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Britannia has 4 production or manufacturing outlets which are in Delhi Calcutta Chennai Rudrapur in
Uttaranchal Gwalior which are owned by Britannia and employees more than 4400 people Besides its self
owned units Britannia also uses the facility of more than 60 contract points for biscuits breads cakes etc
where in the labour used for manufacturing is not owned by Britannia but the technology and raw materials
In this project we are analyzing the distribution network for Britannia biscuits for Delhi
The first rung in the distribution network for Britannia is the transport of the goods from the manufacturing
plants in Delhi to the 2 CFA s carrying and forwarding agents located at Neb Sarai and the other one at
The CFA maintain the inventory on behalf of the company and when the goods are supplied from Britannia
to the CFA s it is not considered a sale but a transfer and therefore there is no change in ownership CFA
gets commission on the basis of transaction i e on no of boxes held in the inventory CFA has to bear labour
cost and his godown cost The cost of transport from the company to CFA is born by Britannia itself And the
cost of transport from the CFA to distributor is also borne by Britannia only
One of the reason that Britannia uses the facility for CFA is that because of its wide spread sales all over
India and with one production unit not manufacturing all the variety itself so through the channel CFA
Britannia manages to save a lot of behalf of not having to pay central sales tax 4 So therefore for example if
50 50 is manufactured only in Calcutta than it can be sent to the CFA in Delhi as well as other state CFA
The second rung in the distribution network for Britannia are the authorized distributors and authorized
wholesalers as termed by a company rep In total there are 54 authorized distributors in Delhi and NCR
Britannia does not incorporate stockist in its distribution network because of the large number of distributors
already present in the network which are sufficient to cover the wide regions Distributors have their own
sales force labour transportation facility Each salesperson allowed covering max of 40 outlets everyday The
reason is that it is felt that it is not within human capacity to cover more than 40 outlets a day and if done so
then the salesperson might be exhausted enough and not spend enough time on each counter required by
Distributor s salesperson is the one who takes orders from the retailer and wholesaler He goes once a week
to all the retailers and wholesalers in his territory to take the orders and gives that order to the distributor
Distributor assesses his stock situation and all short stock is ordered to the CFA keeping in mind the
The areas for the Distributors are divided in such a manner to prevent overlapping if overlapping is found
then penalty ranging from Rs11000 Rs 21000 can be charged to that particular distributor Max 0 4 of the
The distributor is also given a certain amount of monthly sales target by Britannia The cost of transport from
the distributor to the retailer wholesaler is borne by the distributor itself Distributors sell mainly in cash and it
is very rare to have credit sales and that also for those who have a long term relationship with the distributor
The margin for the authorized distributor is of approximately 4 5 5 and after expenses like labor
In case of selling to wholesaler distributor passes on 1 of his margin to the wholesaler This is done by giving
the wholesaler a discount on the billing rate Billing rate is the rate at which the distributor sells to the retailer
Suppose the distributor obtains a packet of Britannia 50 50 from the CFA at a price of Rs 5 85 so now for
selling it to the wholesaler he will add only a 4 margin and pass the 1 of his margin to the wholesaler that is
5 85 4 5 85 6 08
Practically this is done by giving the wholesaler a discount of 1 on the billing rate i e 6 14 6 14 1 0 0614
around 6 paisa
And in case of selling to the retailer the distributor will take a complete 5 and sell to retailer at
5 85 5 of 5 85 Rs 6 1
The third channel member is the wholesaler The wholesalers are supplied directly by the distributor
He gets the discounts as well as the schemes The wholesaler not only keeps the other competing biscuits
brands but also complementary products like chips namkeens etc the wholesalers are basically located in
places like chawri bazaar kharibaoli sadar bazaar and other local wholesale markets like janakpuri
The margin for the wholesaler is the 1 2 passed to him by the distributor He gets this margin because of his
bulk purchases This margin can vary depending on the quantity purchased by the wholesaler and his
bargaining power that depends on how critical he is for the company This margin can well go up to 2 5 of the
Huge margins are passed on to the wholesalers when the distributor is in need of cash to make payments to
the co to get further stock The wholesalers demands higher margins because they pay in cash huge
amounts and hence charge opportunity cost of that money or the interest Distributor does that because of
two reasons
He needs cash to make payments to the company before ordering new stock His stock gets sold and hence
Taking the above example the wholesaler gets the packet of 50 50 for Rs 6 08 from the distributor and adds
6 08 1 6 08 6 14
One of the very interesting things that we noticed in the dealings of the wholesalers was a pricing technique
called undercutting that was used by the wholesalers Under this the wholesaler who gets 1 1 5 discount or
margin from the distributor keeps only a 0 5 1 margin with himself and forwards the rest of 0 5 1 margin to
the retailer
And also any additional scheme that the distributor passes on to the wholesaler
is passed by the wholesaler to the retailer either partially or fully in terms of price reductions
Since the retailer gets an additional 1 discount from the wholesaler he prefers
buying it from the wholesaler rather than buying from the distributor at the normal billing rate This
phenomenon is known as undercutting by the wholesaler This kind of situation is worse for the company
salesman because he cannot get orders at the billing rate from the retailer
Company sometimes tackles this situation by giving some additional schemes to the retailers that are not
given to the wholesaler hence prompting the retailer to buy from the company salesman rather than the
wholesaler
Loreal s solution to wholesaler s undercutting was that it started supplying only to the retailers
The fourth and the most important link of the distribution network is the retailer The retailers get their supply
either from the distributor or the wholesaler This distinction comes due to the size of the retailer The big
established retailers are provided with the supplies by the distributors It is a downward flow They place their
order with the distributor and are then supplied once a week or twice a week depending on their orders and
their turnovers
Whereas the small retailers pan hawker etc go to the wholesalers and buy small quantity s from them and
this is an upward flow and not belonging to the original distribution flow which is downward moving
Taking the above example again suppose the retailer gets a packet of 50 50 from the distributor for Rs 6 14
and now he adds his 14 margin and sells to the final consumer for
6 14 14 6 14 Rs 7
Today apart from the normal small retailer there is a trend of food super stores like big bazaar that keep
almost each food item apart from others These superstores can not be covered by the usual distribution
network Therefore there is a separate distribution network that covers these super stores institutions like
Under this network the CFA is the same like the one for the company s main distribution network but
generally there is a separate distributor appointed who caters only to these super stores and institutions
He takes care of these institutions and the price charged is different for them This distribution network is
called the modern trade chain In the modern trade chain like the modern bazaar the margins of the store are
determined on the basis of the shelf space they allocate for the Britannia and where exactly is this shelf
space allocated like at the entry of the store in the range of the eyes or in the upper most or the lower most
shelf The bargaining power of the store is also determined by the quantity of the order and the fame of the
store
Display commission or margins is a major source of revenue for the modern bazaars Since the modern
bazaars do not buy quantity in bulk vis a vis wholesalers and have a high turnover they require a regular and
frequent supply Due to this reason the company generally assigns the task of supplying to them using
separate distribution network But sometimes the same distributors that are supplying through the normal
channel can also be used when the demand expected is not significant to assign a separate channel
Britannia s Weaknesses
Inventory management
Britannia has a large variety of biscuits and this variety brings with it the problem of inventory management
Britannia does not give its salespersons PDA s and the distributors are also not too tech savvy vis a vis the
Hindustan Lever Distributors Due to this various problems arise which lead to situation of stock outs with the
distributors and CFA s It leads to bulging costs of the company which has to provide all the necessary
requirements of distributor from the CFA that could have been met from another distributor
Improvement in distribution channel Continuous Replenishment System CRS should be brought in so that
when distributors enters his closing and opening stock of each variety then automatically company will come
to know which variety has to be supplied to each distributor According to norms set by the company
distributor has to keep minimum quantity of each variety This system will help in saving time reduce order
taking mistakes and reduce dependence on manpower At present this system is only partially used as some
distributors still place their orders with company on telephone or to Territory sales in charge This will also
help in proper inventory management by this system mother depots will easily come to know the
The company can benefit from proper inventory management by using this CRS system The stocks to the
distributor who needs particular variety can be supplied to him from the other distributor s godown who has
excess stock of that particular variety of biscuits Hence saving on the time and cost and preventing revenue
losses simultaneously
It was found that there was a delay in production cycle and all the varieties does not reach on time with
The retailers only keep a selected stock of biscuits with them only the ones which command a high demand
Biscuits are a product that requires high trial and this cannot be possible if the variety is not available at the
nearby retailer
Company should induce the distributor by giving him good incentives in order to push all the varieties Along
with that company should take further initiatives to popularize different varieties They should ensure that the
retailer keeps as much variety as possible and include in the kitty less popular biscuits like nicetime
milkbikies etc
should be held which will help in knowing the need of retailers and hence customers need
STRENGTH
Their strong distribution channel that gives them wide market coverage Availability of Britannia biscuits
everywhere from small pan shop to big bazaar vast market coverage by distributors makes its distribution
channel stronger This uniqueness would also help in distributing newly launched product new category like if
Britannia ventures into production of toiletries as both products are non durable and they need market
Strong relationship with distributors and the retailers that can be leveraged upon at the time of introduction
of new products
DISTRIBUTOR
CARRYING AND
FORWARDING AGENT
FACTORY OUTLET
WHOLESALER
RETAILER
CONSUMER