I'm thinking about importing beer from overseas.

Where should I start researching this idea?

What are some challenges I'll face? Customs, import license, finding local distributors, pricing, etc.

I'm not really sure where to start looking.

Any help is appreciated.

Where is the from and to of the beer importation exercise? What country will you be buying the beer and where will you sell it?

One of my friends has been doing this for some time in Australia. Despite the fact that Australia produces huge numbers of good quality beers, there's always a 'taste' for something else.

Another guy I met was buying cheap beers from South Africa (Castle brand) and selling them at his own club. He made a fortune but he had a good business formula.

Anyway, let us know the details so we can assist.

Since I'm a beer drinker myself I've found some beer in Poland that's not being sold here in the States and many people (my friends and people I know) would love to buy it at local grocery store / bar.

At the beginning I'd start selling to local stores here in New York, later on I would try to expand it into tri-state area.

Where would I sell it?

I have a lot of friends that own grocery stores, are managers at night clubs, work at pubs so I think this would help me getting my foot through the door at those places.

Just realized I'm really looking to start 2 businesses, import and distribution. Hmmm

There's quite a few Poles in NYC, I believe, but don't believe you have an automatic market in selling to them. The beer should be quite cheap, but US beers are very cheap too. You won't be able to compete on price. It's a niche market you'll occupy selling to those who prefer a foreign beer sometimes and of course the local Polish crowd.

The usual method is to bring beer into a country in containers so you'll need enough money to afford a 20 foot container full of beer for each shipment. At around 20c per can that'll be a lot of money for each shipment.

But I suspect that there's probably lots of beer importers in and around NYC already. I would have no doubt that Polish beers of all types will already be brought into the US.

Distributing speciality items (beers - whatever) can be a problem in that each retailer might not take the quantities that you prefer.

You can be an importer, you can be a distributor too. But simplifying your business problem you could choose to distribute Polish beer first by buying it from another importer. Learn how to get it distributed and then if you see fit, import it yourself.

But why stick to Polish beer? There's a lot of good eastern European beers. The Czechs make very good beers so do the Germans. If you want to be a beer importer why stop at Polish beers?

You'll need to rent secure storage for the imported beer. Have a means to get it into stores, set up a billing system, learn how to sell to stores and clubs and obtain import knowledge.

If you haven't done it before, find someone who has. Learn from them. Or try importing small quantities at first and learn that way. In fact that is what my friend did. He imported South American beers into Australia and sold mostly to upmarket bars where they were prepared to pay more. Finding retailers might be your biggest problem.

Do your research FIRST and find out just what kind of demand there is. Vague promises from retailers to 'give it a try' is not RESEARCH.

You might even think of retailing it yourself as well as wholesaling to others. You'll learn plenty that way about how to get it sold.

presently i work with an an appointed distributor of good quality beer and stout and can give you good link to buy from if you are looking for where to buy from . i believe yo have gotten a good advise on how best to start and requirements and i can only be of great help if it comes to sourcing of the products here .