Is Selling Wreaths Profitable? The Margins, Worked Out

Yes, in a short season. Fresh balsam wreaths cost little in greens and rings; the twenty minutes of making each one, the bow and the season's rush are the cost. Sold at a farm stand, a wreath keeps more than half its price; through a school fundraiser it keeps much less, but sells hundreds in a week. Deco mesh and dried wreaths keep good margins all year, at much higher prices. Margin = (price − cost) ÷ price. In the example below, a fresh 24-inch wreath costs $15.42 to make and sell at the farm stand and goes for $35.00, a 55.9% margin. A December of four kinds brings $23,050 of sales and about $10,450 of gross profit.

The short version

• Margin = (price − cost) ÷ price; markup = (price − cost) ÷ cost.
• Count your time as a cost, even if you don't pay yourself yet.
• A fresh wreath at the farm stand: $15.42, $35.00, 55.9%.
• Making time is most of the cost.
• Fundraisers keep less but sell hundreds at once.
• Deco mesh and dried wreaths sell all year.
• TaroStack costs each wreath from what each batch used. More below.

A wreath, costed

Birch Hill Farm, the made-up Christmas tree farm in Montpelier, Vermont, I use in these examples, makes fresh balsam wreaths, deco mesh and dried wreaths:

Setting each price is in how to price wreaths, and the farm's trees in christmas tree farm business plan.

Margins by channel

The fundraiser wreath keeps 28.1%, but 400 sell through two schools in a week; the deco mesh keeps 50.5% and the dried 51.7%.

A month's numbers

A December for Birch Hill Farm:

The farm stand brings the most gross profit per wreath; the fundraisers bring the volume and next year's farm stand customers. Deco mesh and dried wreaths are made in the fall before the rush, so they don't compete with the fresh ones for hands. Margin against markup is in markup vs margin.

Get the calculator

Download the wreath margin calculator. One sheet: one line for each product and channel, with its price, materials, packaging, labor and fee rate; the cost, gross profit, margin, markup and the price your target margin needs fill in. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.

Where this stops working

The calculator holds one making time. A rush week where wreaths take longer, a fundraiser that doubles its order, and bows that ran out change December.

How TaroStack does it

TaroStack costs each wreath from what each batch used, so margins sit on real cost.

True cost from the batch. Each batch takes greens, rings and bows at the price of the deliveries they came from, so a price rise shows in the next batch's cost.

Labor on the batch. The minutes a batch took are recorded on it, so the hours behind each product are on record.

Margins by product. Margins are reported per product on that actual cost, and a price-creep report per supplier shows whose prices moved.

Recipes, batches, costing and margin reports are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.

Questions people also ask

Is selling wreaths profitable?

It can be: in the example, the main product keeps 55.9% after its full cost, and a month of $23,050 in sales leaves about $10,450 of gross profit before fixed costs and the owner's pay.

What is a good profit margin on wreaths?

In the example, 55.9% on the main product sold direct; wholesale and fundraiser prices keep less, so the mix matters.

How much does a fresh wreath cost to make?

In the example, $14.37 for a 24-inch balsam wreath: greens, ring and wire, the bow, and 20 minutes of making.

Are wreath fundraisers worth it?

In the example, a fundraiser wreath keeps 28.1%, much less than at the farm stand, but sells 400 in a week.