Distribution Analysis of United Biscuits Pvt. Ltd.

Presented By

Alok Kumar Singh

Roll No – PG09006

United Biscuits Pvt. Ltd.

United Biscuits was founded in 1948 with the merger of two Scottish family businesses — McVitie & Price and MacFarlane Lang.

United Biscuits Pvt. Ltd is the UK’s leading biscuit manufacturer and No. 2 in snacks.

It is the second largest biscuit manufacturer in the Netherlands, France, Belgium and Ireland.

Key Markets of United Biscuits are Canada, USA, Sweden, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Middle East, Australia, India and Nigeria.

Key Brands of United Biscuits are McVitie’s, Fruit & Form, Carr’s, Delacre and BN.

 

 United Biscuits in India

In India United Biscuits started its operation in December 2009.

United Biscuits purchased the plant of S.S. foods with the investment of 15-20 crores located at Kala Amb industrial area in Himachal.

However in totality UB has already made an investment of 40 crores for this plant and also planning to invest more.

UB India today directly and indirectly employees over 1000 people and also plans to continue expanding its presence in the year 2010.

The existing market leaders in the Indian biscuit market are Parle, Britannia, ITC and some other strong regional brands such as Priya Gold in the north, Cremica in the west and Dukes in the south.

Product range of United Biscuits in India are McVitie's Digestive, McVitie's Cream, McVitie's Cashew Cookies and McVitie's Butter Cookies.

 

Product range of United Biscuits in India

McVitie's Digestive – United Biscuits have launched McVities Digestive in 82gm pack priced Rs. 10/- and 230gm pack priced Rs 30/- and would be competing with Britannia Marie Gold and Nutri Choice and Sunfeast Marie Lite.

McVitie's Cream – Mcvities Cream chocolate flavour in 75 gm priced Rs 12/- and would be competing with Britannia Cream Biscuits.

McVitie's Cashew Cookies – United Biscuits have launched Mcvities Cashew Cookies in 68gm pack priced Rs 10/- and would be competing with Britannia Good Day and Sunfeast Special.

McVitie's Butter Cookies – United Biscuits have launched McVities’s Butter Cookies in 68gm pack priced Rs 10/- and would be competing with Britannia Butter Cookies.

Objectives

Primary Objectives –

Identify the factors which are important in restructuring the distribution network.  Enhancement of effective and efficient distribution network.

Secondary Objectives –

  Identify the areas of improvement of United Biscuits. Actionable for the satisfaction of retailers of United Biscuits.

Distribution Channel

A channel of distribution is a group of individuals and organization that directs the flow of products from producer to customers. The main function of this element is to find out appropriate ways through which goods are made available to the markets.

United Biscuits has its manufacturing plant in industrial area of Kala Amb, Nahan Dist, Himachal Pradesh.

In India United Biscuits has only one manufacturing plant and making plan to open another manufacturing plant also.

For product Supply Company use Land Transport. Its land transport is based on Roadways.

Company use trucks for their product supply from plant to sales depot in Delhi.

United Biscuits has its Sales Depot in Industrial Area of Patpar Ganj, New Delhi.

This sales depot is company own warehouse. From this sales depot biscuits supplied in Delhi and NCR regions.

United Biscuits has many stockiest points in Delhi and NCR. From the sales depot biscuits are supplied to different stockiest points.

There are 22 sales officers in Delhi and NCR who are appointed at different stockiest point to regulate the distribution network.

Under the guidance of each sales officer 2-4 sales men work at a particular stockiest point.

Each sales officer has many beat plans for a particular area and as per beat plan sales men visit retailers to take orders from them.

These retailers sell biscuits to consumers.

Distribution Channel of United Biscuits in Delhi and NCR

Manufacturer

Sales Depot

Wholesalers (stockiest points)

Retailers

Consumers

Selection of Wholesalers (stockiest point)

 

United Biscuits followed following strategies for the selection of wholesalers.

  Dealership - Wholesaler has other FMCG companies’ dealership such as Mother Dairy, Amul,

Haldiram and many more.

Location – Centrally located in a particular potential market.

  Warehouse – Wholesaler should has spacious warehouse so that inventory can managed.

  Identity – Wholesaler should has good image in the market so that company can make good

relation with the retailers.

Beat Planning

United Biscuits followed following strategies for the selection of Beat Planning.

1 – Company divided a particular are in many Beat such as Noida has divided into more than 20 Beat.

 2 – Each Beat has 40 retailers approx.

 3 – Company focused those retailers who are good in FMCG business.

 4 – As per sales volume Beats are divided into category A, B and C.

 

5 – As per sales volume retailers are also divided into category A, B and C.

6 – Company mainly focuses ‘A’ category retailers so that company can increase sales growth and revenue.

7 – Company gives special sales promotion offer to ‘A’ category retailers.

Advertising and Sales Promotion

Company promoting its Biscuits by Television Ads specially Kids Channels.

For consumers United Biscuits has following sales promotional objectives –

1 - Encourage purchase of larger size units

2 - Build trial among non users and

3 - Attracting switchers away from competitors’ brands

For retailers United Biscuits has following sales promotional objectives –

1 - Persuading retailers to carry new items and higher levels of inventory

2 - Encourage off season buying

Selection of Sales Displays

United Biscuits sales displays play a very important role in pushing the product to the customer

and to popularize it.

United Biscuits sales displays are used to maximize product exposure, stimulate product interest, facilitate sales transactions, ensure product security, and keep reminding customers of his purchase.

For Sales Displays United Biscuits selected those retail stores which are located in potential market and people of that particular area know the retail store.

Company pays Rs. 300/- to Rs. 500/- as sales display amount on monthly basis.

Research Methodology

 Marketing Research: Quantitative Research

 

Data: 1 - Primary Data: Collected by field work 2 - Secondary Data: Collected by books and internet

Research Approach: Survey method

 

Research Instrument: Questionnaire

Type of Questionnaire: Structured

 

Type of Questions: Close-ended and open-ended questions

Target Population: Retailers

Sample Size: 100

 

Sampling Technique: Convenience Sampling

 

Sample Areas: Noida – Sec. 11, 12, 14, 15, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 27, 33, 34, 50, 53, 55, 56 and 71.

  

Data Analysis and Interpretations

1)- Which brand of biscuits do you have?

Interpretation – Survey shows that McVitie’s Biscuits are sold at all the 100 shops and other biscuits are sold at 99 shops. As per data we can say that Noida is a potential market for McVitie’s Biscuits.

McVitie’s 100

Parle 99

Britannia 99

ITC 99

Others 99

All 99

McVitie’s 1

Parle 38

Britannia 52

ITC 25

Others 0

2) - Which brand is more in demand?

1

38

52

25

McVitie's

Parle

Britannia

ITC

Others

Interpretation – In 100 sample shops one shop sales only McVitie’s that’s there are no competition. Most Demanded biscuits are Britannia 52% followed by Parle 38% and ITC 25%. In some shops demand of two biscuits are same such as Parle and Britannia.

Packaging Bad Average Good Very Good ExcellentMcVitie's 0 10 70 20 0Britannia 0 0 35 65 0Parle 0 0 60 40 0ITC 0 5 55 40 0

3 A) - Rate the Packaging.

1 - Bad, 2 – Average, 3 – Good, 4 – Very Good, 5 - Excellent

Interpretation - For McVitie’s packaging 10% retailers said that its average, 70% said good, 20 said very good. For Britannia 35% said good and 65% said very good. For Parle 40% said good and 60%said very good. For ITC 5% said average, 55% said good and 40% said very good.

Price Bad Average Good Very Good

Excellent

McVitie's 0 15 85 0 0Britannia 0 0 35 65 0Parle 0 0 40 60 0ITC 0 0 55 45 0

3 B) - Rate the Price.

1 - Bad, 2 – Average, 3 – Good, 4 – Very Good, 5 – Excellent

Interpretation - For McVitie’s price 15% retailers said that its average and 85% said good. For Britannia 35% said good and 65% said very good. For Parle 40% said good and 60% said very good. For ITC 55% said good and 45% said very good.

Quality Bad Average Good Very Good

Excellent

McVitie's 0 10 55 35 0Britannia 0 0 30 70 0Parle 0 0 50 50 0ITC 0 0 60 40 0

3 C) - Rate the Quality.

1 - Bad, 2 – Average, 3 – Good, 4 – Very Good, 5 – Excellent

Interpretation - For McVitie’s quality 10% retailers said that its average, 55% said good and 35% said very good. For Britannia 30% said good and 70% said very good. For Parle 50% said good and 50% said very good. For ITC 60% said good and 40% said very good.

Quantity Bad Average Good Very Good

Excellent

McVitie's 0 15 85 0 0Britannia 0 0 35 65 0Parle 0 0 35 65 0ITC 0 0 45 55 0

3 D) - Rate the Quantity. 1 - Bad, 2 – Average, 3 – Good, 4 – Very Good, 5 – Excellent

Interpretation - For McVitie’s quality 15% retailers said that its average and 85% said good. For Britannia 35% said good and 65% said very good. For Parle 35% said good and 65% said very good. For ITC 45% said good and 55% said very good.

Availability Bad Average Good Very Good

Excellent

McVitie's 0 20 80 0 0Britannia 0 0 55 45 0Parle 0 0 45 55 0

ITC 0 70 30 0

3 E) - Rate the Availability.

1 - Bad, 2 – Average, 3 – Good, 4 – Very Good, 5 – Excellent

Interpretation - For McVitie’s availability 20% retailers said that its average and 80% said very good. For Britannia 55% said good and 45% said very good. For Parle 45% said good and 55% said very good. For ITC 70% said good and 30% said very good.

Newspaper 0

TV Commercials 10

Magazines 0

Outdoor Media (Banners, Hoardings, etc) 0

Any other 100

4) - How did you get to know about McVitie’s biscuits?

Interpretation – All retailers know about McVitie’s biscuits by regular visit of sales men, and wholesaler. Among all this 100 retailers’ only 10% retailers are aware about McVitie’s TV Ads.

McVitie's Digestive 70

McVitie's Cream 13

McVitie's Cashew Cookies 23

McVitie's Butter Cookies 3

5) - Which flavor of McVitie’s biscuit is demanded the most by the customers?

Interpretation – Digestive demand is 70%, Cashew Cookies demand is 23%, Cream demand is 13% and Butter Cookies demand is 3%. Butter Cookies demand is less because it is recently launched in market.

Within 7 days 70

Within 15 days 25

Within 30 days 5

After 30 days 0

6) - How frequently the salesmen of McVitie’s visit your shop?

Interpretation – Sales Men of United Biscuits visit retailers as per his beat plan. Sales Men visit 70%retailers within 7 days, 25% retailers within 15 days and 5% retailers within 30 days.

Bad 7

Average 45

Good 48

Very Good 0

Excellent 0

7) - How is the service of McVitie’s biscuits in terms of supply at your shop?

Interpretation – 7% retailers said that McVitie’s biscuits supply is bad, 45% said average and 48% said good.

Yes 66

No 34

8) - Are you satisfied with the distributer of McVitie’s?

Interpretation – 66% retailers said that they are satisfied by distributer and 34% said that they are not satisfied with distributer.

Yes 80

No 20

9) - Are you aware of McVitie’s promotional offers?

Interpretation - 80% retailers said that they are aware about promotional offer and 20% said that they are not aware about promotional offer.

10) - What are your suggestions for the company?

1 – Package size is small as compare to other biscuits such as Parle and Britannia.

2 – Different variety of biscuits should be more.

3 – Package weight is lesser than other biscuits such as Parle and Britannia.

4 – Supply Chain should be effective.

5 – Advertisements should be more.

6 – Biscuits test should be more effective.

7 – Rs. 12/- McVitie’s Cream price should be 10/-. There is problem of change. 8 – Sales Men and officers visit should be on time.

9 – Before launching any new flavor of biscuit, sample should be distributed.

10 – Replacement and Sales Displays should be on time.

Findings

1 – Noida is potential market for McVitie’s biscuits.

2 – In Noida Britannia is most demanded biscuits.

3 - Only 10% retailers are aware about McVitie’s TV ads.

4 – Digestive is most selling biscuits. In 70% retail stores digestive sale is more than McVitie’s other biscuits.

5 – Sales Men cover 70% retail stores within 7 days.

6 – MCVitie’s biscuits supply is good only at 48% retail store.

7 - 66% retailers are satisfied with the distributer.

8 – 20% retailers are not aware about McVitie’s promotional offers.

9 – McVitie’s price is higher than other competitors.

10 – Retailers need different size of package and varieties of biscuits also.

Limitations

1 – Time – For accomplishment of project I have only 42 days, but for the research I required more time.

2 – Area – Survey is based on Noida City’s retailers.

3 – Sample Size – I had only 100 sample size for the survey which is very less.

4 – Retailers do not have enough time to response the questionnaire.

Recommendations

1 – Proper supply chain should be so that biscuits can be supply on time and reduce stock out problem.

2 – No need to cover those areas which is not potential for McVitie’s biscuits supply.

3 – More focus ‘A’ and ‘B’ category of retailers rather than wasting time and money on ‘C’ category retailers.

4 - Focus more on advertising and sales promotion.

5 – Give proper training to sales men about the selling techniques .

Thank You