Nut Milk Business Plan: Almond Milk for Markets and Cafés

Fresh almond milk is almonds, water, a few dates and vanilla, pressed cold, and a 16-ounce bottle costs about $2.37 with its bottle and card fee and sells at a market for $9. The catch is the date: without pasteurizing or high pressure processing it keeps days, so the plan is built around making twice a week and selling fast, to markets, cafés that pour it in lattes, and weekly home deliveries. Almonds are most of the cost, and every label says tree nuts. The plan below works per bottle. In the example, a Eugene nut milk maker starts with $47,900, ends its first year about $6,000 ahead before the owner's pay, and makes about $3,600 a month at full speed. Below is each part of the plan, the first year month by month, the startup budget, and a free template.

The short version

• Describe the business in a paragraph: the milks, who buys, where you press, the goals.
• Cost each bottle: almonds by the pound, dates and vanilla, the bottle and label, the card fee.
• Plan sales by product: market bottles, café bottles, half gallons for lattes, deliveries.
• Fresh nut milk keeps days: make twice a week and sell fast.
• Almonds are most of the cost; tree nuts on every label.
• Cafés buying half gallons for lattes are steady customers.
• TaroStack costs each bottle from its recipe and what each batch used. More below.

Part 1: the business description

Willamette Nut Milk Co., a made-up nut milk maker in Eugene, Oregon, writes:

Willamette Nut Milk Co. presses almond and cashew milk in a shared kitchen in Eugene twice a week and sells 16-ounce bottles at two markets and to cafés, half gallons to cafés for lattes, and weekly deliveries of four bottles to subscribers. In its first year it aims to reach $17,180 of sales a month.

Part 2: what a bottle costs

A 16-ounce bottle uses about a third of a pound of almonds at $3.60 a pound. Subscriptions are four bottles a week for $34, costing $11.42 with delivery and the card fee. How long fresh nut milk keeps is set by the maker's own shelf life study, as shelf life testing explains.

Part 3: the date, the cafés and deliveries

Pressing runs Monday and Thursday; bottles are dated from the maker's shelf life study and go out within a day. Cafés take half gallons for lattes on a standing order, and subscribers get four bottles every Tuesday. Bottles too close to their date come back from cafés and go to staff and samples. A juice business, which faces FDA's juice rules, is in juice business plan.

Part 4: what each product earns

At full speed the business sells $17,180 a month and keeps $11,084.60, 64.5%; market bottles bring $3,315 of it.

Part 5: the first year, month by month

Fixed costs are $7,450 every month: wages for a presser ($4,500), shared kitchen hours ($1,500), delivery van fuel ($400), market fees ($250), insurance ($250), cold storage ($200), software ($50), and other costs ($300). Sales start at 35% of full speed:

The year's sales are $147,913, and the business ends it $6,034 ahead, before the owner's pay. It breaks even at about $11,550 of sales a month, in the sixth month. The lowest cash point, −$10,093 in month 5, is covered by the $12,000 of working cash with about $1,900 to spare. Summer markets sell the most bottles; the cafés and subscriptions carry the winter.

Part 6: the startup budget

The $35,900 before working cash is earned back in about 10 months at full speed. A cold drink with a short date is in kombucha business plan, and selling to cafés in how to sell baked goods to coffee shops.

Get the template

Download the nut milk business plan workbook. Four sheets: your products, each with its price, variable cost and units a month at full speed; the first year, month by month, with sales ramping up, profit, cash, the first profitable month, the lowest cash point and whether the working cash covers it; your fixed costs; and the startup budget. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.

Where this stops working

The plan uses one cost per bottle. Almond prices move by the harvest, a batch yields less milk than the last, and bottles too close to their date come back from cafés.

How TaroStack does it

TaroStack costs each bottle from its recipe and from what each batch used.

Recipes by weight. Each bottle is a recipe, with unit conversion from the case or sack to the gram.

True cost from the batch. Each batch takes ingredients at their real cost, from the deliveries they came from, so a price rise shows up in the next batch.

Price creep. A price-creep report per supplier shows which ingredient is quietly costing more.

Recipes, batches and true cost 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

How much does it cost to start a nut milk business?

The example budgets $47,900, including $12,000 of working cash; the used refrigerated van is the biggest item.

Is a nut milk business profitable?

It can be: the example makes about $3,600 a month at full speed before the owner's pay, and ends its first year ahead.

How much does a bottle of almond milk cost to make?

In the example, about $2.10 for 16 ounces: $1.20 of almonds, 30 cents of dates and vanilla, and 60 cents for the bottle and label.

How long does fresh almond milk last?

Days, not weeks, without pasteurizing or high pressure processing; the date comes from the maker's shelf life study.