Soft DrinksFruit Juices
Consumer products are one of the very difficult market to deal with. Taste of the appetite differs for each individual which makes the market quite risky. You may make a lot of investment and it might go wrong in the end.
Companies have to be very careful and selective when investing in food market. There has to be a lot of trials and tests before investing.
The most important challenge is to decide to invest in which drink. The taste of a specific juice differs as well. So, it is difficult and time consuming process to determine which type of the joices to bring.
- Improve sales and operations and production planning:
Investing in the products in small batches might seem an advantage but once the right product is determined, you will need to have your stock as soon as possible which will take time too.
- Determine the right inventory level:
Consumer products are fast going ones so cash flow and inventory is the main issue in this investment. The profit margins are very low due to very high competition so, stock in must be arrange very well in order to avoid shortage.
- Optimize the supply chain for perfect order planning:
Supply planning is very crucial too. Since it is a consumer product, date of expiry is a real important fact accounts for. Costumers are very finicky about this matter so order planning hast be made according to the speed of sale and level of inventory.
Before investing in any type of juice, we brought small batches of samples (one pallet for each one) and we sent them in market chains to give a go. We have also made special promotions such as “buy one get one free”. Then gradually we determine the speed of each type and finally decided to bring the ones going fast and the ones having potential to go.
Then while were investing in the ones going fast, we kept testing the new types as well.
We have been suppling oour imported soft drink from many different places and selling them through many different channels such as market chains, retailers and whole seller.
By the time demand grows, we invested in more different products; some of them made us loose but generally with the nature of industry, we keep growing with low profit margin.