“Standard packages” is a company owned by Wasim Ahmed. It came into being somewhere around 1989 with a primary purpose of satisfying the packaging needs of the market. Within the period of these twenty-one years it has been able to achieve a national position in the industry of packages. Wasim’s grandfather was a station master in India. This was before partition. After his migration to Pakistan he resumed his former post for a little while until he started his work to open a soap factory in Lahore. The father of Wasim Ahmed could not continue this business so the factory was closed. It was then Wasim Ahmed who with the support of his uncle started this business of “Standard packages”. Although far from a highly known position the company has been successful in attaining a good reputation of supplying a high quality work. It serves various companies by offering low priced packaging to its old customers. The company is the result of collective hard work of the owner and his uncle. Initially the business consisted of the “Soap factory” until it was after the death of Wasim Ahmed’s father that the business shifted to the “Packaging” sector. In order to know the different strategies of the business the following questions were asked from its owner:
· What are your market sales channels?
“Having a high demand for the packaging material today we work for the following:
1) Electronic market for example television (National television)
2) Iron (National Iron)
3) Medicines which include (A-Z pharmaceutical, Star laboratories, Rehan laboratories, Nawabsons laboratories)
4) Beverages (Shezan Beverages, Amrat cola)
With this our packages are also used for various household products. We do not carry out any promotional activities for the product. We follow word of mouth strategy. It is to say that our foremost objective is to provide our customers with a high quality work so that they become our major promotional hand by making others realize that “Standard Packages” is what people need! We have a belief that with a good reputation, you can develop a good relationship. We take orders and then carry out the delivery. It is simple and easy. Our customers approach us at the factory and place orders. We are not in any heavy promotional activities for primarily two reasons:
1) The product we have is not of the type to make public aware of, it’s just the services that matter.
2) The company still needs more years to achieve that position where we can divide our budget so that promotional activities are equally important for sustaining a well known name.
We have various stores working in order to carry out the packaging work for other firms including Lays, fizzy drinks e.g. big apple e-t-c.”
· What is your business model?
“The company has specific procedures of maintaining its money flow. Our raw material is mainly paper which we purchase from paper mills. We purchase paper on cash and once it is turned to cartons the orders are placed. Delivery is made to various other firms mostly on credit. The reason of carrying out the sales on credit is so that the company enjoys its profits by charging a little more price. This helps as the market for paper is getting saturated. The payment in installments is beneficial to us because it gives us an extra margin in generating profit. Not only this but it is mainly due to this strategy that we are able to maintain good customer relationship and even in this era of strong competition our sales are high and profits good. This strategy of selling the cartons or carrying out the packaging activities on credit is equally beneficial for our customers as it is for us. The reason behind it is that our customers, be it different companies or any household, generate high demand for our packages as it gives them more time to carry out the payment so that “Standard Packages” is their only option next time.”
· What is your potential market size?
“Our major activities are in Lahore as it is where we have our major center. As told before we serve various smaller companies starting from the pharmaceuticals including other household demands too. Paper mills are our basic suppliers and once we purchase our raw material we carry out the process of turning it into cartons. Different companies then place orders for the packaging activities of their products. The packaging carried out is on high quantity goods so that the money generated is high. The statistics of the last year indicates that the company generated 8.5 crore in making its sales.”
· What are your major show stoppers?
“We work by providing high quality services so that our customers are satisfied. Once orders are placed our priority is making the delivery in time so that our work gets remembered to those we serve. As the company has no promotions to do so we do not represent ourselves to the huge masses. Thus there is no specific representation of our business it is just word of mouth. We believe in giving high quality services so that our customers recommend us. Deliveries are made to the customers by our workers. But the company also faces competition. In order to keep its work of good quality this is very important to have a sight over the competitors which include the following:
1) Paper shaper
2) Crescent
3) Rayon paper
4) Total packages
5) Packages”
Group members: Saad Leghari-Hassan Razzaq-Awais Safdar-Tehreem Fatima
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