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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The accomplishment of this project was possible only due to the cooperation,

coordination and united efforts of different individuals, several sources of material,

knowledge and time. First of all we want to thank our kind teacher who gave us an

opportunity to groom ourselves. We want to thank the official member who gave

us all the required information.

We are very grateful to the officials of Askari Cement for their guidance,

encouragement and Kind Cooperation.

The moving spirit behind this project was all of them, without their constant

encouragement and support this project would not have been a successful outcome.

However, the team work of the members is another key point of the completion of

work.

Name Signature Name SignatureSultan   Naqash  

Danyal   Sadam  

Ejaz    

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Executive Summary

This project was assigned to us by Mr. Faheem Haqqani. We start the work on the

project in group. This project has been done in spirit of team work in the group.

The tasks were assigned to each member and all have done their work very well up

to their maximum.

The basic theme with which our group went for this project was to apply the stuff

which we learned from the teacher in the class. We have selected Askari Cement to

work on so that we may apply our own knowledge which we got from the subject

Marketing and we may get proper utilization of the opportunity given to us by

teacher for getting exposure about the subject. We learned the practicle

implementations of the topics we studied in the lecture. As Askari Cement is an

significant twig of Cement Industry of Pakistan. There were very less data

available for the selected company on the Web. To get the information about this

company we directly consulted the high officials of the company. Going with this

theme, really gave us good exposure.

Methodology

Our theme guided us to go mostly for Brain storming. However, along with this we

got a lot of material from the internet. We studied different links and researches

from Web. We went through the reports and project slides of the other companies

working in same business. Our group members also went to the market to know the

trends cement industry.

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Table of Contents

Sr. No Contents Page No

1INTRODUCTION 5

2ASKARI CEMENT LTD., WAH 5

3ASKARI CEMENT NEZAMPUR 5

4ASKARI CEMENT MARKETING 6

5VISION ANS MISSION 6

6MARKETING STRATEGY OF ASKARI CEMENT 7

7PRODUCTS OF ASKARI CEMENT 7

8QUALITY CERTIFICATES 8

9PROMPT SERVICE 8

10CUSTOMER OF MICROTECH ENGINEERING SERVICES 8

11PRICING STRATEGY 9

12PLACEMENT 9

13EXPORT MARKET 10

14MAJOR CUSTOMERS 11

15AVAILABILTIY AREA WISE 13

16PROMOTIONAL STRATEGIES 13

17STRENGTHS 13

18 WEAKNESSES 14

19 OPPERTUNITIES 15

20 THREATS 16

21 CONCLUSION 18

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INTRODUCTION

Askari Cement is product of AWT with two factories Askari Cement Ltd Wah and Askari Cement Nizampur. Askari Cement Ltd,Wahis successor of Associated Cement Company. It is the first cement plant in the area now constituting Pakistan. The first plant was set up by famous Bombay based Indian company (Associated Cement company) in 1921 with rated capacity of 120 tons per day. First major expansion was made in 1936 when a kiln of the capacity of 250 tons per day was added followed by enhancement by 300 tons per day in 1950. In 1970 another kiln of 600 tons daily was erected. In 1972 the company was nationalized and put under control of State Cement Corporation of Pakistan in 1974. In 1991 name of the plant was changed to Wah Cement Company. In 1994 the whole old structure and machinery was scrapped prior to start the latest state of the art - FLS Dry Process Plant which was privatized by the Govt. of Pakistan and acquired by Army Welfare trust (AWT) in 1996

ASKARI CEMENT LTD., WAH

After acquisition of the FLS Dry process Plant, AWT changed name of the brand to Askari Cement. The plant installed in 1994 is the latest 3000 tons per day single production line designed by FL Smidth of Denmark and M/s Holder Bank Consultants of Switzerland-two renowned names of the Cement world. The capacity of the plant has been enhanced by another 500 tons per day, by which the capacity comes to 3500 tons per day w.e.fjan 2006. Askari Cement has the credit of being the first in the cement industry to get ISO 9001, and now the first to get the ISO-14001 Environment Friendly Standards Certification in Pakistan.

ASKARI CEMENT NIZAMPUR

The plant has been installed by Army Welfare Trust. Construction of the Plant was started in 1993. Its first line of the capacity of 2000 tons per day was completed and it started production in 1996. Erection/installation of second line also of the capacity 2000 tons per day was started in 1997, commercial production started with effect from 1st July 2003. The plant was designed by M/s Tianjin Cement Design & Research institute, China and was supplied by M/s China Building Material Industrial Corporation (CBMC) and local Machinery was manufactured by Heavy Mechanical Complex (HMC) Taxila, Pakistan.Total Capacity of the

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plant has been enhanced by another 1000 tons per day, by which the capacity comes to 5000 tons per day w.e.f. February 2006.

ASKARI CEMENT MARKETING

It is a setup, established to manage the market of the Askari cement. The selling of the product of both the industrial units of Askari Cement is done through this organization.

All the orders are placed with this Askari Marketing to regulate the supply of the cement. It decides whether order is to be delivered from the Nizampur or from Wah factory. The option is also available with the clientele.

VISION

To transform Askari Cement Marketing into model Cement Marketing Unit as part of worldwide construction activities. Strive hard for optimizing and expanding business in terms of “Brand Image, Business Growth and Increased Revenues”.

MISSION

Manage and operate Askari Cement Marketing in a manner that it achieves continuous growth and profitability, without any risk for customers or employees, with a view to achieving a status of “Best Marketing Unit” in the Cement Industry.

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Marketing Strategy of Askari Cement

The main focus of Askari cement is not mainly on the general public for sales, but they mainly focus the big projects (government and private sector) and exporting their product to other countries.

Products of Askari Cement

Askari

Cement Wah

Askari

Cement Nizampur

Concrete

Cement

Faulad

Cement

Askari

Green

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Askari for

India

Quality certificates

Strenght of the Cement:-

Gains highest strength of 9000 PSI and more against 5950 PSI required by British

Standards. The fineness around 2900-3000 cm sq/gm against 2250 cm sq/gm under

British Standards also contributes to the strength

Prompt Service:

They claim: Customer satisfaction through prompt professional response is our

hallmark.

Customer of MicroTech Engineering Services:

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Askari cement is the worthy customer of the MicroTech Pakistan. This company

tends to provide value solutions by managing projects to ensure success, safety,

craftsmanship and value, while generating opportunities through long-term

customer relationships.

Pricing Strategy

The Askari Cement has made strategy to keep its cost in a way which is not standing equivalent to their manufacturing price. Instead they charge little more than their competitors. Currently, they are charging 445RS for 50 KG bag. However, the average price of the same quantity bag is almost 435RS. So we can regard it as a high price cement.

But, its price is comparatively high for the big projects. They keep the export cement price at normal to dig up tenders.

Placement

Both the industrial units of Askari cement are situated in the north area. Talking about their marketing strategy, they do not try to place their product in the southern area of Pakistan. They place their product only in the Northern Sector.

The map of their target area is given as under.

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Askari Cement is the largest exporting cement of pakistan. It export cement in bulk to the other countries every year.

This cement is being exported in the following areas:

EXPORT MARKET

Afghanistan Sri Lanka

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IraqUAE

India South Africa

Sudan Bangla Desh

The main focus of Askari Cement is to capture the Government and Private construction projects. They supply their product to following construction sites.

Major Customers of Askari Cement

 

Ghazi Brotha Hydro Power Project

Bahria Town

 

   

Projects of Frontier Works Organization

PAF Kamra

   

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Housing Schemes of GHQ Sat Para Dam 

   

Pakistan Housing Authority Schemes

American Embassy Kabul

 

   

Pakistan Railways Bagram Air Base   

   

Al-Ghurair Giga Pak (Pvt) Ltd. Karakoram Highway   

   

Tarbela Dam  Provincial Assembly – KPK   

   

Mangla Dam Raising  Warsak Dam   

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NLC Moterway - M 1   

   

Benazir Bhutto Air Weapon Complex 

 

National Defense College New GHQ IslamabadAvailability - Area Wise:

Because of highest production capacity of two plants in the North Punjab and NWFP, it has consistent availability throughout KPK and major parts of Punjab, AJK, NAs.

Promotional Strategies

For the promotionof product in the general public, the Askari Cement does not perform any special activity, because general domestic consumers are not their main focus. However, they have an organization i.e., Askari Marketing, through which their promotional campaigns are lead.

Conversely, they do certain business tricks to not lose the contract of cement supply to the big government and private projects.

SWOT ANALYSIS

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Strengths (helpful & internal)

High contacts:There are 8 directors of this company. All are retired army officers. Some of them are of Maj. General and Brigadier rank. So they got high contacts. And it is easy for them to capture high tenders.

Brand name:The product of Askari cement has gotten an image of high quality cement in the mind of general public

Customer loyalty:They got loyalty of the customers, especially huge project heads. All the project managers, if become their customers, they remain keen to use their cement for their next projects also.

Technology:They are using the coal technology. They are customer of MicroTech, due to which the technology being used in their plants is kept up to date.

Economies of scaleBy producing large amount of output, this company is near to achieved the economies of scale.

Size advantagesAskari cement have the size advantage because of large scale plant and huge resources.

Supply chainThere is a strong supply chain which has been managed by the Askari Cement Marketing.

Financial leverage:This business concern is not facing any problem related to finance as it got sufficient resources to meet their financial needs.

Pricing power

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Due to high influence in the APCA, they got reasonable power to simulate the prices of cement.

Strong managementTheir directors are retired army officers. They are highly skilled and manage the resources in effective way very efficiently.

Weakness (harmful & internal)

Customer serviceThough, this company providing good service to the Govt. and Private large scale projects but it is very week regarding general public customers services.

Weak R&D:Unlike other business concerns working in same business this company do not have a proper channel based Research and Development system

Online presence:Askari cement lacks the facility of online selling of the product.

High staff turnover:The total staff employed on the both plants is high, so they have a problem of paying extra for the human resource.

Opportunities

International expansionAskari cement has a great opportunity to expand their business in the international market. It has a two ISO certificates and good PSI standards of qualities so it can easily sell their product to other countries and increase foreign reserve.

New markets

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Askari cement is only working in the existing market. It is a great opportunity for them to set a new market in the country and target the other small area in the different sites of the country for the expansion of their business.

New productsThere is a great opportunity for the Askari group to launch their new product in the market. There is a need of innovative work and design a new strategies to capture the minds of people.

Emerging marketsThis company has an opportunity to explore as it has access to the new emerging market i.e. Gilgat Baltistan, It is situated near to that area where the industrial plant of Askari Cement installed.

New technologyIn this fast world there is a need of latest technology for the smooth and competitive working of the business. Askari group have opportunity to import new machinery for increase their efficiency.

New servicesThis is also an opportunity for the Askari cement industry to provide services with extra features. So customer will like their services upon their product and become a loyal customer.

InnovationWithout innovation no business can survive in this world. As Askari cement is working under the Army welfare trust there is great opportunity to them to use innovative mode of production as they have skilled labour force and high level of educated employee in their sector. So manager should provide a peaceful healthy environment of innovation in their production efficiency.

Online marketNow a day, business is working on the online stations. It is the great opportunity to them to use this mode.

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Threats

Substitute productsAskari cement has major threat to their substitute product launch by their competitors. They should make a certain strategy which make different to their product from the competitor product soAskari cement do not lose their market share from the target customer.

Volatile revenueVolatile revenue mean there is not stabilized income of the sale. As Askari cement is only picking the big govt and private construction project which are not longer provide stable earning. After the completion of that project the Askari cement industry could not supply their production and volatile revenue is also a threat for the production of their product.

Volatile costsThere is also a threat of a volatile cost. As the economy of Pakistan is not stable so the cost of their products fluctuate ups and down and will create a bad sign in future production.

Political riskAskari cement is working under the Army Welfare Trust so the retired army officers have linked with the politician who are managed this industry. Political leaders can use it for the benefit of their own interest and the company can face a big lose due to this risk.

Govt regulationsIt is another threat on part of Askari Cement. If Govt. implies certain restrictions on export of cement, Askari Cement will have to face a huge decrease in the sales volume.

Intense competition

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Askari cement has an intense competition. There are lot of firms providing a quality product of cement. so Askari cement should make a certain strategy to tackle this tough situation for their survival in future.

Mature marketsAskari cement has to face a perfect market in the supply of their product. Due to perfect completion the profit margin remain low and the company can get a reasonable profit little difficultly.

Volatile currenciesThere is also a threat of an unstable currency value of rupee. Pakistani rupee continuously losing their value. So there is problem for the company to remain consistent in their export volume.

Bad economyAskari cement has a threat of bad economy. In Pakistan the economy is unstable and we are bearing a high cost of production

CONCLUSION OF SWOT ANALYSES:

After observing all the factors of this company, we conclude that there

are certain weaknesses of the company are the hurdles in making Askari

cement, the market leader. To remove them, Askari Cement Marketing

setup is very important for bringing this company to the heights of

success. This setup should be given more strength. The top management

of Askari cement should now think to target the general public at large.

The selling through internet should also be started.

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Analyzing the strengths and opportunities we can say that there is large

scope for this company to capture more market share. However, the

consistency in the policies and the management policies is required.