Selling and marketing
Donut Shop Wholesale: What a Shop Pays per Dozen
How to price a wholesale donut order so ingredients, labor, fryer oil, and overhead all get paid before you profit.
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What to remember
- A wholesale price is one number per dozen that has to hold for months.
- Cost the whole batch: ingredients, fryer oil, packaging, labor, and overhead.
- Fryer oil and shrinkage move your cost more than flour does.
- A wholesale order carries less counter labor, so it can price below your market dozen.
Selling donuts to a coffee shop or a corner store is not the same as selling at a market table. Donut shop wholesale orders come in dozens, on a set day, at one price you agree to ahead of time. That price has to hold for months, so build it from your real costs instead of what feels fair.
What a shop expects from a wholesale donut order
A shop that buys wholesale wants three things: a set price per dozen, a delivery day it can plan around, and the same donut every time. It is not hunting for the cheapest dozen in town. It is looking for someone who shows up on the day they said.
BakeMargin describes donuts as high-volume, high-margin products. That is why a shop wants them on the counter every morning and why it will buy them by the dozen. Ask what the shop sells a single donut for at the counter, because that tells you the room you have. If your dozen price leaves the shop nothing after its own costs, the order will not last past the first month.
Wholesale buyers also want a paper trail. A simple invoice with the date, the count, and the price per dozen keeps both sides clear. It also makes it easy to spot the week an order quietly grows.
Cost one batch before you quote a price
Start with one batch and one number: what it costs you to make a dozen you can actually sell. What a dozen costs you to make walks through the same math for a home kitchen. A wholesale price built on guesswork is the fastest way to work harder for less.
Count what the batch makes
Write down how many donuts one batch gives you before anything is lost to a bad tray or a dropped pan.
Add every ingredient
Flour, sugar, yeast, filling, and glaze. Then add the oil in the fryer, because oil is an expensive input, not a rounding error.
Put a rate on your production hours
Mixing, proofing, frying, and glazing are production labor. Give that time an hourly rate and add it in.
Add packaging and delivery
Bags, boxes, labels, and the miles to the shop door. These are easy to forget and they show up on every order.
Divide by the sellable count
Batch cost divided by the donuts you can sell gives the cost of one donut. Multiply by twelve for the dozen.
For example, say one batch gives you 60 donuts. Ingredients come to $9, fryer oil to $6, and packaging to $3. Production takes an hour and a half at $15 an hour, so labor is $22.50. Overhead for power, phone, and delivery adds $4.50. The batch costs $45, which is 75 cents a donut, or $9 a dozen. Sell five dozen at $14 and you take in $70. After ingredients, labor, and overhead you keep $25, about 36 cents on the dollar. Swap in your own receipts before you quote anyone.
Fryer oil and shrinkage are the costs that sneak up
Two costs move a donut margin more than flour does. The first is fryer oil. The Beancount guide on donut shop bookkeeping treats oil as an expensive input rather than a supply you top up without thinking. The second is shrinkage, the donuts that never make it into a box.
The same guide measures shrinkage as part of costing a donut shop, and it is worth copying. In the example above, losing two donuts to a bad tray leaves 58 sellable from the same $45 batch. Your cost per dozen climbs from $9.00 to about $9.31, and your margin drops with it.
Track oil by the batch, not by the month. When you know what one fry costs and how many batches it covers, you see a price change the week it happens instead of at the end of the quarter.
Split production labor from counter labor
That same guide splits production labor from counter labor when it costs a donut shop, and that split is the reason wholesale can work for a home kitchen. Production labor is the time at the mixer, the proofer, and the fryer. Counter labor is packing, labeling, and handing the order over.
A wholesale drop off carries almost no counter labor, because one stop covers five or ten dozen. That is why a wholesale dozen can sit below your market price and still pay you. Price wholesale like a market sale and you leave money on the table.
What to check before you commit to a standing order
Before you agree to a standing order, check four things. Check the delivery day against your own week, because a Tuesday order that lands on your busiest baking day will hurt. Check whether the shop wants a fixed number of dozens or a range. Check who pays for boxes and labels. Check how and when you get paid.
Ask for the order in writing, even if it is a text. A written count and day protects you when the shop’s busy week turns into your double batch.
Set the price and hold it
Your wholesale price per dozen should cover ingredients, oil, packaging, production labor, and overhead, and then leave a margin. Price per dozen for wholesale shows how that number shifts as your batch size grows.
Write the price down with the date and what it includes. If oil or flour jumps, you have a record of what the old price was built on. Your profit after labor is the next page to read if the margin looks thin.
Keep your market price and your wholesale price separate. A shop that resells your donuts should not pay what a customer pays at your table. Review the price once a year, or sooner if an input jumps, because a small explained increase is easier to accept than a surprise.
For the rest of the selling side, from first order to repeat customer, see selling baked goods from home.
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Common questions
How do I set a wholesale price per dozen for donuts?
Cost one batch completely: ingredients, fryer oil, packaging, production labor, and overhead. Divide by the donuts you can sell, then multiply by twelve. Add your margin on top of that number. A price built this way holds up when a shop asks you to explain it.
Should my wholesale price be lower than my market price?
Usually yes, because a wholesale order carries less counter labor and you deliver in one stop. But lower does not mean thin. The price still has to cover every input and your production hours. If it does not, the order is costing you money to fill.
How many dozen should I commit to each week?
Start with a number you can hit on your worst week, not your best one. A shop would rather get four dozen every Tuesday than ten dozen once. Once you know your real batch time, you can raise the standing order with confidence.
What if the shop wants a lower price?
Change the order, not your pay. Offer a simpler donut, a smaller count, or a pickup instead of delivery. Cutting your price without cutting the work means the margin comes out of your own pocket.
Do I need a contract for a wholesale donut order?
A written order is enough for most small accounts. Put the count, the price per dozen, the delivery day, and who pays for boxes in a text or an email. Keep it somewhere you can find it when the order changes.
Does fryer oil really change my cost per dozen?
It can. The Beancount guide on donut shop bookkeeping treats oil as an expensive input, not a minor supply. Track what one fry costs and how many batches it covers. When oil prices move, you will see it in your cost per dozen right away.
Sources
This is general information, not legal or tax advice. Check your own state rules before you sell wholesale.