Milk & Juice Industry In Pakistan

STRATEGIC MARKETING ASSIGNMENT

INDEX

TABLES OF FIGURES

1. ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I profoundly thank the Management Team of SIG Combibloc Obeikan and in particular the marketing department as well as the team of Knowledge Horizon for its most valuable support and precious help during my researches and completion of this assignment.

Being part of the commercial department of the company, I couldn't have undertaken this marketing assignment without their assistance.

2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The concept of this assignment is to establish a Marketing Plan for Pakistan in line with the global strategy of SIG Combibloc Obeikan ("CBOB") for 2006-2008 of gaining new strategic customers to reinforce its position in its dedicated market. This assignment is built in three phases: the analysis of the current situation, the analysis of the marketing options and the formulation of a marketing plan.

After careful study of both macro- and micro-environments through the PESTEL, SWOT, Competitor and Market analysis, we can conclude that an encouraging growth in the Pakistani dairy and juice industry as well as the existing customers demand for a new supplier to end the monopoly position of the competition are factors that will help CBOB to position itself on the Pakistani market.

The major challenge that CBOB will face is the customs duty of 15% that could slow down the expansion. However through active lobbying of the Pakistani Government, which has already spoken in favour of a diminution in customs duties, it is possible to achieve a reduction to 5% by 2009. This would allow CBOB to operate under standard competitive conditions and achieve a profit of USD 5 million in just 4 years.

With an actual market of 1.6 billion cartons and an annual growth of 15%, entering the Pakistani is vital in achieving the mission of CBOB.

3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The subject of this study is SIG Combibloc Obeikan referred to as "CBOB" in the rest of this paper.

To help finding the relevant data to compile the marketing plan the following sources of information have been used:

Figure 1 - Research Methodology

4. INFORMATION BACKGROUND

4.1. Company Information Background

4.1.1. The Company

CBOB, based in Dubai, is a joint-venture between the German-based SIG Combibloc ("SIG"), a worldwide supplier of aseptic packaging systems for long-life food products such as beverages, soups, sauces and desserts and the Saudi-based Obeikan Investment Group ("OIG"), the largest supplier of carton-based packaging for liquid products (carbonated soft drinks & non-carbonated products) in the Middle East within both the aseptic and non-aseptic food categories.

The joint-venture was born in January 2001 to fulfil the need of SIG to expand their market share and activities within the Middle East. Therefore they decided to form a partnership with a local packaging company in this area to gain further access to the market.

From the Dubai-based joint-venture, all Technical, Commercial and Marketing initiatives are coordinated for Middle East, Africa and Sub-Continental Asia (Pakistan, India, and Sri Lanka). With an initiative to get closer to the market and the customers and expand within the market, a number of satellite offices have been opened and strategically placed in and around the Middle East where all of the activity is.

CBOB is a "Business to Business" (B2B) focused organization and its principal activity is the trade of packaging systems, benefiting from the technical know-how of SIG and the market know-how of OIG.

Figure 2 - CBOB Market Territories

Dark Blue: East Cluster

Red: Central Cluster

Light Blue: West Cluster

59 countries

2.5 billion population

8.2+ billion cartons

4.1.2. The Product

The product range of CBOB is targeting the dairy and juice industry and includes:

Figure 3 - CBOB products

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