Opening up a sweet shop..

IrishLad2012

As the title suggests.I have decided to open a traditional sweet shop.Want to sell quality sweets at reasonable prices.I have sourced a distributor in the Republic and have got an ideal location with reasonably rent.

Hoping to start with small and expand gradually.Also thinking of trying to get a few sweet stands in petrol stations and the big stores eg. Tesco,Dunnes..

Just wondering if anyone has any advice,anyone suggest a good distributor or any advice I must watch out for in this line of business.

Kenny Logins

They're popping up all over Cork and I'm sure will move into other counties, so watch out for competition -

https://www.facebook.com/AuntyNellies

bogwalrus

I would consider you getting one of the many sweet franchises already operational and benefit from their advertising branding etc.

A mister simms opened in my town 4months ago. Towns population is around 3K but has another 5K in surrounding villages. there are two secondary schools also in the town. The shop is doing OK but the great thing is rent and expenses are cheap. I would make sure you definitely have a large number of kids that hang around the town like they do here.


Best of luck

IrishLad2012

That's the key to my location.I am within a 100 metres of a secondary school and about 300 metres from a national school.Also thinking of getting a Ice Cream machine for the summer,I know they are expensive but there is good mark up on cones.
Has anyone dealt with their local enterprise board recently,I have contacted them but awaiting a response.Are they still helping start up in these tight times?

RATM

I'm seeing a lot of these shops popping up around Dublin and elsewhere. I'm dubious about the longetivity of them, I reckon this whole 'lets buy a Wham bar' thing is a faze, a novelty and a throw back to nostalgia. People will certainly go there out of curiosity but it is difficult to see where lots of sustainable repeat business is going to come from if the novelty wears off.

I might be wrong but I don't see many of them being around in 18 months time. And if I am wrong and 1980's sweets are here to stay then as a sweet shop business I'd be having an even bigger fear- Tesco.

Bandara

For me they are just the latest in a line of short lived fads "Juice Bar", "Milkshake Bar" etc etc etc

What a lot of people are missing that if this does take off properly then Spar, Centra etc will just put a drop with a full range of these identical sweet/products in their 1500 odd stores, and they'll be cheaper and will source better quality products and spend a fortune marketing and advertising it.

Which will bury the specialist shops stone dead.

Kenny Logins

You may be right, but there is very little enjoyment in walking into a generic Spar or Tesco to buy sweets, regardless of price, and many of these traditional sweet shops are in locations that larger chains simply can't reach due to their size. For younger kids the visit to the shop is equally as important as the sweets, and this is something that nostalgic adults can also appreciate.
I think they have a unique appeal, unlike juice or smoothie bars, and I hope they thrive.

IrishLad2012

Hammertime wrote: »

For me they are just the latest in a line of short lived fads "Juice Bar", "Milkshake Bar" etc etc etc

I know what your saying but don't totally agree.Look at our own Cathal Power,Zumo is doing very well at present,they are in 10 different European countries with over a 100 locations.Don't think you should ever be phased by the big competition.Branson was told he was mad to take on BA.where is he today.

the_syco

IrishLad2012 wrote: »

As the title suggests.I have decided to open a traditional sweet shop.Want to sell quality sweets at reasonable prices.I have sourced a distributor in the Republic and have got an ideal location with reasonably rent.

As well as the "traditional sweets", you'll need to sell the usual crap that kids look for. If it's nearby you, look at how this shop (The Marian) is set up: http://g.co/maps/k4h3j It's my local sweetshop, and has been around for at least twenty years. The layout is unchanged, and the glass counters ensure sweets are not stolen. The sweets gradually change, but the freezer always stocks Mr Freeze.

You say that icecream cones have a good mark-up, but it takes time to pour so unless you have someone always making the cones, you'll be loosing business.

bogwalrus

hmmm, its a good point that these shops might only be a faze. I think there will be a winner out of all these franchises that might last a good 10-15 years if they get the model right. I see lots of them popping up and the weaker ones shutting within 5 years leaving maybe but a few in Ireland and the UK.

MyPerfectCousin

The olde fashioned sweet shops are selling a customer Experience. It's not something Tesco or Centra can duplicate.

I still doubt their staying power, but I think the best of the new old sweet shops have hit on something with the experience they provide and could survive if they are in a high traffic location and particularly if they are in a tourist area.

Bandara

the_syco wrote: »

The layout is unchanged, and the glass counters ensure sweets are not stolen.

This is so counter productive to the business its untrue.

Theft is nothing to be afraid of, its part of the business and you deal with/manage it accordingly. The idea of restricting your sales to every customer in order to prevent the 2% of people from stealing is just caveman stuff.

TylerIE

Hammertime wrote: »

This is so counter productive to the business its untrue.

Theft is nothing to be afraid of, its part of the business and you deal with/manage it accordingly. The idea of restricting your sales to every customer in order to prevent the 2% of people from stealing is just caveman stuff.

Is part of the experience not actually getting someone to fill your bag for you?

Personally Id prefer it as it means no grubby kids fingers, hairs or mixing of product, and I strongly doubt the pilferage is as low as 2% - many adults find it perfectly acceptable to just "sample" a sweet or two as they feel they are "being ripped off anyway". Even if the sweets are in large jars rather than the "cinema" experience it would reduce pilferage.

To the OPs question there had been a few of them open up near me recently. One, with population 4,500 urban and 4,000 in the immediate rural area + a number of feeder villages and was within 500m of 3 secondary schools and 2 primary schools, with limited free on street parking lasted well under a year.

Another, with an urban population of around 7,000 plus perhaps 3,000 in the rural environs and no schools located immediately nearby (although plenty in the town) and limited on pay&display street parking (with decent off street 100m away) is still trading after a year....

Neither had made any spectacular efforts to advertise. The one that closed was run by a well known local man, the second had limited local ties but had a somewhat more attractive shopfront.

IrishLad2012

Hammertime wrote: »

This is so counter productive to the business its untrue.

Theft is nothing to be afraid of, its part of the business and you deal with/manage it accordingly. The idea of restricting your sales to every customer in order to prevent the 2% of people from stealing is just caveman stuff.

I know your in the retail trade.I was also wondering how hard is it to get shops to display your stand,do you have any in your shops?What sort of agreement does most shops have with them?I see Tubs Sweet stands popping up around us.

janullrich

Irish Lad, in Richard Branson's own words "screw it, just do it". It is all about superior customer experience and a fair reasonable price. It what you put into it. In this day and age we shud be supporting people like yourself. As a person looking to set up my own cafe soon good luck.

Bandara

IrishLad2012 wrote: »

I know your in the retail trade.I was also wondering how hard is it to get shops to display your stand,do you have any in your shops?What sort of agreement does most shops have with them?I see Tubs Sweet stands popping up around us.

Its extremely difficult, we constantly have everyone from health food nuts/dried fruit companies, big confectionary giant like nestle cadbury etc, all trying to get us to take in a stand. Its the holy grail for these guys as it assures them prominent and protected positioning in the store.

Also your big issue could be that you need to get listed with the symbol groups or your peeing in the wind trying to get into stores, BWG (spar mace) and Musgraves (Centra Daybreak), they will all want their pound of flesh as well!

Regarding letting a stand into a store, I won't do it unless I get it fully stocked for free the first time and also have a free stock deal agreed on an ongoing basis usually either 4+1, 8+1 etc.

Also you'll need different sized decent looking quality stand, if its crap we are not likely to take it. I'd hazard a guess at either 5 prong and a 2 prong stands being the most popular

The €1 bag sweets are very very popular in petrol stations since things slowed up, from our point of view we are generally getting 8+1 on them and margin is approx 22-26%, which is not really much to write home about at all. On the health stuff I'd be getting about 40-45% and on the branded stuff Maltesers big bags etc about 30%

Hope this is of some help

Good luck !

IrishLad2012

janullrich wrote: »

Irish Lad, in Richard Branson's own words "screw it, just do it". It is all about superior customer experience and a fair reasonable price. It what you put into it. In this day and age we shud be supporting people like yourself. As a person looking to set up my own cafe soon good luck.

Reading off the same hymn sheet as you here.They say most entrepreneurs are born in a recession.

Tough times were facing but I think that will lead to greater success.During the boom years anyone could set up a business,if you showed you could turn 10c on a packet of cigarettes,the bank would throw money at you.

Not that simple now,it will be a long road but you get out what you put in.

janullrich

I agree. To be honest I have savings and have looked through and researched many ideas. This one goes back to my roots. I have worked in the banks doing debt collection and while it was grand for a while, I have become very disillusional chasing ordinary people for banks who caused this mess and also poor managers who have been around for years, have still the same positions as before the boom and don't know what they are doing or still can't manage people. As I said I am going to be opening a coffee bar/cafe in the city centre this Summer. At worse if it fails and I lose my savings I can say I tried my very best at being my own boss and it beats going into the office each day, working for someone, getting a salary but feeling not rewarded or forfilled. You never know, me and you could me talking in one years time and saying that our hard work was worth it.

IrishLad2012

janullrich wrote: »

I agree. To be honest I have savings and have looked through and researched many ideas. This one goes back to my roots. I have worked in the banks doing debt collection and while it was grand for a while, I have become very disillusional chasing ordinary people for banks who caused this mess and also poor managers who have been around for years, have still the same positions as before the boom and don't know what they are doing or still can't manage people. As I said I am going to be opening a coffee bar/cafe in the city centre this Summer. At worse if it fails and I lose my savings I can say I tried my very best at being my own boss and it beats going into the office each day, working for someone, getting a salary but feeling not rewarded or forfilled. You never know, me and you could me talking in one years time and saying that our hard work was worth it.

Thanks for your vote of confidence.I wish you the best of luck in your business venture,hope it goes well for you.You never know,you might take a sweet stand for your Coffee Bar/Cafe sometime in the future.:P

sandin

When I saw the title of the thread I thought it was an old thread from 2 years ago that had just re-opened.

The fad has passed, there are so many "sweet shops" about and then Tesco have their own branded old stye sweet range as does Aldi.

A lot that opened have closed down and buying from an Irish distributor will mean you won't be able to offer a good price. - Buying from the UK and you should pick up 3kg bags of jellie for about £6.50 and 3kg bags of hard sweets for less than £8

Selling at 99c/100g (incl vat) you will make about 40c/100g

Basic costs for a small retail business will be circa 60k even with VERY cheap rent (10k inc rates), so that'll be about 150,000 x 100g bags needing to be sold to cover costs - 3000 per week.

Look out for the next fad - get in early with a short 3 year lease and get out.