Nirala Sweets: The Karachi Project Debrief

Nirala Sweets was started by Taj Din in 1948. He was encouraged by a friend to start a PuriHalwa Shop providing breakfast around Fleming road. As his business grew he decided t move into suburbs of Lahore. After the demise of Taj Din, the management was passed on to his son Farooq. He then expands the business to other Lahore cities to have greater accessibility to customers. Faisal had certain difference with his father that how the business should be run. He brings the professional managers and systems and to improve the complexity of Marketing and operations he hired Inam though a common friend. it was observed that almost 75% mithai was bought to present to someone rather than to be consumed by purchaser. Most of the innovations were introduced by Nirala in the packaging and size of the mithai and the appearance of the stores. Though Nirala offered premium quality but some new entrants by offering significantly lower prices were causing occasional complaints of Niralas high prices. With growing health awareness and modernization the trend was changing to cakes rather than Mithai. Word of Mouth was recognized to be the only form of advertisement by Nirala. All mithai was prepared at Niralas Waris Road facility. Demand or orders were communicated to Supply during the day. Faisal expands the business from Lahore to Islamabad. Then it has been followed by the new store in Faisalabad. Despite their wealth Faisalabad customers were not willing to pay the premium that Nirala charged for his mithai. In 1998 Nirala opened its outlets in Dubai, which had a large population of Pakistanis and Indians. The new outlet in both Islamabad and Faisalabad were handled by Kamran Sheikh-new Era team but he could not delegate the tasks at the site to any of his staff lest they start their own business. Faisal thought project of Karachi will exciting because customers were more demanding and sophisticated than the typical customer in the Punjab. The added challenge in Karachi was the low price. Faisal also wanted to target the Karachi corporate market with his premium custom packaged mithai. There has been some debate at Nirala about the costs and logistical problems air shipment but Faisal do not want to compromise anything with quality. Skilled and Semi-skilled workers needed for this would be sent from Lahore and as in Islamabad. Inam was hired on May 11 to lead the companys inexperienced staff and move

things at a higher level of analysis and delivery. When the project team was formed Inam immediately flew to Karachi to review the progress on the site for himself.

Issues faced by Nirala:

Threat of new entrant offer significantly lower prices Health awareness among customers seemed to impact the mithai sales Changing trends towards cakes. Lack of Promotion Lack of research and development Lack of communication Lack of Planning Delegation of tasks were not properly assigned or done. Lack of coordination among staff members. Departments were not integrated Poor forecasting

Recommendations:
Proper Planning and Implementation Decision Making Resource Allocation Team work Training and development Management information System which can provide them useful information regarding overall business, not only cost information. Implementation of ERP, SAP or Oracle. Integration and coordination among all the departments. Product extension Bring innovation to cope with changing trends. Continuous up gradation and learning.