As you have noticed, the price of our mix went up about 10% as of Feb 26, 2008. We held the line as long as possible but are forced into this change now.
As you know, the price of everything has skyrocketed in the past two years, but most significantly in the past year. The price of wheat went completely through the roof, which makes bread or any other product made from flour about 30% more to produce.
The flour used in our mix is also milled and blended in a more expensive manner to get the quality we demand. This is what makes us different than any other funnel cake mix in the world. We will not change our way of producing our mix by using cheaper ingredients or milling methods used to get the results we (and you) need for a real quality product. There are also some very expensive key ingredients used to make our mix so different from the others that we cannot do without.
For now, we are absorbing 20% of the 30% increase and will for as long as possible. We are in the same predicament every manufacturer of wheat based products finds themselves experiencing. Holding the line on price as long as possible, making less profit than ever before to try and help the consumer in any way possible and yet make enough profit to remain in business.
We are making changes in our operations in different ways to cut overall costs (such as our new packaging) to allow minimal price increase to our customers. We will do everything possible to provide you with the highest quality mix in the world at near comparable prices of our competitors. We are currently only slightly higher in price per case than ordinary mixes. That cost is less than one funnel cake sold per case, so it's actually very minimal in cost difference.
Our current customers already know we have twice the quality of mix. We promise that it will always remain the same. We're fortunate to supply vendors who want to remain in business by selling only the best quality products. When competition gets greater, the best way to survive is to be better than the competition. Cutting quality will damage a business faster than any other practice.
The bright spot in funnel cake sales is the fact that the average sale price of an 8 inch funnel cake is $5.00 nearly everywhere today. By adding the cost of our mix, plus the shipping charges you pay, you still have less than 60 cents in producing a cake at today's prices. Which still makes about 750 percent profit selling the 8 inch cake for $5.00. In the GOOD OLD days (just a few years ago), we used to make about 1000 percent profit on each cake sold. But like everyone else these days, we make less profit to stay in business.
We wanted to explain the price increase so you can understand where our cost increases come from. We are not raising prices to increase our profits. Even with this price increase we are making 20% less profit today to keep us all with the highest quality product at the lowest price possible.
Typically when the economy is in poor shape, people tend to spend more money at local events than on travel. Which makes you as a funnel cake vendor more opportunity to increase sales at these local events. We hope this is a record year in sales for you because of this.
A sincere "Thank You" from all of us here at The Funnel Cake Company. We appreciate your business!