Capstone Sample

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The history of sugar in Morocco goes back to the 7th century. It developed through different stages until 1929 when the French started the first modern sugar refinery in the country; “COSUMA”. Today, this same refinery, called COSUMAR, dominates the Moroccan market with 100% market share. A thorough analysis reveals remarkable facts. Despite a strong internal position, the sugar producer is not taking advantage of important external opportunities, especially those on the international markets. Opportunities that can solve its major issue: the very slow growth on the saturated Moroccan market. Other than the growth concern, the main looming threats for which the company is not preparing any effective solutions are the potential entry of new competitors and the elimination of tax exonerations for the agricultural sector in 2013. It also has weaknesses that it needs to address. The main ones include a dangerous exposure due to the import of 55% of the national consumption from a single provider (Brazil) and the concentration of all its operations in the saturated Moroccan market. Obviously, the internal and external assessments of the company yielded few issues. Other than the previously mentioned slow growth and heavy dependence on Brazilian imports, the company is suffering from the high average age of its employees, and the low brand awareness. If the weak has problems, the strong has solutions. For the above mentioned issues, different long term objectives were set to solve them by 2013. To address the major issue of growth, the objective set is to increase sales by 9% annually. Then, for the problem of dependence on imports, the objective set is to reach 60% self-sufficiency while for the threat of new entrants; the objective is to increase awareness of the company’s five brands. Finally, the objective set to solve the high average age issue is to decrease it from 45 to 40 years old. An additional suggestion is made to negotiate a solution with