How to price hot sauce, from a 50 ml bottle to 250 ml
The bottle often costs more than the chillies. Here is how to cost a batch of hot sauce and price each bottle size so the small one still pays.
Many sauce makers set prices by looking at what others charge. But in a small batch, the bottle and label often cost more than the chillies, and that changes the price of every size.
Two kinds of cost
Some costs belong to the batch: ingredients, energy and your time at the stove. They grow with the amount of sauce. Others belong to each bottle: the bottle, the cap, the label and the minutes it takes to fill it. They stay the same whether the bottle holds 50 ml or 250 ml.
Example: 20 bottles of 150 ml
| Item | Cost | |---|---| | 1.5 kg chillies at £8 | £12.00 | | Peppers, onion and garlic | £4.00 | | Vinegar, salt and spices | £3.00 | | Energy | £2.00 | | 2 hours of cooking at £12 | £24.00 | | 20 bottles with caps at £0.90 | £18.00 | | 20 labels and seals at £0.20 | £4.00 | | 1 hour of bottling | £12.00 | | Total | £79.00 |
One bottle costs £79 ÷ 20 = £3.95. At a 35% margin: £3.95 ÷ (1 − 0.35) = £6.08, so £6.10. If margin and markup still get mixed up, read the difference explained.
Every size has its own cost
The 3 litres of sauce cost £45 to make, or 1.5p per ml. A 50 ml bottle holds £0.75 of sauce, but its bottle, label and filling time still cost £1.35. Total: £2.10.
| Size | Cost | Price at 35% | Per 100 ml | |---|---|---|---| | 50 ml | £2.10 | £3.30 | £6.60 | | 150 ml | £3.95 | £6.10 | £4.07 | | 250 ml | £5.65 | £8.70 | £3.48 |
Price the 50 ml bottle at a third of the 150 ml, £2.03, and you lose money on every one. The large bottle works the other way: it can be cheaper per 100 ml and still keep your margin, which gives regular customers a reason to choose it.
The same goes for gift sets of small bottles: add up the cost of each bottle and the box, never a share of the big bottle's price.
Easy to forget
- Tasting at markets. Spoons, crackers and the sauce itself.
- pH testing. Acidity decides how long a sauce keeps safely, so strips or a meter belong in the cost.
- Leaks and breakage in transport.
- Shops. A shop adds its own margin on top of your price. Our guide to pricing jam shows how to set your price for shops.
How Lagom does it
In Lagom you enter the sauce recipe with ingredients at your own prices, the bottle and label as packaging, and your time. Lagom shows the cost of one bottle and the price for your target margin. When chillies or bottles get dearer, you see which products fell below target and what price brings them back.