home » Business from scratch » Home mill for the production of flour of different varieties. A flour mill as a business: is it possible to count on large orders? Flour production at home equipment

Home mill for the production of flour of different varieties. A flour mill as a business: is it possible to count on large orders? Flour production at home equipment

Undoubtedly, there is no point in recalling the popularity and importance of flour products. Almost all people in our country consume products made with flour every day. Such products have been in demand on the market for many years and the need for them is constantly growing.

Due to the fact that the demand for this product is large, it makes sense to consider the idea of organizing a flour production business. With the right approach, such an activity will bring good income. But, as in any business, at the initial stage you will have to work hard and think through everything in the form of a flour production business plan in order to get a positive and tangible result later.

What is such a business

We note right away that flour can be produced from a variety of cereal crops, including:

oats;
wheat;
corn;
barley, etc.

If you have decided that you will process wheat, then only after that it will be possible to engage in planning technical line, choice of premises, etc. The peculiarity of doing such a business in our country is that we have our own raw material base, which allows us to produce most of the necessary products in our country. Thanks to this positive property, the creation of an enterprise will be much easier than if foreign companies were present on the market.

Immediately dispel the myth that such a business is considered seasonal. This is wrong. Purchase of pasta, bread and flour products is carried out all year round. Yes, if there is a crisis in the yard, then there is a noticeable decline in people's purchasing power for baking, but in this regard, there is both a decline and an increase. In any case, the crisis is not a reason to stop production. By creating a quality product, following this at every stage of production, you can quickly conquer the market and find a large number of customers.

Among the main buyers will be bakeries. It is also important to create different types of flour: first, second and highest. Taking into account the fluctuations in the purchasing power of the population, you will be able to adjust your sales by selling different types of flour, which will allow you to constantly maintain your income at one certain level.

Purchase of equipment

If you want to produce at least some minimum volume of products, you will not be able to do without equipment. Well, if you plan to deal with large supplies of flour, then the first thing you need is an elevator, with the help of which raw materials will move. You will also need to buy equipment for pre-treatment and cleaning of wheat before grinding. After cleaning, the wheat goes to the varietal milling.

As an option, in the business plan of the flour milling shop, equipment such as PTMA-4, capable of producing about a ton of products in 1 hour, can be considered. Its price today is about 600,000 rubles. Mills F1 can cost the same price, capable of producing 500 kilograms of flour of the highest and second grades per hour. The main feature of such a mill is its small dimensions, which makes it possible to avoid the need to equip another room for this process.

Other equipment may include:

air separators;
sieve separators;
sewing machines for bags;
automated filling machine.

In total, you will have to pay an additional 100,000 rubles for the rest of the equipment (this is without a filling machine).

Raw material preparation process

Using modern equipment at every stage, it is possible to make almost completely automated line flour production. Before grinding, there are several stages of raw material preparation:

preparation for the grinding itself;
grinding into flour;
packing and packing.

Development plan

Do not expect that running such a business will be easy. There is a lot of competition in the market in this segment. There are a lot of manufacturers and each is engaged in the sale of their own products. But competition produces a quality product. Among the places where you can sell your flour, you can note:

bread factories;
pasta factories;
confectionery shops;
to rural areas.

If we consider the practice of entrepreneurs in this segment, then it is best to make your own point of sale in the market. This will significantly increase the circle of potential buyers of flour among the population. If you have the desire and time, you can conclude a contract for the supply of products to different stores, but we note right away that this process is very complicated.

In any case, the more seriously you approach this issue and the newer equipment you purchase, the better the quality of flour will be, and, therefore, there will be more buyers.

Financial part

Quite a lot of time can be spent on finding a room for creating production in it. If there is a warehouse nearby from which you can carry out wholesale deliveries, consider this a huge plus. The fact is that wholesale buyers are more interested in the product that has just been made.

Also pay attention to the installation of all equipment, which is paid service. Approximately it can pull on 100,000 rubles. This is not taking into account the cost of the equipment itself at 1,500,000 rubles. In total, having invested about 2,000,000 rubles, in a month you will be able to sell goods for 200,000 rubles (every month). If everything goes well throughout the year, you will be able to recoup the investment and get a profit.

But the profitability of the flour milling business will be bad if at some stage of production you start saving or stop controlling the process. Only with a serious approach to this matter can you get flour good quality and don't worry about its implementation. It will also be a great help in concluding contracts with a variety of factories, shops and other outlets. And when you no longer have time to create products for everyone, you can begin to consider expanding your production.

The domestic market has extensive raw material resources for the production of wheat flour, rye and other grain crops. The flour-grinding industry is characterized by deep specificity. The effectiveness of its functioning by 50% depends on the literacy of the organization and implementation technological stages preparation and processing of grain.

Flour production technology

The manufacturing process in flour factories is fully mechanized. The initial stage of preparing the grain fraction for processing is purification and conditioning. from weed impurities are performed in separation, trier and duaspirator apparatus; removal of mineral impurities - in stone-separating; grain is washed in special washing units and moistened in silos. If necessary, the grain mass additionally undergoes a series of these treatments.

The maximum level of purification of the grain mass from weed and oil impurities can be achieved using air-sieve separation apparatus (they remove most of the impurities of all fractions), stone separators (clean from stone-like fractions), trieres (separate grains of the main mass from grains of ballast crops), magnetic separators (remove metal impurities), etc.

The next step in the technology of flour production is the cleaning of the surface of grain shells from contamination. This operation, depending on technical equipment enterprises carry out in a dry or wet way. The first of them involves the use of a scrubber, the main working body of which is a whip drum located in a steel or abrasive cylinder. As a result of impacts, friction and interaction with each other, the grains are cleaned of all kinds of contaminants, flaky shells, adherent soil. To remove dusty weedy fractions, the scrubbers are equipped with aspirators.

The wet method of grain cleaning, unlike the previous one, is characterized by high efficiency. It provides for the use of washing units with a water consumption of 2 m3/t. The complexity of its use lies in the need for mandatory cleaning of sewage before draining into the sewer. Therefore, wet peeling of grain was chosen as an alternative to it, in which the volume of effluents is significantly reduced, and the quality indicators are in no way inferior.

Ensuring stability quality parameters grain helps to reduce the frequency of adjustments of grain processing machines. To this end, in the production of flour, a grinding product of mixing is formed and thermal hydrotreatment of the grain is performed before grinding. A competent combination of grain mass components with different moisture content, gluten levels, endosperm, cost, determines the production of flour with the expected yield, predictable properties and acceptable cost. Batch planning contributes not only to increasing the productivity of grinding grains, but also helps to prevent the rejection of low-value grain, during the processing of which it is unrealistic to find flour with suitable properties, and rational use of glassy wheat grain.

Thermal hydrotreatment of grain in order to increase the level of endosperm extraction in the grinding process and reduce energy consumption should be performed before the formation of the grinding mixture, since heterogeneous grain is not uniformly transformed during it.

The flour production process involves grinding the endosperm and grain hulls. The latter, having a high resistance to grinding, are crushed worse than the endosperm, and the more contrasting the difference in their strength qualities, the better the upcoming separation. In dried grains, the level of such a difference is lower than in raw grains, as a result, it should be moistened before grinding. Wetting underlies the thermal hydrotreatment of grain. Three methods of humidification are used: cold, hot and the most demanded - accelerated conditioning. Its feature is the moistening of the grains and their subsequent dampening in the bunkers.

When moistened, water is actively impregnated into the grain. Initially, it is concentrated in the outer shells. Getting into the endosperm, it reduces its strength, increasing supercritical pressure due to the growth of the moisture gradient. Since the moisture content of the outer and inner layers of the endosperm differs, they swell inhomogeneously, which provokes a tense property of the raw material.

In addition, the starch and protein components also swell differently. As a result, when the force increases to critical parameters, microcracks appear in the endosperm, which are capillaries through which water enters the grain with the action of wedging, destructive forces accumulate and the endosperm is weakened. It takes time to complete this process. With an increase in the level of humidity due to the swelling of cellulose and fiber, the shells are plasticized, and their fragility decreases.

As a result, such a stage in wheat flour production technology as accelerated conditioning provides an intensification of the separation of the structural and mechanical features of the outer shells and endosperm, which simplifies the implementation of varietal grinding and reduces the degree of fragmentation of the shells. The final step in preparing the grain mass for grinding is auxiliary moistening and dampening before grinding for half an hour. During this time, water enters the endosperm, is fixed in the shells, which contributes to the enhancement of their plasticization.

The technological scheme of flour production provides for the grinding of grain into flour, consisting of direct grinding or crushing, as well as sieving the grinding results. Grinding is carried out on rolling equipment with a corrugated, rough or even surface. Following the roller apparatus, a sifter is placed, consisting of a set of different-sized sieves mounted one below the other, to sort the grinding results by particle size. Flour making equipment such as sieving roller form torn or grinding system. The first of them with corrugated rollers is used for grinding the grain mass into grits. The grinding system with smooth rollers is used for making flour.

In the flour production scheme, the main operation is grinding (single and repeated). With a single flour is formed in one pass through the grinding equipment. The quality characteristics of such flour are low.

Modern mills for the production of flour provide for a repeated method of grinding with multiple passage of grain or crushed elements through the crushing and grinding apparatus. Distinguish between simple and complex grinding of this category. With a simple one, only single-grade flour is produced. Crushing is carried out on 3-4 systems. With complex varietal grinding, the grain mass is passed through torn apparatuses, sorting units for grinding fractions and their enrichment, and then grinding grains on different grinding systems. At the initial stage, they try to produce a minimum of flour fraction on tattered machines. The result of grinding is sorted by size and density, enriched in sieves. In total, with complex grinding, about two dozen flour flows of various qualities are produced. Then they are combined into 1-3 varieties in accordance with the varietal grinding.

Preparation of flour for production consists in sorting different batches, sieving them and magnetic cleaning. Different batches differ in baking qualities, as a result of which, before delivery for sale, separate batches of the same grade are mixed on flour mixers. So, low gluten flour is added to strong flour, etc. The volume of components in the finished mixture is predetermined on the basis of laboratory tests.

In the work of the flour mill, a significant yield of by-products is obtained, many of which are sent to the production of fodder flour. Categories of such products are regulated by regulations. In order to avoid self-sorting of the finished fodder meal, it is sometimes granulated on DG press machines. For this purpose, special binding components are introduced into the resulting product. According to Rosstat, the supply of the livestock industry with flour milling waste is 118%, with fodder flour - 96%.

Flour is a product that is incredibly in demand on the food market of any country. Bread, rolls are baked from it, pasta is obtained from it and pancakes, dumplings, chebureks and dumplings are prepared.

Also obtained from flour for various kinds domestic animals and birds. A flour business should not be started with a mill for the production of flour, but with an assessment of the potential market for demand for this product. It is necessary to take into account how big the influence of grain processing giants in the region chosen for business is. It is also necessary to take into account their own financial capabilities, as well as the availability of a market for flour products.

If you buy equipment for the production of flour and it will be idle from time to time, you will need to spend on commissioning and cleaning the working bodies from old scree. Certainly, interesting option- This is the use of those mills that worked in a not very long time. But they will require re-equipment to new quality standards, which may require considerable costs. For example, if you buy an old mill with a capacity of 100 kilograms or more per hour, then you should not expect a high quality product. Especially if you do not take into account the quality of the supplied grain and its preparation before feeding it to the mill. The quality of the goods becomes noticeably higher with a decrease in the productivity of the mill unit.

On the other hand, if you use an inefficient mill in your work, it will turn out to be unprofitable to supply small batches to large bakeries. At the same time, the flour production business will give small profit. It’s better then to master your own bread baking for local residents, thereby avoiding extra costs for the transportation of goods and profit from the sale finished product. But the production of high quality baking flour will also place high demands on the equipment.

Both domestic producers and foreign entrepreneurs are guided by high productivity, estimated at up to one and a half tons of grain processing per hour. Some large enterprises are capable of producing up to 100 tons of product per day at their complexes. Moreover, the yield of premium goods is at least 55% of the total yield. But in the domestic market there are quite different opinions. You can often hear that mill complexes with a capacity of up to 100 kg give sufficient profitability. at one o'clock.

Our business valuation:

Starting investment 2,000,000 rubles.

Market saturation is average.

The complexity of starting a business is 5/10.

Technological features of flour milling

Whole flour is obtained by simple crushing of grain, while there is no need to isolate in technological process some special fractions from the total resulting mass. Such a process is simple in principle and does not require any complex devices in addition to the grain crusher. Beneficial here are hammer crushers to receive feed.

Varietal grinding is carried out by the method of repeated grinding of raw materials for the production of flour. Separation into intermediate stages occurs mainly by sieving through calibrated sieves or using rotary sieving cabinets. Each variety differs from others in the size of the dispersed elements of its fraction.

A more thorough grinding of the flour mass is carried out using special roller machines. Rolls in modern machines replaced such old methods of production as grinding grains between millstones. But millstones are becoming a thing of the past, although as the surface of the millstones wears out, rubbing them against one another, the quality of the goods only improves.

So, flour is what passes through the smallest sieves. But the rest of the fractions are called, depending on their size, grains (small, medium, large) and dunst (soft or hard). The technology of production of wheat flour, which has a high saturation of the germ and fibrous structures with nutritional value, deserves special attention.

The technological scheme of flour production includes several stages:

grain cleaning from various impurities;
cleaning the surface layer of grain;
hydrothermal grain processing;
grinding grain on rollers according to the stages of readiness;
stage-by-stage sorting of the crushed fraction;
division of flour into varietal categories using sieves.

Bran obtained in the production of wheat flour is also divided into two types according to the diameter of its particles. The division boundary is a dimensional criterion of 0.8 mm.

The production of wheat flour is a rather complex process that requires the use of various equipment and significant energy costs. This explains high price on a product from wheat of the highest grades.

Flour production on Chinese equipment

In order to start flour production closely and on a grand scale, it is enough to open a flour production plant in Russia. A typical Chinese mini-mill uses a high-performance rougher, one sifter, and one stone selection machine. On the rolling floor, there are two 6FY-35 flour grinding machines, drum separators and a flour air filtration network.

Specifications of mini factory from China:

two mills for grinding grain are capable of producing 10 tons of flour per day;
the flour product is divided into grades: first, second and standard grade;
the dimensions of the room for the mini-factory (WxDxH) are 4x7x3.5 meters;
the total consumed electrical power of the equipment is 25 kW.

Mini-production of flour involves final stage placing it in a tempering tank. But due to the large size, this product will cost much less if it is made on the spot. The cost of shipping a large item will be unreasonably high. All installations and adjustments of the equipment of the mini-factory from China can be carried out with the help of a Chinese engineer, specially ordered for the commissioning period of the equipment. But domestic specialists are also able to mount all equipment according to ready-made drawings, perform all its adjustments.

Types of adjustments:

The mill without raw material load is put into operation 30 minutes before the start of the shift. Then it is completely stopped, and the main components are checked for excessive heating, vibration, and the condition of the V-belts. A mill machine without loading can work for an arbitrarily long time without harm to its mechanisms.
After starting the mill in the operating mode, its loading with grain must be increased gradually until the optimal operating modes are reached. If the mill is loaded sharply, then it is possible automatic shutdowns electric motors, which will create additional labor costs for preparing for a new start.
The specified type of flour will be provided not only with the initial settings of the equipment, but also with constant output control finished products. If production suddenly increases, this means that its quality will be reduced.

Equipment List of China Flour Production Line:

flour-grinding machine (mill) - 2 pcs.;
fans - 3 pcs.;
sieve for sorting flour - 1 pc.;
drum unit for screening - 2 pcs.;
combined machine for selection of stones, peeling and sifting - 1 pc.;
wheat washer - 1 pc.;
air sluice -4 pcs.;
weight platform - 1 pc.;
portable sewing machine for sewing bags with finished products - 1 pc.

Before starting the supply of equipment from China, it is necessary to complete the design of the plant. This will make it possible to put the mini-plant into operation in a timely manner and obtain a consistently high quality of grain grinding products. The manufacturer who supplied the equipment in accordance with the provided project guarantees the uninterrupted operation of the mini-factory for one year, minimum costs electricity, the minimum number of operating personnel and service support. If we take into account that the price of equipment for the production of flour from China is much lower than from domestic or European manufacturers, then it is difficult to wish for a better business.

Advantages of Chinese flour mills:

high productivity of the flour production shop;
ease of placement in a small production area;
very low operating costs of the equipment;
lack of increased vibration and noise during operation;
long service life with high reliability of the working units of the equipment;
ease of adjustment and repair of machines for the production of flour;
increased safety of machine operation;
the possibility of placing mills with additional equipment practically in any premises;
low price.

Suppliers of flour-grinding equipment from China deliver mini-mills for the production of flour and related equipment to complete the mini-mill within a strictly specified time frame.

Business plan for a flour mill

It would not be a mistake to say that every day every person eats culinary products in which flour is present to one degree or another. The need for flour is only increasing every year. For a product with in great demand the attention of businessmen is quite natural and promising. Activities related to the production of flour are simply doomed to success and profit. But the initial stage of this business, like any other, is the preparation of a flour production business plan. To guarantee success and profit, everything needs to be well thought out and worked out.

Initial cereal crops from which flour is produced:

wheat;
barley;
corn;
oats.

Such a list is needed to analyze the raw material base in the city where it is planned to organize a flour-grinding business. If some types of raw materials are in short supply in a given place, then the production of flour can be established from its other types. Of course, the technology for making flour from wheat grains will differ significantly from grinding corn or oats. This article focuses on the use of wheat grain for the flour milling business. A businessman who has identified wheat as the main raw material for production can begin to plan a production line with necessary equipment, and a room that is suitable for organizing production.

It is very profitable to engage in the production of flour for the reasons that in Russia there is no shortage of raw materials for this business. The grain base of the Russian Federation is the most important industry Agriculture, and representatives of this production are also looking for markets for wheat at a suitable price for them. And it is completely wrong to think that the flour and grain business is seasonal. Sale of bread, flour products and various pasta is carried out all year round with about the same intensity.

Of course, during periods economic crises the demand for all products falls, and the profits of producers fall with it. But after any recession comes a new growth in demand in the grocery market, which allows you to compensate for the losses incurred by businessmen at the time of the crisis. If you are conscientious and receive only a high quality product, conquering the sales market will not present a problem, and the number of trade customers will only increase.

The main buyers and customers of flour products are bakeries. It is very important that in the warehouse of the flour mini-factory there are always goods of all grades, from the first, second to the highest. Carefully monitoring fluctuations in demand for flour products, the producer will be able to regulate the sale of flour of a particular variety, in accordance with his own benefit. By selling different grades of flour, he can constantly maintain his business in a state of profitability and profitability.

The plan for the development of flour production should also take into account the rigidity of competition in the market for the sale of goods. There is hardly any business without problems and difficulties. Considerable competition also exists in the flour market. There are plenty of manufacturers of this product and everyone is looking for ways to sell their own products. But healthy competition is the engine of product quality.

We list the places where flour can be successfully sold:

livestock complexes;
private subsidiary farms in the countryside;
factories for;
bakeries and bakeries.

It would be nice to have your own point of sale on the market. This makes it possible to increase sales and the number of “own” customers. It is good if it is possible to conclude long-term contracts for the sale of flour with large trade enterprises, shops or bases. In any case, if we approach the matter with full seriousness, if we update obsolete equipment in a timely manner and improve the quality of flour, then the company's customer base will only increase.

The Net Economy in Numbers

The choice of premises for production, its disinfection and cleaning, the installation of a ventilation system and anti-insecticide measures are an important part of the cost of starting a business. In addition, such production will require a lot of permits from various regulatory agencies. There will be no big mistake if for all of the above you need to plan expenses in the amount of up to 300,000 rubles.

If 100 kilograms of a high-quality product are produced per hour of operation of flour production plants, then raw materials in the first purchase batch will require at least 200,000 rubles.

A large sum of 100,000 rubles will be required for the installation and commissioning of the plant's equipment. To this must be added the cost of the equipment of the mini-factory itself at 1,500,000 rubles. It turns out that initially you will have to invest at least 2,000,000 rubles. But after a month of operation of the enterprise, a profit of 200,000 rubles will be received from the sale of goods. It turns out that in a year of work, the enterprise can recoup all costs and reach a profitable mode of operation.

But only with a conscientious attitude to production, only without reducing technological requirements and by avoiding unreasonable economic measures, it will be possible to consistently obtain high quality flour and maintain their trading contracts with partners. And there will definitely come a time when the scale of production will not be enough to satisfy all existing orders. Then you have to think about expanding the business. And this will give a new level of profit and success.

Owners of land plots, suburban real estate assess the prospects of business ideas that allow them to implement their existing competitive advantages: territorial proximity to producers of raw materials, free premises and land. In addition to the production and conservation of agricultural products interesting business ideas are related to the production of flour and cereals - the flour-grinding industry on a small business scale. Given the high demand and orientation of the confectionery, bakery, and grocery industries for domestic semi-finished products and raw materials, such own business looks promising and promising.

And indeed it is. Increasing sales volumes of household and semi-professional mills indirectly confirm the consumer's interest in home-milled flour. But the flour produced on them will always be inferior in quality to professionally produced products, so the demand in this segment of activity is high, and the competition is still low.

Important! All these prerequisites led to a fairly high (despite the considerable initial investment) payback of the flour milling business. It is 1-1.5 years.

What is needed to organize a business

Coping on your own will not be easy. Too many stages of approvals will have to go through, a lot of permissions to get. Among the priorities:

from the fire service;
from the sanitary services of Rospotrebnadzor;
from Gospishcheprom;
from municipal executive authorities to the right to conduct business in this area, as well as to construction, since the flour mill (mill) needs the construction of additional structures, the construction, arrangement and equipment of which are subject to a number of special regulated requirements.

How to find an idea for your business for a young mother on maternity leave

It is wiser to contact the portals where turnkey mini flour mills are sold and buy there ready business with all relevant documentation. Despite the fact that such a service will increase the cost of organizing a business, it will allow you to avoid numerous additional charges and fines, and even the threat of suspension and closure of the enterprise.

In any case, an entrepreneur should register his own business in his own name by opening an individual entrepreneur or (in this case, better) an LLC. A legal entity (LLC) as a form of running a flour milling business is preferable from two points of view: it allows you to conclude contracts with legal entities for the sale of the finished product, for example, to sell flour to bakeries, bakeries, cereals to department stores and shops locality. In addition, unlike an individual entrepreneur who is fully responsible for the obligations of the mill with his personal property, the law does not provide for such a form of liability for an LLC. At the same time, preferential tax regimes (for example, the simplified tax system) are allowed to apply. Bread, flour, cereals are everyday, stable goods, so the risks of organizing such a business are recognized by experts as minimal. It all depends on the entrepreneur, his desire and hard work, obtaining and applying progressive knowledge and skills.

Flour-grinding equipment, price

If you start with a small mini flour mill, and take it for granted that the premises for the placement of equipment and production are already in the personal property of the entrepreneur, the initial costs will be:

Roller mill separating grinding from bran and carrying out subsequent crushing of grain. Its price starts from 15-20 thousand rubles, if you purchase used equipment in good working condition.
The flour sifter, the grade, and, accordingly, the price of the product, will depend on its work and use. So, sifting flour twice, you can get not a universal, but the highest grade of the product. The price of equipment - from 20 thousand rubles.
Flour grinder - from 40 thousand rubles.
Equipment for packaging finished products - from 70 thousand rubles.
Automated bag sewing machine that eliminates the need for expensive manual labor- from 20 thousand rubles.
Electronic scales - from 5 thousand rubles.
Raw material. A ton of grain will cost 10-20 thousand rubles.
Bags, packaging - from 5 thousand rubles.
Service and public utilities- from 100 thousand rubles.

Important! Total initial investment - from 300 thousand rubles.

The selling price of a kilogram of flour is from 30 rubles, bran - from 10 rubles. From a kilogram of grain, a flour mill produces an average of 600 kg of flour and 350 kg of bran. Hence, the approximate revenue per ton is 600 * 30 + 350 * 10 \u003d 18,000 + 3,500 \u003d 21,500 rubles. With an average production of equipment for small businesses at its initial stage of 30 kg / hour, the processing will be 7 tons of product per month, therefore, the amount of income will be a little more than 150 thousand rubles.

When it comes to flour production on the forums, the discussion quickly turns into a bitter argument. Skeptics see the milling business as a failure due to the dominance of the big players in the market; optimists, on the contrary, are sure that this direction of small business is doomed to success. After all, bread and other flour products are consumed by all people in Russia.

The business idea of the windmill enjoys stable interest, although successful start is associated with certain difficulties and nuances that future flour producers need to be aware of.

Overview of the flour market

The flour market is extremely unstable, demand depends on many factors that are difficult to predict, including the weather. For example, if there is an outstripping decrease in purchase prices for flour compared to grain, then millers are going through hard times.

As for the current specifics, in the coming years, domestic demand will be positively influenced by the growth of exports to China. So for 4 months of the agricultural year 2017/2018, more than 50 thousand tons of flour were sent to China, while for the entire last agricultural year - 71 thousand tons. At the end of the season, we will see a two-fold increase in shipments to the “eastern giant”. And further, due to the growing contradictions between Beijing and Washington, sales to China are likely to increase. Means, big players will be interested in new opportunities, freeing up a niche for small mills.

The infographic of the Institute of Agricultural Market Conjecture shows how the structure of flour exports has changed over the year:

“It is believed that a large flour business easily ruins small mills,” Anton Khazarin, an expert on food markets, comments on the problem. “However, this is not always the case, as small businesses are more dynamic, and in difficult times often go into a gray area, and also have more favorable taxation.”

Flour production as a business: how much does it cost to become an entrepreneur?

To begin with, millers produce flour not only from wheat, but also from many grains, including oats, barley, rice, and corn. Consequently, the search for one's "place in the sun" is simplified if the entrepreneur focuses on grinding, for example, barley, which, by a happy coincidence, is grown somewhere nearby. True, technologists warn about the differences in processing, which should be taken into account in the flour production business plan.

In 95% of cases, as practice shows, businessmen choose the production of wheat flour. It is understandable: there will never be problems with the feedstock, which cannot be said, for example, about buckwheat. The most important question facing entrepreneurs is this: how many rubles will you actually have to pay for your business on flour.

Equipment

The largest expenses during the commissioning of a flour mill are for the purchase of equipment. The standard complex includes the following machines and components:

roller machine with a horizontal or diagonal arrangement of rolls;
sieves for flour;
sieve machine;
knockout node
grinding machine;
nodes of accumulation and unloading of bran.

The most budgetary version of the Russian mill, which processes 360-400 kg of grain per hour, will cost the entrepreneur about a million rubles. Note that refurbished, that is, repaired equipment is sold at 40-55% cheaper than new models. However, keep in mind that the warranty period for used equipment is only 3 months.

“In my opinion, the optimal productivity for small businesses is 800-900 kg/h,” says Vasily Khutoryanin, food industry equipment sales manager. “Such a mill has a price tag of around 2 million rubles, but a line with twice the capacity will cost 5 times more.”

True, the larger the complex, the lower the cost of flour production.

If grain is imported, for example, from your own field or purchased from a local farmer, you will also need equipment for cleaning and preparing raw materials. Such a machine with a capacity of 500 kg / h can be bought for 600 thousand rubles. In addition, you will need silos for bulk storage of grain and flour, as well as pneumatic mechanisms for moving bulk products.

Item of expenses	Price
4 fabric silos up to 70 cubic meters	600 thousand rubles
Auxiliary automated equipment for pneumatic transportation of raw materials and flour within the production	400 thousand rubles
Laboratory for quality analysis of grain and flour	100 thousand rubles
Mill complex with a capacity of 800 kg/h	2 million rubles
Filling equipment for packing in small containers for retail	600 thousand rubles
	3,700,000 rubles

Raw material

Experts advise having a ten-day supply of raw materials. But in reality (especially in the initial period), entrepreneurs are forced to accept grain from wheels, having a volume in stock for at least 5 working days. At the same time, the most affordable fabric silo can take up to 70 cubic meters of grain or 45-50 tons in net weight, which ensures the operation of the mill for only 4 days with two-shift operation.

“In a good way, you need to have a supply for a couple of weeks,” Vasily Khutoryanin advises. “Otherwise, there is a high probability of downtime of expensive equipment.”

With a wheat price of 5,500-6,500 rubles per ton, a businessman must have at least 550-650 thousand rubles in working capital to purchase 100 tons of grain.

Staff

With the bulk technology of storage and transportation of grain and flour, it becomes possible to get away from manual labor in the flour milling industry. There is no need for numerous laborers.

Here is an approximate list of the staff of a small automated mill, adjusted for average salaries in the province:

Employee	Quantity	Salary
Director		50 thousand rubles
Technologist (Krupchatka)		35 thousand rubles
Security guard		15 thousand rubles
		20 thousand rubles
		25 thousand rubles
Laboratory assistant (in shifts)		15 thousand rubles

Thus, the monthly wage fund, taking into account the tax base for individual entrepreneurs, will be 250 thousand rubles per month. To this money it is necessary to add tax on the so-called "simplification" (6% of turnover) and contributions to the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation and FFOMS in the amount of 22,261.38 rubles + 1% of turnover. Businessmen said that for the format " Individual entrepreneur» expenses under this item in total amount to approximately 300 thousand rubles per month.

Marketing

Marketing at small mills, as a rule, is handled by the director himself, involving laboratory workers in calling potential consumers and suppliers. Considering that the small flour milling business is usually focused on local bakeries, bakeries and shops, the client base is “acquired” quite quickly. Yes and with pricing policy there are no particular difficulties.

“Consumers usually say how much they buy flour for. If a newly-minted miller at the same quality level offers 5% cheaper, they will take it from him, ”explains Anton Khazarin. Thus, special expenses for the promotion of their products from businessmen are not required.

General expenses

In addition to the expenses listed above, the entrepreneur will have to fork out for registration, for a three-month lease of a suitable room with an area of up to 200 square meters. meters and, if necessary, for repairs. In total, these additional investments can reach 500 or even 700 thousand rubles.

The total expenses for your business are almost close to 5 million rubles.

Profitability of the mill as a business

The standard business plan of the mill assumes a profitability of 15-25%. Below 10%, the probability of bankruptcy increases sharply, and a highly competitive environment does not give rise above 30%. In this scenario, for a complex with a capacity of 12 tons / day, the break-even point can be passed in 12-18 months. Of course, as in any business, there are exceptions here too.

How to start flour milling and organize the process

On the forums of private flour millers, you can learn a lot of interesting and useful things. For example, a user with the nickname #KING_ZAURALYA writes:

"Where before railway 60-100 kilometers on a dirt road, small mills are simply doomed to success. You can't build a gigantic factory in the middle of nowhere. In addition, the “big brother” loves wagon deliveries, so you won’t find big competitors further than 20 km from the rails. In short, count the mileage: from the field to the mill should be at least three to five times closer than by car to the railway.

“Mills are a cool business for the outback, where there are fields, although flour is transported along broken roads,” his colleague echoes the forum member #KOROL_ZAURALYA [email protected].

Businessmen do not see any particular difficulties in organizing the work of flour mills, since almost all mills produced in Russia are reliable and have high level automation. The advantage is that special products in case of repair will not be a headache for mechanics. Almost everywhere, spare parts can be purchased quickly and cheaply.

Business risks

As for the risks, they are associated with the instability of the flour and grain market. It must be remembered that up to 15% of small flour mills go bankrupt in the country every year. This is a fairly large figure that cannot be ignored when drawing up your plans. In a word, flour production is critically dependent on the competitive environment, as well as on the quality of the grain of local farmers. For when purchasing raw materials imported from afar, profitability drops sharply.

Conclusion

The flour-grinding business assumes that the initial investment will be from 5 million rubles. The entrepreneur will have to face tough competition.

At the same time, there are many territories in Russia where entrepreneurs with small mills earn good money. In their opinion, the main condition for success is the availability of local grain at a sufficiently large distance from the railways.