Laid-In Cost
Laid-in cost is what a case actually costs the distributor once it has shipped and been taxed. Get it wrong and every margin downstream of it is wrong too.
Laid-in cost is FOB plus freight plus state excise plus any other per-case taxes. It is the distributor's real cost of goods for that case in that market, and it is the base the distributor's margin is calculated from. Not FOB — laid-in.
That distinction is worth money. A brand that quotes FOB and assumes the distributor's 30% comes off FOB will under-price the shelf every time, because the distributor is taking 30% off a bigger number. On a $115.95 FOB with $8 freight and $5.35 excise, laid-in is $129.30, and the gap between 30% of those two numbers is about four dollars a case.
In: the FOB, inbound freight to the distributor's warehouse, state excise on the case, and any other per-case tax or fee the distributor fronts. Out: the distributor's own warehousing, delivery and selling costs, which come out of its margin rather than sitting in laid-in, and federal excise, which the producer has normally already paid and buried in COGS.
Depletion allowances sit in an odd place. An allowance is supplier money that reduces the effective FOB dollar for dollar, so it reduces laid-in by the same amount — which is exactly why an allowance is such an efficient lever on shelf price compared with a straight discount further down the chain.
Excise is charged per gallon, not per case, so the pack configuration sets the bill. Twelve 750mL bottles is 2.378 gallons. Six 1.75L bottles is 2.774 gallons — seventeen percent more tax on the same case line. Twenty-four 12oz cans is 2.25 gallons.
This is why a calculator that assumes a 12×750 case is useless the moment you sell cans, and why our tools carry pack presets for cans, 19.2oz singles and the spirits configurations alongside the standard wine pack.
Same Florida Chardonnay: FOB $115.95, freight $8.00 a case, twelve 750mL bottles, 13.5% ABV.
Gallons per case: (750 × 12) ÷ 3,785.41 = 2.378. Florida wine under 17.259% ABV is $2.25 a gallon, so excise is 2.378 × $2.25 = $5.35.
Laid-in = $115.95 + $8.00 + $5.35 + $0.00 = $129.30 a case, or $10.78 a bottle. A distributor holding 30% margin sells that case to retail at $184.71, and a retailer holding 30% puts it on the shelf at $21.99.
Add FOB, inbound freight, state excise and any other per-case taxes. Excise is the per-gallon rate for that state and beverage class multiplied by the gallons in the case, which is bottle size in millilitres times units per case divided by 3,785.41.
Inbound freight to the distributor's warehouse is. Outbound delivery to the retail account is not — that is a cost the distributor covers out of its margin. If your FOB is quoted delivered, freight is already inside it and adding it again double-counts.
Yes, dollar for dollar. An allowance is supplier money applied against the case, so it lowers the effective FOB and therefore laid-in by the same amount. That is what makes it an efficient way to move shelf price without permanently cutting your frontline FOB.
Usually freight terms or tax class. Distributors often use a standard freight allocation rather than actual cost per line, and beverage classification can differ — a spirits-based RTD may be taxed as spirits in one state and as a distinct low-ABV class in another. Confirm the class before you argue about the number.
Planning estimate only — not tax or legal advice. State excise is applied from a maintained reference table and flagged where a rate is flat or a jurisdiction is control. Verify the excise class for your product and market, and confirm final figures with your distributor.