Over the past few weeks, I've done some cost research on hummus ingredients, ranging from chickpeas to tahini to my super-top-secret specialty ingredients (not really that secret - spices like cumin, paprika, etc.). Given the nascent character of my operation so far, my suppliers would have to be retail stores to begin with. My initial research was at Shaw's (Porter Square) and Foodmaster (Route 16 and Broadway), where I expected I would find overpriced-by-volume versions of everything I needed. I actually thought Foodmaster would be the cheaper option, given its seedy atmosphere and general slumminess; however, Shaw's proved to be the better value across almost all categories - they also had a lot better variety and more niche products to choose from. Still, although accessible and able to be a one-stop shop, Shaw's still had prices that would make this a more expensive operation that it needs to be (however, they did have dry chickpeas at seemingly low cost - I'll have to project the equivalent value from canned chickpeas to see if this is a worthwhile option - and of course I'll have to factor in time to hydrate). Fortunately, Mom and Dad gave me the greatest gift any parent could give their child: a Costco membership. OK, maybe it doesn't rank as high as a college education, but it sure is sweet. After a rather sketchy bike ride down Route 16 past Wellington, I found that Costco had the best value on most ingredients, usually beating Shaw's by 40-75%. Obviously one would have to buy in bulk, but in reality the quantities were quite reasonable and I intend to crank through them rapidly anyways!
Following my week of supply research, last weekend I took a nice trip to Vermont with some friends. Between sampling delicious local craft brews (Vermont Brewers Festival) and dunking myself in Lake Champlain, I did some number-crunching with the figures I collected from the suppliers to determine how much it would really cost to create batches of hummus suitable for resale (IE consumer-sized packages). I was quite pleased to find out that the cost-per-pound would be pretty reasonable for a small operation. Transposing those numbers over to what a retail shop would charge to be competitive with existing brands, I found that I could potentially sell to stores at a decent margin. Of course the volume levels would have to be somewhat substantial to realize a good cash flow from the operation; however, I believe I underestimated my production capacity during my initial analysis.
This weekend, I finally got back on the horse and started experimenting with recipes again. While I adjusted ingredient quantities, I also gauged the speed and efficiency at which I could produce. Although I faced two tough obstacles at the outset (molded garlic cloves - humidity; and a broken Cuisinart), I realized that I can crank out over two pounds of hummus in less than 10 minutes. At twelve pounds an hour, that means I could produce 96 pounds of hummus in a standard day's work. If I were to be packaging in 8-ounce containers, that equates to 192 individual packages ready for consumption. Now of course, I haven't gotten to the packaging stage in my research yet, so I'm sure that number would drop down once one factors in time and effort to put product into packaging, seal, label, store, etc. However, this is far beyond what I was expecting capacity-wise, and an encouraging finding.
Over the next few weeks, I will most likely continue to experiment with the ingredient balance of the basic version of the product; my roommate and I (and our soon-to-be third roommate) continue to search for a new place to live, so I may have to scale things back further until we figure that out. However, I do know that we need to find a place with a kitchen that would work!
Happy end-of-July.
Steve
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