Tag: Margin

APPLE BUYING IS SERIOUS BUSINESS

Growing is a mug’s game – or so one of my team members often says.  Growers are at the mercy of so many things, 75% of which are completely beyond their control!  There’s the weather, the market, transport and fuel costs, compliance, staff, pests…and that’s not the complete list. So really, why would you be a grower?

Thing is, we – human beings – need food.  And food comes from the land, from growers.  So to eat, we have to have someone to grow it.

Sure, in an ideal world we can keep a chicken or two, a goat, an apple tree and a vege garden in our own back yard.  Problem is, very few countries, New Zealand included, have the luxury of sufficient arable land to give every family the quarter acre that such a utopia requires – never mind having the necessary favourable climate, let alone the skill set…
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There are several levels to this debate. The first and most basic level is – what is a margin and how do I calculate it? I don’t want to waste my time writing about something every retailer should understand, but unfortunately too few do.

The second level is product or category related margins. What should the margin on potatoes be, compared to the one earned by strawberries, bananas or turnips? What is a realistic margin, what is a fair margin and what is downright obscene?
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