Marketing Practices of ACI Agribusinesses

The vital objective of this report is to analysis Marketing Practices of Aci Agribusinesses. Other objectives of this reports are to know about the Advance Chemical Industries (ACI), to developed myself for Business and knowing the market condition in present section about pump machinery, to investigate the structure of the pump machinery market, to analysis the pump machinery business in the context of Bangladesh and to understand the machinery used at different levels. General objective of this report is to know the Market Analysis of Pump Machine.

Objectives of the Report

The objective of this report is to contemplate the knowledge and experience accumulated from the internship program. According to the guidelines of supervisor, this report comprises of the extensive research on the pump machinery market in Bangladesh. Two type of Objective is given blew:

Board Objective: The board objective of the report is to know the Market Analysis of Pump Machine.

Specific objective:

To know about the Advance Chemical Industries (ACI)
To developed myself for Business and knowing the market condition in present section about pump machinery.
To investigate the structure of the pump machinery market
To analysis the pump machinery business in the context of Bangladesh
To understand the machinery used at different levels
Mainly to knowing about the market size

About ACI Agribusinesses

Introduction

ACI was established as the subsidiary of Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) in the then East Pakistan in 1968. After independence the company has been incorporated in Bangladesh on the 24th of January 1973 as ICI Bangladesh Manufacturers Limited and also as Public Limited Company. This Company also obtained listing with Dhaka Stock Exchange on 28 December, 1976 and its first trading of shares took place on 9 March, 1994. Later on 5 May, 1992, ICI plc divested 70% of its shareholding to local management. Subsequently the company was registered in the name of Advanced Chemical Industries Limited. Listing with Chittagong Stock Exchange was made on 22 October 1995.

Advance Chemical Industries (ACI) Limited is one of the leading conglomerates in Bangladesh, with a multinational image. ACI is a Public Limited Company with a total number of 19,653 shareholders. Among these, there are three foreign and fifty local institutional shareholders. The company has diversified into three major businesses. Besides these, the company has a large list of international associates and partners with various trade and business agreements.

Distribution Network

The company maintains strategically located sales centers in nineteen different locations across the country. It has developed an advanced distribution system through its more than 300 skilled and trained manpower and a large fleet over eighty vehicles. The distribution system is capable of handling continuing volume of diverse range of products from the various businesses.

The company’s distribution centers are highly streamlined, computerized and automated. We are capable of maintaining a cold chain for some specialized range of products such as vaccines and insulin. The combination of this advanced function and multidimensional capabilities made it possible to handle hundreds of products efficiently.

Manufacturing Standards

ACI has three separate manufacturing plants in the outskirts of Dhaka. The Pharmaceuticals plant is located at Narayanganj; ACI Formulations has been setup at Gazipur and the Tetley factory has been built at Konabari. ACI Limited is the first company in Bangladesh to have attained the ISO 9001 certification for Quality Management System and ISO 14001 for Environmental Management System. The Trading subsidiary has also received ISO 9002 certificate. At our manufacturing facilities, we follow cGMP guidelines and standards recommended by World Health Organization (WHO) for pharmaceutical formulations.

ACI has the following subsidiaries:

ACI Formulations Limited
Apex Leather crafts Limited
ACI Salt Limited
ACI Pure Flour Limited
ACI Foods Limited
Consolidated Chemicals Limited
Premiaflex Plastics Limited
Creative Communication Limited
ACI Motors Limited
ACI Logistics Limited

The main activities:

In 2004, ACI Pharmaceuticals ranked 11th in the Bangladesh Pharmaceuticals Industry. It provides the market with a wide selection of drugs across all major therapeutic classes, and also offers some specialty medicines. ACI Pharmaceutical represents Astra Zeneca, Eli Lily and UCB in Bangladesh.

ACI Crop Care and Public Health Division is holding the leadership position in the industry; Animal Health has experienced one of the highest growth rates in this sector. ACI Agribusiness has partnerships with several international conglomerates including Ceva Santhe Animale, Invesa, UCB, Isagro Asia and Borregaard Taicang Chemicals Co. Ltd.

ACI Consumer Brands is a leading Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) company in Bangladesh. In the liquid antiseptic and mosquito repellant categories, this division is a very strong market leader. Foreign partners represented in by this division include Godrej Consumer Products (for hair care and skin care products), Parle Group (for Parle G biscuits), Beiersdorf, Germany (for Nivea range of products) and Colgate Palmolive.

ACI has formed joint ventures with leading FMCG and agribusiness players in the region. These are:

Asian Consumer Care Private Limited: Joint venture of ACI and Redrock Limited, for distribution of various ranges of Dabur products in Bangladesh. ACI holds 50% stake in the venture.

Tetley ACI Bangladesh Limited: Joint venture of ACI and Tetley Group of United Kingdom for distribution of Tetley products in Bangladesh, with ACI having 50% shareholding.

Many ACI products have crossed our national boundary and are being successfully exported to various countries in Asia, the Middle East and the CIS region. The response of foreign consumers to our products has been encouraging.

ACI Formulations Limited

ACI Formulations Limited (ACI FL) is a subsidiary of ACI Limited, located at Gazipur, in the outskirt of Dhaka ACI FL manufactures majority of the products of ACI Strategic Business Limited except for the Pharmaceutical Division. The factory is equipped with the state -of -the -art facilities for product formulations and process innovation. These include modern computerized equipment like HPLC and GLC.

The product range manufactured at ACI FL include Crop Protection Chemicals like insecticides, herbicides and fungicides in granular, powder and liquid forms, Mosquito Pesticides in the forms of aerosols, vaporizers and coils; and household chemicals like toilet cleaners and hand wash.

Diversification into New Industries

ACI Limited is venturing into new areas of business, as part of its diversification initiatives. Two such businesses being set up are ACI Salt Limited. and ACI Godrej Agrovet Private Limited.

ACI Salt Limited: ACI has set up its salt refining plant in Rupganj, on the banks of the Shitalakhya River. The plant will produce refined iodized salt through Thermal Evaporation System. ACI has used technology from China Heavy Machineries Corporation (CHMC) in establishing the plant. The end product will be of high quality, free-flowing salt with even, crystallized grains. The iodine content of ACI salt will have a stability of more than 6 months. The project has been undertaken at an approximate cost of Taka 32 cores.

ACI Godrej Agrovet Private Limited: Godrej is a pioneer in the packaged meat business in India. It is also the market leader in the poultry industry, and the owner of ‘Real Good’ brand. ACI and Godrej have a joint venture in Bangladesh to set up an Integrated Poultry Project. Under this project, ACI Godrej Agrovet has already set up a feed mill at Sirajganj. This is fully automatic pellet poultry and fisheries feed mill, which uses technology from Jiangsu Muyang group of China. The company has also set up a hatchery at Joynabazar, on the Dhaka Mymensingh road, with technology from Godrej. The plans for this project also include establishing Grand Parents and Parent Stock breeding farms. The investment in the project is Taka 8 crores, with ACI Limited having 50% shareholding of the company.

Business activities:

ACI Motors limited is a private Limited company incorporated in 2006 with the registrar of joint stock companies, Dhaka, Bangladesh under the company Act 1994 having 75% shares by Advanced Chemical Industries Limited ‘ACI Limited”. The principal activities of the company is buying, selling , importing and Assembling of vehicles of both agriculture and other than agricultural use including supply spare parts and providing service facilities for vehicles.

Social Commitment:

Quality policy

ACI’s mission is to achieve business excellence through quality by understanding, accepting, meeting and exceeding customer expectations.

ACI follows International Standards on Quality Management System to ensure consistent quality of products and services to achieve customer satisfaction. ACI also meets all national regulatory requirements relating to its current businesses and ensures that current Good Manufacturing Practices (CGMP) as recommended by World Health Organization is followed for its pharmaceutical operations. The management of ACI commits itself to quality as the prime consideration in all its business decisions. All employees of ACI must follow documented procedures to ensure compliance with quality standards.

The pool of human resources of the company will be developed to their full potential and harnessed through regular training and their participation in seeking continuous improvement of work methods.

Environment policy

ACI is committed to maintain the harmonious balance of our eco-system and therefore constantly seeks ways to manufacture and produce products in an eco-friendly manner so that the balance of nature remains undisturbed and the environment remains sustainable.

In pursuit of this goal, ACI will

Comply fully with all local and national environmental regulations.
Conserve natural resources like water and energy for sustainable development, and adopt environmentally safe processes.
Ensure appropriate treatment of all effluents prior to discharge, to prevent pollution or degradation of environment.
Ensure appropriate communication and cooperate with internal and external interested parties on environmental issues.
Create awareness on environmental issues among our employees and suppliers.
Adopt modern waste management technology

Task of the Marketing Division of ACI Motors:

Mechanized Cultivation is a basis requirement of Bangladesh. Farmers use tractors for land preparation and for transport of agriculture outputs to the Markets place. Farmers were not adequately supported to fulfill this need, their hardship was accentuated due to labor shortage. Furthermore mechanization would increase productivity, lead to uniform quality of land preparation, and reduce the time between crops. To fulfill this need ACI Motors started its operation on November 2007, with a wide product range of agriculture Machineries like tractors, power tillers and mini combine harvesters. We made a commitment to ensure supply of quality machineries and proper after sales service.

ACI Motors has been appointed as the national distributions of ITL, India for marketing of “sonalika” Tractor fastest growing brand in India. This tractor is especially design for the small ands sizes and narrow roads of Bangladesh. From cultivation one’s own land and providing rental service a farmer can get return on investment within 18 month from a tractor, ACI also provided flexible credit facilities for farmers and developed several sales service, repair and spare parts.

‘Bull Power’ and mini Combine harvester ACI”S own brand has receive tremendous response from the farmers. ACI Motor is planning to introduce light commercial vehicles pickups and mini trucks to support farmers to carrying out agricultural good. Also, high quality diesel engines and pump for irrigation purpose will be offered. This business shows considerable promise in contributing to the agricultural productivity of Bangladesh.

Types of Products

Health Care: ACI formulates and markets a comprehensive range of more than 120 products covering all major therapeutic areas. It also markets world-renowned branded pharmaceutical products like

Diprivan,
Nolvadex,
Accolade,
Meronem,
Atarax, etc.

ACI is actively engaged in introducing newer molecules and Novel Drug Delivery Systems (NDDS) to meet the needs of the future. Company also the toll manufacturer of Servier of France and Novartis Bangladesh.

Consumer Brand Products: ACI markets

Home Care Products,
Personal Care Products,
Oral Care Products and
Food & Drinks.
ACI owns the Savlon brand in Bangladesh.

Agribusiness: ACI markets some herbicide and fungicide products in the market. It also market seeds for

water melon,
hybrid paddy
And hybrid maize.

Animal Health: ACI has a full range of products including vaccines, medicines and nutritional supplements for large animals and poultry.

Questionnaires for Pump Machine.

How many types of pump machine available in the market?
Which countries pump Machine is available in the Market
In Present which countries pumps are demandable in the Market
What is the price of pump in different countries?
How many number of importers at Nawabpur
How many times they usually import in a year
Quantity of Pump Machine import in a year
Is their any distribution center or they directly sales the product?
What is the system of import?
In which time pump Machines are selling heavily?
Market demand for specific types of pump Machine
Market Leader among the brand
Market Leader among the company
Which Media they use to promote their product?
How Many shops at Nawabpur Market
Use of Pump Machinery

Summary of the Market survey:

How many times they import in a year?

Usually the import three times in a year

Quantity of machineries imported in a year?

Yearly Chittagong Builders import (60,000-70,000) Pieces.

Yearly Samsons.M&C. import (15000-20,000) Pieces.

Yearly Molla Machineries & Motors import (15000-20,000+) Pieces.

Yearly Amanat Machinery House import (15000-20,000) Pieces.

Yearly Comilla Machinery (15000-20,000) Pieces.Yearly Bangladeshi importers import (1, 10,000 – 1, 15,000) Pies pump machinery.

How many types of pump machine available in the market

Mainly four types:

- - - Jet pumps,
    - Centrifugal pump,
    - Compressor pump,
    - Submersible pump etc.

Market Leader among the Brand

SIFANG is the market leader among the brand, they said.

Market Leader among the company

CHITTAGONG BULDERS & MACHINERY LTD is the market leader among the company.

Brands Exceptional: Sifang gold, Sifang Delux, Walton.

IMPORTER 65% IN Nawabour MARKET (All over every think)

System of import: Trade license, L/C etc.

Modes of payment: DD, TT, PO, Cash

Season: Any time in the year

How many importer in Nawabpur: Mainly 5/6 Company. Said that only (5) Five importers in Nawabpur.

How many shops in Nawabpur market:

ENGINR: Mainly 50 shops.

Pump, Motors, spare Parts: 200 -250

Elect, Hardware, Tools, Watcher: 250 -500

Which Media they use to promote their product?

Basically the electronic media

Use of pump machine

Water lifting purpose in house hold
Rice mills
Land cultivation
Mixer matching (cement)
Rice fan etc

Finding & Analysis

Marketing Management concept:

There are five concepts under which organization conducts their marketing activities, these are product concept, production concept, selling concept, marketing concept, and social marketing concept.

ACI Limited conducts their marketing activities under the societal Marketing concept, Basically societal marketing concepts balance of the three marketing polices that are company profit, consumer want, and society interest. I assume ACI Limited also conduct product concept because they customer quality performance, innovative feature and continuous product improvement. I think they will follow this concept.

Marketing Environment

The marketing environment consists of the actors and out forces that affects marketing manager’s ability to develop and maintain successfully relationship with its target customer. Its offers both opportunity and threats. The marketing environment mainly consists of both micro environment and macro environment. The ACI micro and macro environment are given below:

The Micro environment of ACI LIMITED

The company itself: Advance Chemical Industries Limited.

Suppliers:

ACI Ltd has two types of suppliers. One is packaging suppliers. Most of the package are collected from aboard and rest of locally in Bangladesh. Another is raw materials is collect from India and United Kingdom, china

Marketing Intermediaries:

Financial intermediaries of ACI are banks such as Standard Chartered Bank, The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, Commercial Bank of Ceylon Limited, Citibank N. A. ACI Limited 6 deposits for their distributors, for product.

Customers:

Whole Bangladeshi people are the customers of ACI Limited but mainly the agricultural people of urban area their targeted customer.

Competitors:

The major competitors of ACI Limited are Square, Beximco,Acme, orion etc in pharmaceuticals. In motors sectors the Mohandro TAFE tractor. Chittagonj builders and machinery for power tiller.

Publics:

The main publics of ACI Limited, who have actual or potential interest, are all publics.

The macro Environment of ACI Limited:

The micro environment consists of the larger societal forces that affect microenvironment. The macro environment of ACI Limited includes:

Demographic Environment:

ACI Limited think about communicating way, communication cost, consumer habits, purchasing power. So they divide their demographic environment based on population size, density, occupation, location etc.

Economic Environment:

The purchasing power of the consumer is less than other country, because the economic condition of our country is not good. So it can be threat for ACI Ltd. But the opportunity is better than competitor.

Natural Environment:

World wide natural climate is changing day by day. For this reason ACI limited wants to adapt with new climate.

Technological Environment:

ACI limited upgrade their technology with the adjustments products size, shape, color, quality, and new packaging style. It also affects the ACI Limited macro environment because they also think about what competitors are doing to develop their technology.

Political Environment:

Trade mark Act, the government agencies like BSTI, CAB, pressure group and political violence is affecting the company macro environment.

Cultural Environment:

It also has a great impact on macro environment if the test, perception, preference, buying behavior of consumer is rapidly changed the target market.

Marketing Information system (MIS):

Marketing information system consists of people, equipment, and procedure to gather, analyze evaluate and distribute needed timely and accurate information to marketing decision maker.

Internal Record System: ACI Limited used to maintain all employees’ related information on paper based documents. On implementation of this IT enabled system, information is all available on soft form, very easy to use and of course in a very cost effective manner

Marketing intelligences: ACI Limited collects information from the different retail stores for searching new opportunities about their product quality, fragrance, performance or developing. They also collect information from Govt. statistics, journal, talking customer supplier and distributor and also collect from macro and micro environment. For developing marketing strategies, decision making.

Marketing Research: ICI is the parent company of ACI Limited. So they have systematically design of specific brand and reporting of sales and distribution data and finding relevant to a specific marketing situation facing the company.

New product Development strategies

It is a strategy for company growth by offering modified or new products to current market segment. For product development strategy the following can be taking:

Idea Generation: Based on customer demand ACI Limited develop new feature for instance the packaging shape, size, color etc of the product.

Idea Screening: It could develop different quality product for different segment. For instance it may import different types pump machinery in the local market.

Concept Development and Testing: It could research & alternative technology such as by examining these there intensive growth strategies, .Research & development division of ACI Limited may discover several ways to grow. Still, that growth may not be enough. In that case, it must also examine integrative growth opportunities.

Marketing Strategy Development: ACI Limited might try to identify the potential user group in the current sales areas that is through direct marketing, coupon, collecting data from the marketing channel, market research etc. ACI Limited might seek additional distribution channel in its present location e.g. increase dealer, retailer, sales force. It might consider selling new location in Bangladesh abroad that is increase the sale in rural areas ans.

Product Development: For product development the brand manager suggests to test the product whether it has side effect or not because side effect products create bad whether bad image in the mind of the consumer.

Market Testing: After finishing all the process the brand manger serves for testing the side effect and getting the customer’s positive response and any new idea from the market for developing the feature.

Commercialization: Last of all brand manager of ACI Limited, order to produce the product at a certain quantity and then market the products.

Pricing Approaches

Every company sets prices by selecting a general pricing approach that includes three set of factor the cost base pricing, value base pricing , competition base pricing . ACI Limited follows competition base pricing so the customer will base heir judgments of products value on the price that competitor charge for similar products. Sometimes the company charge it products price more that or less than its major competitor.

Pricing for New Products

Companies’ bring out a new product can choose between two broad strategies are marketing skimming pricing and marketing penetration pricing. ACI Ltd uses marketing penetration pricing for new products. By using market penetration sets a low price for new products in order to attract a large number of consumers and a large market share. They do this for their new product.

SWOT Analysis of Advance Chemical Limited (ACI)

Strength:

Good Reputation of the company
Sound Management
Strong Marketing Team
Quality product
Excellent distribution system
Large product category

Weakness:

Lack of manpower
Lack of technological know-how
Unskilled worker
Transport problem

Opportunities:

Established company and have a good reputation
Large market size
Large size consumer group
Increasing demand
Less number of competitors
Well known company in the consumer mind

Threats:

New company in pump machinery business.
The threat of government at law and regulation based on tax, vat, Export & import restriction.
Very strong competitors, offering their product at law price and consumer buying their product.
Because of political crises, the economic condition of our country will not good, so purchasing power of the people in our country will decrease.

Conclusion

ACI Limited conducts their marketing activities under the societal Marketing concept, basically societal marketing concepts balance of the three marketing polices that are company profit, consumer want, and society interest. I assume ACI Limited also conduct product concept because they customer quality performance, innovative feature and continuous product improvement

Engine technology is one of the sources of development. Now-a-days our country has developed in this regards. In the market it is available from 3HP to 30HP and other types of pump machineries also. Itóóóóóóóóó works on its different capacity. It is sold season wise less or more. Price is also depends on its market value. It costs were due to the high price of the iron in the international market. We saw its development to use such sort of engine in our country. So, it has a great value in our country undoubtedly.