ABSTRACT
If a company has a good product, well branded and priced,
required and proper promotion done but could not get to the users as and when
required, the company has succeeded in achieving nothing.
Therefore, the objective of this study
is to ascertain whether the company has sufficient number of functional
distributors, dependable source of raw materials and good distribution network.
Chapter one contained a general
discussion on distribution. It went
further to find out if the company have dependable source of raw materials and
from the objectives of the study four hypothesis were formulated.
Literature review tried to examine
both the empirical and non-empirical works available on the subject of the
study.
Chapter three dealt with the design of
the study. The methods of relevant data collection, distribution and
treatment of data were also discussed.
The data collected from the survey
were analyzed and interpreted in chapter four,
Finally, the summary of findings,
conclusion and recommendations were contained in chapter five. It is the belief of the researcher that if
Nigerian Brewery and other brewery industries would put the recommendation given
in the study to use that there would be a drastic charge in the services
offered and continuous increase of profitability on the side of the company.
TABLE OF
CONTENT
Title page
Approval page
Dedication
Acknowledgement
Abstract
Table of content
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the study
1.2 Statement of the problem
1.3 Companies profile
1.4 Research objectives
1.5 Formulation of hypothesis
1.6 Significance of the study
1.7 Scope and limitation of the
study
1.8 Definition of terms
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF
THE RELATED LITTERATURE
CHAPTER
THREE
METHODOLOGY
FOR THE STUDY
3.1 Development
of research materials
3.2 Population for the study
3.3 Sample size
3.4 Questionnaire design
3.5 Treatment of data
CHAPTER
FOUR
PRESENTATION
ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA
4.1 Analysis of data
4.2 Testing of hypothesis
CHAPTER
FIVE
5.1 Summary
of findings
5.2 Conclusion
5.3 Recommendation
Bibliography
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Production is the creation of goods and services,
the goods and services can be produced in factories, industries, firms or
companies. Production is not complete
until the products / services get to end user or consumer. This can be obtained through the distribution
process and that complete the production cycle.
The distribution activity is equally referred to as physical
distribution management (PDM), Marketing logistics and material
management. Physical distribution system
includes; transportation, material handling, order processing, inventory
control, warehousing and packing into a complete distribution strategy.
Mccarthy,
described the place component of marketing mix (distribution) as “the situation
and use of marketing specialist middlemen, transportation and storage agencies
to provide target customers with place and possession utilities. Distribution channel is regarded as a bridge
that spans various gaps between producers and customers.
Kolter
on his own stated that physical distribution is defined as the planning,
implementing and controlling the physical flows of materials and final goods
from point of origin to point of use to meet customers needs at a profit. It is concerned with the efficient movement
of raw materials, from the suppliers to the factory site where they are
processed into finished product and passed to the final consumers.
The
procedure of getting the right quantity of the right product to the right place
at the right time and at the least cost
is no simple job because companies like the brewery industries with their great
diversity of customers spread over vast geographical areas must integrate the
systems components to avoid dissonance.
(dissatisfaction). As stated
earlier, there exist a gap in the firm of place and time between manufacturer
and the ultimate consumer or user for whom the manufacturer is producing, and
this gap can only be bridged by distribution.
Many
problems are confronting the distribution system of brewery industries, these
problems ranges from lack of channel members, to physical distribution problems
such as lack of adequate transportations, poor inventory management, inadequate
warehousing facilities and lack of sophiolicated method of communication. The problem in distribution network starts
with selection of mode of distribution, selection of inexperienced personnel’s
with little or no business acumen as distributions. The continuous increase in the cost of
transportation due to decoration of our roads, high cost of vehicles and spare
parts and currently increase in cost of petroleum products poses a serious
problem in the effective coverage of territories in the distribution of bear
both in rural and urban areas in the country.
In
the area of inventory, modern management is rarely practiced; this is partly
caused by insufficient storage facilities and inappropriate storage methods
which invariably results to high rate of spoilage, breakage and waste of
products. Besides, warehouses are very few and far, sophisticated material
handling equipments like fork lift, cranes, conveyor machines etc are lacking
in some of these companies.
So
in the light of these marginal of problems and the fact that there are so many
brands of bear in the market from which the consumer has to choose with little
or no difference among them in terms of quality and other characteristics. It then follows that there is a need for the
individual brewing firms to manage the physical distribution system and engage
in proper manipulation of other marketing mix variables in order to keep afloat
in the present day competitive beer market in Nigeria.
In
this study, the researcher shall consider the physical distribution management
from the point of view of NIGERIAN BREWERIES PLC, NINTH MILE, ENUGU, ENUGU STATE.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
There is a common problems in the brewery industries,
(Nigeria brewery Plc inclusive) which hampers the effective and efficient
movement of their products from point of production to the final consumers,
this is the problem of physical distribution which if not attended to may be a
bailer to a company’s effort to satisfy its customers as well as meeting its
marketing goals and objectives.
A well modeled distribution channel is
basically a prerequisite for proper integration of the activities that will
eventually lead to attainment of the organizational goal. When the consumers are not well linked
through an organizational distribution channel, the problem of where, when and
at what price the company’s products will be available will be difficult to
ascertain.
The price of products of the Nigerian
breweries plc trench to be higher in towns far from the location of the plant
and it is also known that the warehouse in the plants location are often
overstocked whereas the product experiences sporadic shortages.
The
problems to be addressed includes;
1.
Do Nigerian Breweries Plc have warehouse outside their
plants location.
2.
Do they have sufficient number of functional
distribution vans or trucks?
3.
Do Nigerian Breweries have dependable source of raw
materials.
PROFILE OF NIGERIAN BREWERIES PLC
Nigerian Breweries is a public limited liability company
with registered head officer in Lagos. The company is owned by Nigerians and minimum
representation of foreign interests.
Nigerian Breweries limited as it was
then called was established in November 1946 for the main purpose of brewing. It is the first brewing firm to be set up in
the country. In 1949 the company started
operations in Lagos
with single product line ‘star larger beer”.
But today, it has brewing plants in Aba, Kaduna,
Ibadan and Enugu with a wider
verities of product which includes Gulder, Maltina, Legend extra stout, Amstel
etc.
The Enugu plant was bought over from monarch
breweries limted on September 1992 and is sited at 9th mile in
Ngwo. Recently, the company had a new
site at the same venue just some poles from the former plant. The new site went into full operation in 2003
and was built to international standard.
Today, Nigerian Breweries Plc is one
of the leading name in the financial market.
The new site is where production takes place while the former site is
where the warehouse is located.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
The primary
needs for the study are;
1.
To find out if the Nigerian Brewery Plc have
warehouses outside their plant location.
2.
To ascertain whether the company has sufficient number
of functional distribution vans.
3.
To determine if the company have dependable source of
raw materials.
4.
To proffer recommendations that are in line with the
researchers objectives.
FORMULATION OF HYPOTHESIS
HO 1: The company has
warehouses outside their plant location
HO2: They have sufficient number of distribution van
HO3: The company has dependable source of raw
materials.
HO4: The physical distribution management of the
company is effective.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The study of channels of distribution of Brewery industries
and its associated problems would be of benefits to brewery industries and
Nigerian brewery Plc in particular.
This research is aimed at finding the
suitable situation that will guide the members of the industries in designing
effective and efficient channels of distribution to effectively reach the
target consumers. The research is also
aimed at providing Nigerian Breweries plc management with important and
identified variables that are necessary to the development of good channels.
The alarming rate of physical
distribution cost in the brewery industries made this study more significant as
the researcher tends to determine the possible way of reducing the cost and
providing effective and efficient solution to the problem of physical
distribution management.
The coordination of the activities
of physical distribution are
indispensable to any firm that is engaged in production of goods or services
because distribution is a course that must be managed effectively and efficiently
to control an organizational system. The
significance of this study is more apparent and appreciated when we understand
the importance of physical distribution in the brewery industries like Nigerian
Breweries. Moreover, in the brewery
industries, distribution cost is the Killer cost or the Killer disease variable
cost. Since profit is the goal of every
busies, this important variable cost has to be intensively managed in order not
to eat deep into the company operation cost.
Marketing managers and the management in general must give high level of
attention to physical distribution because its cost alone can detrimental to
the entire organization.
SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
The scope of this study is very wide if the researcher is
to cover all the geographical areas where the Nigerian Breweries have establishment,
distributors and outlets. This study is
therefore limited to (Enugu Urban and some towns near Enugu) and the findings not reflect he
situation in other towns of the state not included in the research and other
Nigerian Brewery plants in other states of the country. But by and large what
happened in Enugu
urban and its environs can be said to apply to other states and locations.
The researcher has limited the study
to areas mentioned above base on time constraints, financial constraints and
limited materials resources at his disposal.
DEFINITION OF TERMS
The following terms used in this study should be taken to
mean the following.
PHYSICAL DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL
The movement of goods from the point of production to
point of consumption.
LOCUSTICS
This
implies to the procurement of souring of raw material to the production unit,
movement of the finished goods to the warehouse then to the distribution
intermediaries before the final
consumers.
EFFICIENT AND EFFECTIVE
This means
being able to achieve a company’s goals and objective as at when required at
the minimum expenses.
CHANNEL STRATEGY
This is the
adoption of an appropriate means of distribution that will serve efficiently
and effectively from the available distribution options.
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