Microgreens earn a high gross margin per tray, and the channel decides how much of it you keep. A 2-ounce clamshell at a market earns the most per ounce; restaurants buy in bulk bags at a lower price but in steady weekly orders; and live trays, cut at the restaurant, save harvest time. Margin = (price − cost) ÷ price. In the example below, a clamshell costs $2.10 to grow and sell at market and goes for $5.00, a 58% margin. A month of three ways of selling brings $2,480 of sales and about $1,540 of gross profit, before shelves, lights and rent.
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 2-ounce clamshell at market: $2.10, $5.00, 58%.
- Restaurants pay less but order every week.
- Live trays save harvest and packing time.
- Trays that fail are part of the cost.
- TaroStack costs each tray from what each batch used. More below.
A clamshell, costed
Big Muddy Microgreens, the made-up grower in Columbia, Missouri, gets four 2-ounce clamshells from each tray:
| A 2-ounce clamshell, at market | Cost |
|---|---|
| Seed, growing mix, water and power | $0.60 |
| Clamshell and label | $0.35 |
| Labor: 12 minutes a tray at $20 an hour | $1.00 |
| Card fees, 3% of $5.00 | $0.15 |
| Cost | $2.10 |
How the clamshell's price was set is in how to price microgreens, and the business year in microgreens business plan.
Margins by channel
| Product | Sold where | Price | Cost | Gross profit | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sunflower shoots, 2 oz | Farmers market | $5.00 | $2.10 | $2.90 | 58% |
| Mixed microgreens, 2 oz | Restaurants, bulk bags | $3.50 | $1.65 | $1.85 | 52.9% |
| Live tray | Restaurants | $28.00 | $5.80 | $22.20 | 79.3% |
The live tray earns 79.3%: no cutting, no clamshell, and the restaurant harvests it.
A month's numbers
A month at Big Muddy Microgreens:
| Product | Units | Sales | Gross profit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sunflower shoots, 2 oz, farmers market | 300 | $1,500 | $870 |
| Mixed microgreens, 2 oz, restaurants | 120 | $420 | $222 |
| Live tray, restaurants | 20 | $560 | $444 |
| Month | $2,480 | $1,536 |
The market clamshells bring the most gross profit, but the restaurant orders arrive every week whatever the weather. Packing for both is in how to package microgreens for sale.
Get the calculator
Download the microgreens 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 cost a tray. A month of trays that mold in the heat, and seed bought at a new price, change what each clamshell really earned.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack costs each tray from what each batch used, so margins sit on real cost.
True cost from the batch. Each batch takes seed and growing mix 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.
| The job | Spreadsheet | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| What a tray cost | One price from last season | Cost from the batch's deliveries |
| The hours behind a batch | Remembered | Labor minutes on the batch |
| An ingredient creeping up | Noticed late | A price-creep report |
| Margins by product | Re-worked by hand | Margins on real cost |
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.