Inyange Industries

Situation

The largest dairy, juice and water processor in Rwanda had recently completed expansion plans resulting in a 27+ million USD processing facility targeting the local and regional market. The company was facing strong regional competition and profitability was challenged. As the organization prepared to aggressively compete and grow market share, Karisimbi Partners was engaged to:

• Asses all aspects of the organization and determine those requiring priority focus
• Research and analyze internal and externally available information related to all lines of business
• Provide recommendations to Board of Directors regarding areas of strategic importance to the company

Karisimbi Partners’ Approach

Engage at All Levels of Company Operations

The Karisimbi Partners team engaged with company management in an effort to analyze and understand every aspect of the business, from past financial performance, to current operations, to future opportunity. Through contact with company management, industry experts, government officials and other stakeholders in the local, regional and global dairy and beverage industry, Karisimbi Partners identified and quantified strategic ‘gaps’ to be addressed and opportunities for growth.

Validate the Market and Competitive Environment

Karisimbi Partners developed a comprehensive view of the competitive landscape for all three product lines, taking into account product categories, pricing structure, packaging and branding. Via in-person interviews, research, and data validation at all levels of the sales and distribution chain, relevant strategies and recommendations for pricing, distribution and product offerings were developed and presented. Strong experience working in the dairy sector enabled Karisimbi Partners to provide insight and facilitation of a supply partnership and ultimate acquisition of a strategic competitor.

Prioritize Recommendations for Greatest Impact

Balancing cash flow needs with long term company objectives meant that actionable recommendations must center on only addressing identified gaps critical to current operations as well as long term goals. To that end, a rigorous lens of demand-driven planning was utilized, with the delivered strategic gap assessment providing specific recommendations centered on addressing:

• Operational capacity
• ROI-justified capital expense and working capital investments
• Financing, raw material, and packaging cost reductions
• Capture of latent market demand

Results

Acting upon the recommendations, the company was able to re-establish efficient distribution strategies, successfully acquire a struggling dairy competitor – securing critical supply and incremental market share, address capacity bottlenecks to better align production to market demand, and adjust packaging costs to offer better retail pricing to the market – critical for competing domestically and regionally. The company continues to grow domestic market share across its product lines.