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Sudha Surender Pal: Manufacturing of Paper Plates, Cups,

Glasses etc
Query Resolution

18th March, 2011

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 Contents

Query Summary ........................................................................................................................................ 3

Resolution ................................................................................................................................................. 3
Next Steps ................................................................................................................................................. 6
About Us ................................................................................................................................................... 7

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Query Summary

Client Name: sudha surender pal Client Delivery Manager: 91-02-4

Query Date: 17/03/2011 Query Type: Free, SMEToolkit India

Business Result Area: Business Planning SLA*: Not Applicable

*SLA (Service Level Assurance) is only applicable for our premium members

Query Description:

Topic: Manufacturing of paper plates, cups, glasses etc.

I am planning to start small scale business in manufacturing the titled products. With
Government support to encourage the paper products, how far I can go in starting my project.
Being a woman, can I go ahead with this item?

Resolution
Our understanding of your current status:

1. You want to establish a paper plate, cups and glass manufacturing unit.

Your Query / Queries to Us & Their Resolution:

1. Components of a sound business plan for a paper plate manufacturing unit

a. Opportunity assessment and capacity planning You should first determine the demand
for paper plate, glasses and cups in the geographical area which you wish to serve. You
should identify the major customer segments which need paper plates, glasses and cups
for their business or domestic consumption. Some of the major customer segments can
be:
Caterers (who are hired for catering food in wedding and parties) who serve
snacks in paper plates and use paper cups and glasses
Restaurants
Hawkers which sell food items on the roadside
Manufacturers of decorative items which need paper plates
Domestic usage

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 You should get a ballpark estimate for demand of these products from all these
segments. For example, you can count the number of caterers in your geographical
area. Then you can identify the number of parties/ wedding ceremony served by them
in a month. Then you can estimate the average number of guests in a party, and paper
plates & glasses needed per guest. By multiplying these figures, you can estimate the
demand for these products from caterers. You can similarly estimate the demand from
other segments.

After that you need to find out the current supply of these products in the market, and
consequently demand supply gap. Then you should decide what percentage of this
demand supply gap and the percentage of current market you wish to serve. This will
help you in estimating the manufacturing capacity of your unit.
b. Location analysis You need to select a suitable location for the proposed
manufacturing unit. You can use specific criteria to support the location. The location
should be closer to the intended customers. It should be closer to the suppliers of raw
materials required in the plant. It should have good infrastructure in terms of
connectivity, and power supplies. It should be located in an area, where you can easily
source, attract, and recruit people for your plant.
c. Manpower resource planning Estimate the manpower required for the manufacturing
plant on the basis of capacity of the plant. Estimate the manpower in both the
administrative and managerial role.
d. Competition analysis You should analyze strategies followed by the established
manufacturers across following functions:
Sourcing of raw materials
Ensuring quality of the product
Pricing Policy
Branding & marketing strategy
Customer relationship management
Financing Strategy

You should determine which of the above strategy/ practices you can follow without
incurring too much cost.

e. Supply chain management Paper, and aluminum foil are the main raw materials used
in the paper plate & cup manufacturing. Identify the suppliers of these raw materials on
the basis of specific criteria such as reputation, lead time in supplying the material,
credit term extended etc. You should try to negotiate better pricing with your suppliers

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 by promising them prompt payment. Also, you should have a strict quality check on the
quality of paper used at the time of receipt of raw material from the suppliers.
f. Customer acquisition strategy Since you will be a new player in the market, you will
need to have a strong value proposition to create a market for yourself. For that you
first need to identify the target segment for your product. You should determine the
attributes of your target segments (such as who will need these products in bulk, who
make prompt payment etc). Then you will need to make marketing strategy for each
customer segment. To establish your identity, you can enter into an arrangement with
the buyers, where you can sell your paper products at lower prices (as compared to
competitors) at the start. Once the buyer is assured of your higher quality, you can then
raise the price. Also you can enter into long term arrangement with your customers by
offering your products at discounted price.
g. Quality assurance Quality of the paper plate is very important for ensuring your
success in the market. You need to ensure the quality control at all points of your value
chain. You can take following measures to ensure quality
Quality of raw materials
Best practices in manufacturing to ensure quality
Training and sensitizing your employees towards the need to ensure quality
Ensuring quality during the transport of final products to the customers
Taking quality certifications (in long term)
h. Financial Analysis
Capital expenditure required for the plant for the land, machinery, installation
of plant
Operating expenditure for the plant Salary, electricity, fuel, transportation
Initial working capital requirement
Debt- equity ratio for funding the capital expenditure and initial working capital
requirement
Source of debt and equity
Profit and loss statement, and balance sheet for the manufacturing plant for the
life of the plant
Profit, and return on equity

This resolution is provided basis the limited information we have about you. To know more
about different aspects of an effective business plan, please visit the following link:

http://365businessdays.com/PublicSite/Advisory.aspx?AdvisoryID=3

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If you need our support to help you develop the business plan, it will require us to understand
the level of support you need, and your previous expertise in the sector. We always begin our
relationship in an extremely cost efficient online method and then depending upon the need of
the client; deepen the relationship to offline engagement with considerable advantages of cost
and turnaround time for delivery over comparable services. You could get to know more about
our services by visiting

http://365businessdays.com/PublicSite/takeatour.aspx

Being a woman, should not stop you for pursuing this venture. If you can build capabilities and
a team required to run such a venture, you will be definitely successful.

Next Steps
We wish you success in your desire to establish a paper plate, cup & glass
manufacturing unit, and will be extremely willing to provide you all the support
that we can to help you achieve this aspiration. We are committed to providing
skill based research and analytics support to our Premium Members to help them
drive their business.

When you sign up as a Premium Member and we engage with you to support you
for developing and implementing your marketing plan and support you in the
content development process, you can be assured of access to a pool of high
quality business management professionals with deep expertise in 80 skill areas
that drive any business.

http://www.365businessdays.com/PublicSite/BusinessConcept.aspx

As for example, we will help you

In opportunity assessment, and the capacity planning for the unit

Developing a model for choosing the location for the plant
Deciding criteria for selecting suppliers, and recommending a suitable
supplier for the raw material required in the plant
Customer acquisition strategy

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 Quality assurance strategy
Financial analysis, and calculation of financial return from the plant
Raising funds from different sources

About Us
SME ToolKit
The SME Toolkit is a joint project of IFC (International Finance Corporation), a member of the
World Bank Group and ICICI Bank. The Toolkit website has been created as an online resource
centre to empower Indian SMEs and help them become globally competitive

http://india.smetoolkit.org/india/en

365BusinessDays
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support in a cost efficient manner to our customers. We provide this service through a secure
and easy to use proprietary online platform. To know more about our services please visit our
Take a Tour section. Please click here to Sign up for our Business Advisory Services.

DISCLAIMER:
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accurate to the best of our knowledge, at the time of generating and publishing this report. In particular as
our Query Resolution service is not based on any Primary Data collection and analysis, there can be inherent
challenges in the depth and scope of the issues it can address. We, at 365BusinessDays, accept no liability for
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 WWW.365BUSINESSDAYS.COM

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