Financial Optimisation and Business Expansion Strategy for DND

Assignment Taken

Fund Raising Pitch

DND has shown a strong 70% increase in its sales since its inception. With the newly implemented product portfolio expansion and the expansion into non-dense areas, the company has generated strong net income. Financial analyis by our in-house experts have shown that the net income is projected to rise in the coming years and remain stable. This is where we appeal for your investement. We do not sim to be just another delivery service firm. We wish to integrate all our operations and have and maintain our own diary firm. The detailed financials are attached in the pdf given below.

For the same, we need funds. Considering our tremendous growth in net income not withstanding the high cost of procurment is a sign that with integration and the reduction in cost of procurment owing to having our own farm, our profit margin would increase several fold. Do help us in reaching our ultimate potential. Your money would never get wasted! Think of investment? Invest in DND!!

Case Understanding

Daily Needs Delivery LLP is a startup founded by two MBA graduates: Sam Malhotra and Rajish Gupta in 2017 with a seed capital of 15 lakhs. The firm which operates in three cities: Delhi, Hyderabad and Bengaluru is a delivery service that supplies the diary products needed daily like milk, curd and so on. The firm can be termed as a success in its year one of operations as the sales grew by 70%. However, the firm has its own set of flaws. The total revenue from the firm is less than the cost incurred. In the previous year, the firm suffered a loss of over 68,55,000 which is a huge amount for a startup having a seed capital of just 15 lakhs. The firm has incurred a huge expenditure in the form of advertisement, the actual figure being 24 lakhs. This is not sustainable as the gross profit is around 1.2 crore and 1.3 crore is spent on salary. As a startup, the goal should be to minimize the expenditures and create net profit. As the startup is in its third year of growth, it is looking into avenues of expansion: into non dense areas in the cities mentioned above as well as in other cities that have the demographic that the firm targets. (working middle class to rich people). Expansion requires more monetary resources as it paves way for more logistics to be included in the chain and more marketing expenditure. Hence the finance department has to figure out a way to figure out the best possible way that the expansions could be carried out so as to break even if not make profits.

BCS Solution Summary

The firm generated a gross profit. It was only when it came to net income that the profit turned to a loss. This issue was tackled by cutting down marketing expenditure from 2400000 to 1310900. The other expenses category which recorded an expenditure of 3600000 was cut down to 2328000. The details for the same are shown in the pdf attached. The extra expenditure in advertisement was controlled by opting for selected mediums for advertisements and keeping in mind the targeted customer demographics. This helped to reduce the amount to such a great extent. To tackle the issue of expansion, first the firm would move towards product portfolio expansion in the cities where it currently operates. Once that is done and the firm attracts more sales, thereby more revenue and profits, it would slowly look into expansion to other cities. The details of the same are given in the pdf on how the firm generates its profit.

Solution

(i) Budget

The detailed budget is attached as a pdf file.

The assumptions used for creating the budget are given below:

There’s a .15 increase in sales of milk and .1 increase in sale of paneer and curd from April to May due to the airing of radio advertisements.

In the month of May new products were announced namely buttermilk , flavoured milk and yoghurt. Their quantity sold in that month along with the prices are given below:

 

500L buttermilk 

40 per litre - sale price

32 per litre - cost price

 

600L flavoured milk

60 per litre - sale price

52 per litre- cost price

 

10kg Yoghurt

250 per kg - sale price

225 per kg - cost price

 

Cost price of milk was reduced by .1 per L in May after negotiations.

 

There was a further decrease in cost price .1 per l for milk and .25 per kg for curd and paneer in november after negotiations with the sellers.

 

For expansion into non- dense areas local women were added into the workforce. They had an incentive based remuneration and 40000 was allotted every month for the same. Quality control department was also created in the year to prevent customer attrition.

 

The marketing department shifted its focus to branding, radio advertisements and digital marketing. This was done as the targeted customer base were more reliant on these platforms than on the traditional ones. Hence this change in strategy would ensure more visibility and ultimately higher sales. The split for the same is given in the attached pdf file.

 

We also started an employee welfare scheme to prevent employee attrition and managed to reduce the overheads through efficient allocation of resources.

 

Please refer to the pdf attached for all details.

 

(ii) Financial plan for an year

 

In April, the allocation was similar to the allotment for previous years

In May, the company plans to focus on rolling out new products and expansion into non dense areas. Considering the fact that the products were launched in the scorching summer heat, the products launched were aimed at tackling it, namely buttermilk, flavoured milk, and yoghurt This was strategically accompanied by advertisements to ensure brand visibility. The details of the same are discussed in the budget as well as in the reports of other departments.

 

The expansion into non-dense areas would create an additional expense of only 40000. 

Buttermilk sales were stopped in July as the summer season was over.The details are given in the attached pdf.

 

As part of expansion into non-dense areas we created a network of local women. The details of which are mentioned in the HR report. They were paid on the per sale basis which costs very less for the company.

 

Another avenue for spending was in improving the brand visibility. New t-shirts were procured for the delivery boys (2 per person) and caps were provided to the woman partners. Both these merchandises had the brand logo.

 

We also plan to implement a welfare scheme for the employees keeping in mind the company's mission being a good place for the employees to work.  Through proper monitoring of the work efficiency, the company was able to reduce the overhead cost to 150000.

 

In addition to the plan for a year, projections for five years were created. This showed that in the course of 5 years, through the process of expansion into other states and enlarging the product line, the company would earn steady profits. The estimates used to calculate growth were reasonable. In the initial years a high growth rate of sales was assumed as it was a startup. The growth rate was reduced as time passed by. The steady profits  would provide a tremendous boost to get investors to pitch into the company and help in its ultimate aim of vertical integration.

Conclusion

The above mentioned interventions helped the company in becoming operationally profitable by November and the company’s budget shows that the company would not go into a loss after that. Hence the interventions were successful in making the company generate a surplus. This surplus could now be used to invest in the company’s expansion plans to other states as well as invest in the company’s research and development. Also the future projections for the company shows that it has the ability to attract venture capitalists or other people interested in private equity. DND could even be a publicly listed company in the long run as its current financials for the year and financial projections are very strong.

Attached File Details