of business success. Advertising is not free, and the cost of advertising events for one outlet should be at least $2,700-3,000.
The next question that will certainly arise in the mind of an entrepreneur is how profitable this business is. Based on the fact that the sales period for “live” beer is usually no more than five days, the goods that have not yet been sold must simply be poured out. This is a problem that many market players have faced. Therefore, the issue of payback is behind a veil of uncertainty: for some, with a successful strategy, the business pays for itself in half a month, while for others this period is much longer (up to one year).
In any case, even if at the first stages trade is not going very well and some of the goods manage to deteriorate before reaching the buyer, under no circumstances should you think about selling stale beer. Such trade will immediately put an end to the reputation of your store, and soon you will simply have to close your business.
EGAIS - beer sales
EGAIS is a state system for monitoring the production and circulation of alcohol. Is EGAIS needed to sell beer? Yes, of course, but in a limited format. Starting from 2020, organizations and individual entrepreneurs purchasing beer for further retail sale are required to connect to the system only to confirm purchases of wholesale quantities from legal manufacturers and suppliers.
To connect to EGAIS, you need to obtain a special electronic signature and register on the official website of Rosalkogolregulirovanie. We described in detail how to do this here. After registering in the system, the buyer receives his identification number (ID), and the supplier issues invoices for him, reflecting them in the Unified State Automated Information System. After the consignment of goods is accepted by the buyer, the supplier writes off the delivered products from its balances in the Unified State Automated Information System, and it is recorded for the buyer.
Confirmation of the fact of sale of each bottle of beer, as is the case with strong alcohol and wine, is not required, so trade in beer through EGAIS is easier to register than other alcoholic beverages. The main thing here is to confirm that the wholesale batch of beer was purchased legally.
Please note that selling beer without a cash register is punishable by a separate fine under Article 14.5 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation:
- for individual entrepreneurs and heads of organizations - from ¼ to ½ of the settlement amount, but not less than 10,000 rubles;
- for organizations - from ¾ to the full amount of the settlement amount, but not less than 30,000 rubles.
Read more: Online cash register - who should switch to the new cash register
Business plan
The following amount of money will be required to open:
| Expense item | Sum | |
| 1 | Business registration and permitting | 10 thousand rubles |
| 2 | Rental costs | 50 thousand rubles per month |
| 3 | Arrangement and finishing | 150 thousand rubles |
| 4 | Purchase of the initial batch | 200 thousand rubles |
| 5 | Advertising campaign | 10 thousand rubles |
| 6 | Payroll expenses | 50 thousand rubles |
| Total: | 470 thousand rubles |
To achieve profitability, daily revenue must be at least 10 thousand rubles per month. The amount is quite achievable even for beginning entrepreneurs. The prices in the table are approximate; how much it costs to open your own business depends on the region; you may need significantly more money.
New OKVED codes for beer trade
Please note that when registering individual entrepreneurs and LLCs, only the OKVED-2 classifier is used. To indicate types of activities related to beer trade, use the new OKVED codes that are relevant in 2020.
For wholesale beer trade:
- 46.34.2: Wholesale trade in alcoholic beverages, including beer and food grade ethyl alcohol;
- 46.34.23: Wholesale trade in beer;
- 46.17.23: Activities of agents in the wholesale trade of beer.
For beer retail:
- 47.25.1: Retail sale of alcoholic beverages, including beer, in specialized stores;
- 47.25.12: Retail sale of beer in specialized stores.
- 47.11.2: Retail trade of non-frozen products, including drinks and tobacco products, in non-specialized stores;
For selling beer in public catering:
- 56.30: activities of bars, taverns, cocktail lounges, discos and dance floors (with predominant service of drinks), beer bars, buffets, herbal bars, drinks vending machines.
Important: if you registered an individual entrepreneur or LLC before July 11, 2020, then you do not need to make any changes to the codes; the Federal Tax Service will independently correlate your previous and new OKVED codes entered in the registers.
But if you decide to start selling beer after mid-2016, and the corresponding codes were not entered immediately upon registration, then you must report the new type of activity using forms P24001 (for individual entrepreneurs) and P13001 or P14001 (for LLCs). In this case, indicate the codes according to OKVED-2, as indicated above.
What is the penalty for not connecting to a unified system?
Connecting to EGAIS for individual entrepreneurs to sell beer at retail is a mandatory action before starting the activity.
Selling beer without connecting to EGAIS is a gross violation of current legislation, which is necessarily punishable by a fine. In accordance with Art. 14.19 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, the fine for an individual entrepreneur selling beer without submitting reports to a unified system will be approximately 10-15 thousand rubles. Additionally, the possibility of increasing these fines with the possibility of confiscation of products for which the necessary documents are missing is being considered.
