Research Report on Noodles in Bangladesh

Introduction

Undoubtedly noodles are a popular food in the world. The business of noodles is heating up as more and more households are opting for it as convenient snacks for home, school tiffin and guests.

Noodles are now consumed by many health-conscious people, especially job holders, as an afternoon meal because it helps save time. According to Wikipedia, archeologist found earthenware bowl containing the world’s oldest known noodles, measured roughly 4000 years in Asia. Wheat noodles in Japan were adopted from a Chinese recipe by a Buddhist monk as early as the 9th century. Instant noodles were invented by Monofuku Ando and first marketed in Japan in 1958. Objective of the study Objective of the study is to understand the present market scenario of foreign brand noodles in Bangladesh market.

Types of Noodles

According to Wikipedia; noodles can be classified according to primary ingredient such as:

1. wheat
2. Rice
3. Buck wheat
4. Others

But for Bangladeshi market, noodles can be divided in to two such as: – instant and stick. Noodles lover often add various ingredients, such as egg, vegetables or meat, to vary the taste and make it more nutritious but in foreign and local noodles have many flavors, such as:

1. Vegetable
2. Chicken
3. Shrimp
4. Beef
5. Mushroom
6. Cheese
7. Fried onion
8. Tomato
9. Tom Yan
10. Capsica
11. Dal Samber
12. Sweet and sour
13. Dal Atta noodles etc.

Bangladeshi people are fond of noodles but they are not much familiar with Pasta. Pasta is come from Italy. It is kind of a generic term for noodles made from unleavened dough of wheat or buckwheat flour and water, sometimes with other ingredients such as eggs and vegetable extracts. Pastas include varieties, such as ravioli and tortellini, which is filled with other ingredients, such as ground meat or cheese.

Pasta is typical of different cultures and countries, but the most famous varieties and recipes come from Italy. There are hundreds of different shapes of pasta with at least locally recognized names. Such as:- spaghetti, maccheroni, fusilli, and lasagne.

Gnocchi and spatzle are sometimes considered pasta; they are both traditional in parts of Italy.

Pasta is categorized in two basic styles: dried and fres. Dried pasta made without eggs can be stored for up to two years under ideal conditions, while fresh pasta will keep for a few days under refrigeration. Pasta is generally cooked by boili It is already very famous in European country and as the Bengali people are food lovers and huge fan of spicy foods it will be a great suite for the people of Bangladesh.

Bangladeshi market ; Products Focus

The noodles industry in Bangladesh is not small. There are a lot of noodles producer and a few importers. Following local and foreign brands are available in our local market.

 A decade or more ago, demand for noodles was low. In the past decade, more than 100 firms began processing various foods, spices, snacks and confectionaries to cater to both domestic and export markets, according to the Bangladesh Agro-processors’ Association. As per information of World instant noodles Association national trends in instant noodles demand in Bangladesh was 90 million bags /packet in 2010 and 100 million bags/packet in 2011. Processed-food giant Pran plans a Tk 293-crore expansion to fortify its position in the growing domestic food market by diversifying its product basket. Sylvan Agriculture Ltd, a concern of Pran, will set up these plants with a $25.1 million finance from the Asian Development Bank.

Pran will invest the rest $10.7 million. Pran is the first company in Bangladesh to get the ADB loan. According to the ADB, Bangladesh’s food and beverage sector has an estimated annual value of $13 billion, of which the processed food market is worth around $1 billion. Thai instant noodle company President Foods is planning to set up a joint venture plant in Bangladesh to manufacture and market its Mama brand in the country in a bid to tapping the growing market.

The initial investment would be $1-2 million. Currently, the company has two joint-venture instant noodle factories in Myanmar and Cambodia. Each has a production capacity between 20,000 and 30,000 cases a month. Target market 6. Sector people said the market for noodles has been growing by more than 10 percent a year for the last couple of years, which encourages existing operators to expand operations and attracts new entrants.

Insiders said Dhaka and Chittagong account for most sales. But demand in other cities and towns, especially in areas where households have gas connections, is also quite high. The target market will be as follows:

1. All grocery shop or departmental shop.
2. Existing foreign noodles users.

Target Segment

The target customers of our proposed product are the so called busy people or the people who love to have something to eat instantly and in short time.

People who need some sort of food to meet their hunger and with a great taste will be the top customers. These customers will be school children, business people who love to have some snack on their lunch or breakfast. Total segment can be described as follows:

Demographic:

1. School going children.
2. Health conscious people.
3. Those who have short time to take lunch.

Psychographic:

1. Upper middle class or middle class
2. School students.

Behavioral Factor:

1. Those who have negative idea about local noodles.
2. Those who seek foreign good quality.
3. Those who are aware about HACCP technology.

Marketing Program Strategy and Tactics

Product For lunching a product in the market there is some procedure that should be followed by every marketers to move in the long run. Out proposed product is fashion foods.

This product is halal certified and enable Bangladeshi customers to differentiate our product in terms of quality and taste. Price Price is the quantity of payment given by customer to in return for goods or services.

In Bangladeshi market average price of local noodles is taka for gm. On the other hand foreign noodles price is taka gm. So our product price should be reasonable with compotators.

Promotion Promotion plays an important role in the exchange process by information customer of an organizations product and convinces them of its ability to satisfy their needs and wants. NNG can use following promotional steps.

• Advertising
• Personal selling
• Direct marketing
• Sales promotion Initially, NNG can also deliver free cook noodles in different school.

Place Though NNG has no distribution channel but NNG can easily market this product by their expert sales team. NNG has a vast transport network all over the country. The company can use its all zonal office to control the dealer network ; that the product will be on the shelves of almost every departmental and small retail outlets.

SWOT Analysis

According to our survey a lot of noodles are available in the market. SWOT analysis will help the management to take decision about this business.

Strength:

1. Expert and experienced management
2. High quality product ; manufacturer used modern technology
3. Economic back ground to take market challenges
4. Financial stability to face the present competition
5. Strong supply chain network and own transport system.
6. Standardization of good product as per law.

Weakness:

1. 1New foreign brand in the Bangladesh market.
2. Price is relatively high.
3. In chicken flavor question will be arise about halal.
4. Less taste than local brand.

Opportunity:

1. Nitol has good image in market.
2. First Consumer product business of is NNG
3. There is a demand of foreign noodles in upper class people

Threat:

1. No experience about marketing of consumer product.
2. Political situation of the country.
3. As it is a new branded product, it will be difficult to survive with local competitors.
4. Highly competitive market. There is a chance of rejection by the market
5. May be fail to fulfill the expectation of taste of local people.

Analysis of the market

Major competitor of the present noodles market is Nestle Bangladesh ltd. It is a well reputed company that started their business in Bangladesh many years ago and providing food products to local customers.

This company has introduced much kind of food products in Bangladesh like baby foods and noodles. Nestle Maggi already has a strong foothold in the Bangladesh market with the help of its famous two-minute noodles and other offerings. As Nestle is already a very big brand name in Bangladesh, the company will have some very good advantage in promoting the product as well as to capture most of the market.

Day by day as people are becoming busier, the term ‘instant’ is gaining more popularity. At this point, the consumer product market in Bangladesh offer limited variation in instant foods. Recent success in the Indian market of pasta has compelled Nestle Bangladesh to introduce new snack “Maggi Pasta” in Bangladeshi market.

This snack is still not that much popular because of unavailability and high price. Beside that no other company is producing or supplying a good amount of pasta in the local market. There is no current competition in this product as this product is totally new in the Bangladeshi market and very few companies are providing this kind of product.

Some companies who are making pasta and some also are importing from the other countries, are not doing this in a big scale and have not created a brand among the local consumers. The products service from the local companies like Kolson is of short amount and it have not yet created any advertisement or promoted its product so that it is a strong competition. It makes clear that it is not yet a big or strong competitive market but It may expecting healthy competition from Sunfeast, Kolson, Cocola and other foreign and domestic manufacturers.