SBA 7(a) Liquor Store Feasibility Study in Missouri

A cancellation floor above one in five

Attrition is the headline for Missouri liquor stores under 7(a): at least 20.9% of earlier approvals, those through FY2024, never went forward, and the ceiling is the same figure. The 52 approvals recorded for the ten fiscal years total $27.1 million. A median of $302,900 is 0.69x the nationwide level; half the loans lie between $143,750 and $727,125. Franchising reaches only 1.9%, so stores are overwhelmingly independent. Missouri ranks 21 among states for the class by count, and liquor stores place 14 of 39 inside the state. No ratio is an outlier, so these facts mark the cell on their own.

Regent Bank and the Bank of Houston

Regent Bank appears with 9 loans and $7.2 million. The Bank of Houston has 7 loans for $8.4 million, the larger total on the smaller count. The table reflects SBA's file on who holds each note today. Jackson County and Saint Louis County lead with 9 and 8 loans, Greene and Jasper follow with 4, and Boone, Howard and Saint Charles have 3 each. The year pattern is uneven: 7 loans for $463,200 in FY2017, 8 loans for $8.6 million in FY2021, 8 loans for $5.8 million in FY2024 and a single loan of $1.1 million in FY2026.

Because too few of Missouri's early liquor store loans had funded, SBA's data does not support a charge-off rate for this cell. We print nothing, and we do not suggest it is nil. Anything a reader infers from the blank is a guess.

Reading the figure and testing the store

A cancelled approval can mean many things: a lease that fell through, a licence delayed, a seller who withdrew, a buyer who found other money. For a borrower, the practical lesson is to settle the licence and the premises before leaning on an approval. A feasibility study for a Missouri package store should test local rules on permits and distances from schools and churches, the competing stores and grocers licensed to sell spirits, and the customer base within a short drive. Bottles on the shelf tie up the most working capital, so the study should size inventory and turns carefully. Margins are thin and theft and shrinkage matter. The loan often buys an existing business, so past sales, owner add-backs and the lease term deserve scrutiny. Coverage should be shown after a conservative inventory carrying cost, with the owner's own wage included. For appraisal, value rests on the going concern and the licence, while the real estate may be leased.