Only to be sold as part of a multipack…why?

Ah - another good possibility. 

Make less money per can
But sell more cans at lower mark up = same profit.
Put smaller cans in multiple packs and fool some customers , sometimes.
Get more 14yr kids hooked on sugar by selling 12 cans , so they buy 1 can a day for the next 23 years.
Shopkeeper/ wholesaler has different SKU to price , store , distribute, sellso needs a bulk discount

It's about controlling the marketplace for their products. For example, the recipie for coca-cola varies according to the ingredients which are available in each country (at a profitable price). So, coca-cola will not like Indian coke being sold in Malaysia, let''s say...

With pricing alone, it's a way to discriminate against consumers who have different buying power.

A corner shop outside a school may only stock single cans - that's what kids will/can buy + multipacks take up too much space for the given profit.

Wheras a big ASDA will do 24packs at 10p less than Tesco so they can claim to be 'cheaper on brands'...

In the cash and carry, you buy 24pks of coke marked with an RRP on them for less than those without. Coke assumes the retailer will sell those non-price marked versions at a higher price.

The rationale is not mathematical, it's (socio)economic.

That’s all well and good, economics/market forces etc etc but doesn’t explain why they prevent you from splitting a multipack - best reasons are from zilog, singletrack and richpenny. If I sell 100 cans a day why do they care how they were sold. They’ve already agreed their own margin and sold to distribution at a certain price point. Much better that they try and help me sell 150 rather than get pissed off about how much margin I managed to squeeze out of my customers on the 100 I did sell.

It could be to keep shopkeepers/the supply chain under control. Shopkeepers won't like being undercut, if you split multipacks.

So, if everyone buys multipacks + splits them, it could force the price down - too much supply. That might affect their profits (nobody buying the more profitable single cans anymore).

Also, they might tie-in a deal with other products. So the cash n carry will say buy 20 cases of coke and get a free bottle of whiskey.

Essentially, you're right, though. It doesn't matter.

Yeah it must be to do with protecting prices and distribution channels as well as forcing people to buy more than they want etc. 

This is a fascinating insight into how some people think. Present them with a rational explanation and... nope.

Anyway, my car journey up the M6 traffic jam has now ended, so I'll leave you to your ruminations.

Quite a lot of the time, it's cheaper for shopkeepers to buy stuff in supermarkets than the cash and carry. Most of our local kebab shops go to Lidl/Aldi for chips and burger buns etc.

TBF unless you work in retail/distribution, it seems stupid that a 2L of bottled water can be cheaper than 1L.

This is a fascinating insight into how some people think. Present them with a rational explanation and… nope.

Thing is general, your explanation wasn’t an answer to the question,  just a statement about economics. You then proceeded to repeat it over and over and then accuse me of being stupid for not understanding how your explanation was the answer to a question you clearly didn’t understand yourself! Fascinating as you say, or just belligerent. Thanks for your input,  some of the other answers are much better than yours though and far less rude. 😎👍

Anyway, my car journey up the M6 traffic jam has now ended, so I’ll leave you to your ruminations

Oh and texting/posting on STW while driving, big no no mate, even in a traffic jam.

Assuming Each can costs 30 p to make and the price at which the manufacturer sells to the retailer just happens to be at the exact point that they both make exactly the same profit as each other. This assumption is made to make the arithmetic easier to understand

This is an unhelpful assumption because it obscures the very reason bottlers print the "no splitting rule" on the can: the bottler's intention to capture as much of the value in production and sale, including at the expense of the retailer.

Short answer it's about maximising profit for the manufacturer in each market segment.

Single cans are one segment, multipacks are another. Different segments can support different pricing per can, you start splitting multipacks you are messing with their bottom line.

I believe their car journey involved more than one unit, helps save money.

I do love dipping Flakes in a nice single malt🤗

Sir should borrow a .45 Webley for your next single malt, you know what you should do!

You are considering multipacks and singles as the same product.

They aren't. The can contains the same product but how and why people buy singles and multis is different.

People buy multipacks from supermarkets aren't going to shell out single prices for 24cans so the supermarkets want something they can sell. And because they can sell lots of them the profit is acceptable. They also want to sell singles with their meal deals and individually that's a different market, they want to get the profit they can from them but the manufacturer won't see that profit. If you think of Tesco's and all the other biggies combined that's a huge loss of guaranteed income. I imagine that kind of thing is even contractually agreed with agreed pricing etc.

Then you have the little guys, buying their stock from a third party... Never going to sell multipacks, maybe the odd 6pack but not in great numbers. They'll fire out singles like no one's business though! The manufacturer wants them to do that but undercutting the prices of they huge purchasers is going to go down like a ice cold can of coke on a hot day. They don't have a contract with the seller so to attempt to control it they take the ingredients off, and make it illegal for the shop to sell it, they stick a label on it so people can see that the coke seller is a scumbag (bit rich from cokacola).

Manufacturer is trying to control a non contracted agreement. I believe the seller could quite legally add a label the reinstates all the missing information and sell them legally in the same way imports can be relabelled. Or just wing it but the legal issue there is again not to do with the manufacturer but a breach of selling regulations.

Or something.

****ing hell I want a can of coke now.

Oh and texting/posting on STW while driving, big no no mate, even in a traffic jam.

Irrelevant.

The answer is very simple, consumers spend more on your product and reinforces brand loyalty. The cost of the product itself is only a small part of the overall operational cost of a business so they’d rather you bought 20 for £10 than £1 each.

You have to add a little Schweppes Lemonade (the full fat one) to the malt

You animal.  The chocolate was bad enough but lemonade in malt? 

Oh and texting/posting on STW while driving, big no no mate, even in a traffic jam.

I sent Facebook messages the other day whilst doing 70mph in the middle lane of the M65.

I was sat in the passenger seat, mind.

I was sat in the passenger seat, mind.

Cougar nails it.

As did piemonster a while back:

I believe their car journey involved more than one unit, helps save money.

😄

Why have I read this entire thread? I agree the not to be sold separately thing is daft and guess it boils down to because we say so from the manufacturer.

I was sat in the passenger seat, mind.

If the manufacturer doesn’t want to sell multipacks because they make less money on them why do they make them in the first place?

It's all about core product lines.

To put it into a bike shop perspective using multipacks of cans:

The singles are akin to your tyres, inner tubes and cables. They sell well and consistently as people always need them, they are the products that underline your costs of running. The size that is bought when you need a drink there and then.

The 6/8 packs are more like your accessories like clothing and shoes. You sell less of them but they're still a consistent seller and help bump up your cash flow. The size that the forward planners buy to keep them going for the week or until the next shop day.

The 24 packs are your bikes. They don't sell as much as the smaller packs but when the weather plays nice they go quickly and easily. Essential to have available as they allow cross-sales to happen. Grab a 24 pack for a party and you'll also grab the snacks to go with them, buy a bike and you'll most likely need a few accessories to go with the new ride.

A good shop will always have most options available so that they capture the greatest amount of custom. Where you can play the system is if you're a burger van for example you can buy the 24 packs wholesale then split them to maximize profit margin, like a shop with just essential spares at a trail centre. The manufacturers mark the multipacks so that this is obvious to them and the customer, sort of a shaming technique. They can also use it to cut off supply to a shop that doesn't follow the rules.

There's also the 'two ways to make money' thing too: either sell small amounts at a high price and profit margin or sell large amounts at a lower price and profit margin. Both work but in different ways and depend upon your target market. By having all options available they make even more money as they capture more custom and importantly market share.

Multi packs come in cases of 4x6 (24cans at £11.59+vat) or boxes of 3x10cans (18.25+vat) so a little cheaper wholesale than the equivalent case of 24 (£13.09+vat) single cans.

Now RRP on a single non price marked can is £1.30, but the margins and rrps on multipacks are significantly smaller per can.

So its a way of stopping a few things..

Retailers selling the brand too cheap by passing savings on to the consumer - essentially you should 'never' see a single can of coke these days going for less than £1 if the retailer is adhering to rrp.

Keeping competition fair between wholesalers and retailers.

And keeping margins fair to the consumer.