Lexi Stefanatos . Kelly Steinmetz . Kia Pouliot . Anne‐Geneviève Guay .

Laura Bergman
BUSINESS PLAN December 8th, 2009

Table of contents

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY……………………………………………..……………………………………………………….
MISSION…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………....3

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION…………………………………………………………………………………..…………….……...3

OBJECTIVES………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..3

MANAGEMENT TEAM PROFILES…………………………………………………………………..………….….……..…3‐4

SWOT ANALYSIS……………………………………………………………………………………………….……….……4‐5

TYPE OF BUSINESS………………………………………………………………………………………………………………5

BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT……………………………………………………………………………………….……..…

INDUSTRY OVERVIEW……………………………………………………………………………………………………….5‐6

POSITION IN INDUSTRY……….……………………………………………………………………………………………..…6

MARKETING PLAN……………………………………………………………………………………………………….……

MARKET ANALYSIS…………………………………………………………………………………………………..………….7

PRICING STRATEGY………………………………….…………………………………………………………...…………..…7

ADVERTISING PLAN……………………………………………………………………………………….…………………7‐9

DISTRIBUTION PLAN……………………………………………………………………………………………………………9

FINANCIAL PLAN………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

CAPITAL COSTS………………………………………………………………………………………………………….……….9

OPERATING COSTS……………………………………………………………………………………………………………....9

ESTIMATED TOTAL REVENUE……………………………………………………………………………………………9‐11

CHARITY DESCRIPTION………...…………………………………………………………………………………………….11

APPENDIX A (BLANK SURVEY)………………………………………..………………………………………12‐13

APPENDIX B (MARKET RESEARCH)……………………………………………………………….……..…14‐17

APPENDIX C (LOGO)……………………………………………………………………………………………….….…18

APPENDIX D (LETTER TO PARENTS)…………………………………………………………………..............19

APPENDIX E (CASH FLOW)……………………………………………………………………………….……..20‐21

3

Executive Summary

Mission

Our mission is to profitably engage in trading activities including but not limited to Imports and
exports.

Product Description

Imports:

1. Milk Powder
2. Palm Oil
3. Rice 100 pct broken
4. Soya oil

Exports:

1. Sesame seeds
2. Groundnut seeds
 3. Cashew Nuts

Objectives

The assurance to achieve the objective of profit maximization is the key focus of our private

corporation. To achieve this goal we will trade into agricultural and non agricultural products. We
will create a niche in the market by providing high quality produce at competitive prices.

To achieve our objective, we will always keep our operational costs low and enter the up country
markets which shall enjoy better prices because of elimination of one level i.e. the wholesellers at
Dakar.

We will also try and sell our goods on cash, ensuring no bad debt and low interest cost. The benefits
of this can be passed on to the customers.

Management team profiles

The Team

Ms. Bhavna Goel

Mr. Anshul Pal

Mr. Manish Maheshwari

Mr. Vinod

Mr. Shankar Mondal

Mr.Ousmane Traoure

SWOT analysis

Strengths:
5

Weaknesses:

Opportunity:

Threats:

Type of business

We will be a SUARL where Ms. Bhavna Goel is the sole shareholder with 100 percent share
holding. The entity shall work in all activity

Business Environment

Industry overview

Our market consists of diverse groups of the ECS community and appeals to each one for

different reasons. Firstly, we appeal to the Junior School demographic because we offer a
product that they are most likely pretty familiar with, enjoy eating and that parents would be

happy to feed their children. We are offering a fairly nutritious main meal and are one of the

only businesses doing this. Because parents must approve the order forms, and we are

offering something parents would approve of, we believe that this will be a factor to our

success.

Secondly, we appeal to the ECS Middle and Senior School demographic because our product is

enjoyable to the general student’s palate, it is approachable and customizable to everyone’s

likes. In addition to being universally delicious, we also appeal to the students with conscience

regarding the health and/or ethics of the food they consume. Rice, Rice Baby uses only fresh,

simple and fair trade rice in its product, so whatever our customers’ concerns may be, we’ve

got their interests taken care of.

Thirdly, we appeal to the ECS staff because, as for with older students, we are offering a simple

and familiar delicious main meal that also takes health and global concerns into consideration.

Overall, we believe that our business covers all of the bases necessary to be successful on both

an ethical and economic level.

Trends

Our product is unique because we are one of the only businesses offering a main meal. That in

itself is extremely significant as when purchasing from SSX because people generally do

consider a main meal to be an important purchase, everyday. During the business days of SSX

in the past it was clear that desserts or “treats” are usually in abundance but there was less

choice of main meals, but still a very high demand for them. There was also a severe lack of

healthier options to choose from and still a demand for them.

Position in industry

Our product will cater to the trends of the past because we are filling the void in the market of

main meal options and the even more significantly the void of healthy options. We offer a

main meal that can be enjoyed by mostly everyone of all ages by taste alone, but we also

appeal to the consumers whose demand for a healthier choice was not satisfied up to this

point and cannot be satisfied as greatly by any other business.

Our niche

Our target market is open to all of the ECS community because, as stated in our industry

overview, we appeal to a large audience by the nature of our product and business. Each

demographic in out market is drawn to our product for different reasons. We satisfy the

demand of consumers who want a healthier alternative at the SSX. This health‐conscious

consumer can be a Junior School parent who must approve their child’s meal, a Middle/Senior

school student who is aware and concerned about proper nutrition or a staff member who has

healthy eating habits and makes healthy choices in their everyday life.

By making our products with fair trade rice, we are also and ethical business. Once again, this

can be an appealing factor to any age group of our market. Anyone can be attracted to this

aspect of our business, but it certainly sets us apart from any other business of the past or

present of the SSX market.

Simply stated, our product is delicious. No matter what outside concerns you may or may not

have, everyone wants to enjoy whatever food they will consume. Everyone knows what rice is

and has most probably enjoyed it on many occasions in similar preparations to the one we are
offering in the past. Therefore, people are very likely to buy our product with the faith that

they will enjoy it as they do when preparing it themselves. We are offering a product that will

most certainly satisfy everyone’s tastes.

Marketing Plan

Market Analysis

Our 50 surveys were given out the week of the October 12th. To see a blank survey see

appendix A. For graphical representation of the results see appendix B.

Based on our market research we have concluded the following:

‐ Even though he majority of our surveyed market has an interest in buying brown rice,

we have discovered that it is not possible to buy high quality brown rice grown outside

of the US, therefore, we will only be serving white rice.

‐ Given that the vegetable choices were relatively aside from onions, we will be selling

peas, broccoli and corn only.

‐ There was an overwhelming request for chicken in our surveyed market and only a

small interest in other protein choices; therefore we will only be selling chicken.

‐ Soy and teriyaki sauce together account for 85% of our surveyed market; therefore we

will be selling only those two sauces.

Based on the above research and conclusions, we will have three different product types to

offer our customers:

‐ Product A = plain rice

‐ Product B = rice + sauce

‐ Product C = rice + sauce + toppings

We will use these three product models to develop our financial plan.

Pricing strategy

We know that the most effective new businesses not only use the cost plus strategy to

determine the price of their product but also thrive to depend more on the price sensitivity

analysis. Therefore, we will use both methods to determine the price and then marry them, in

order to find the most effective price that the market is sure to accept. As a new business, it is

important that we take into consideration what our market is willing to pay for our product

and not only what it will cost us. Rice, Rice Baby could be severely let down if we did not

consider our price sensitivity analysis by either pricing too high or too low from the market’s

acceptance.

Advertising plan

Logo: See appendix C

Slogan: Pick it. Box it. Eat it.

Translation: Choisis. Emballe. Savoure.

Business card: provided inside this project folder

8

Strategy

Rice, Rice Baby will use the most effective and simple advertising possible. Our social

awareness will be a strong factor in our advertising campaign. The three sponsors that we will

be requesting support from are Ms. Phelps, Mr.Cox and Mr. Fortin. We chose these people

because of their strong presence in the school as well as their creative nature to compliment

our advertising strategy. We would also like to try new innovative forms of advertising this

year in all three of the steps to effective marketing: awareness, trial and loyalty.

We will also put in place certain incentives for consumers to purchase from Rice, Rice Baby

rather than any other company on the market. The first incentive will be the distribution of

one free fortune cookie for every purchase made at our company. The second incentive will be

a small game to win a t‐shirt with our logo. Everyday, out of the three selling days we have,

one girl will receive the winning fortune cookie, which gives them the privilege of winning our

t‐shirts. Hopefully, these small incentives will be a big factor in the decision making process of

the ECS consumers.

Awareness

We will be approaching our awareness phase with a strong building up marketing campaign.

First and foremost, the movie we will create, the website we will build and the radio jingle we

will record will be our main awareness tools. In the beginning we will initiate thought by

creating a viral listening of the song Ice, Ice Baby (our theme song). The ECS market will not

yet know what relevance this has to the SSX, but soon we will integrate our movie and jingle
and the vital connection will be made. Once the market is aware of our product, and

consequently can’t get our theme song out of their heads, we will initiate the influx of posters

and emails regarding our product.

Our website will also have an interactive component which is a game linked to the website

www.freerice.com. This website allows you to play a word game in order to win grains of rice

to donate to the UN World Food Program. We expect that this interactive component will

firstly, attract consumers to our website over others and secondly, reinforce the social

awareness aspect of our company.

As for the new innovative form of advertising in the awareness phase, we would like to

communicate to the parents of the junior school though an email because they play a large role

in the decision‐making of this demographic. We would like to communicate via an email sent

home explaining the background of our product and our business goals. To see the letter we

would like to send see appendix D.

Trial

For SSX 2010, Rice, Rice Baby would like to integrate a trial phase into our marketing process.

As one of the crucial steps to effective marketing we feel that it would be an important step to

take in order to ensure our success. The trial phase will be put in place a couple weeks before

we leave for March Break. We will take one lunch hour to distribute small samples of our rice

to anyone who is interested to test it. As a result, when we come back from March Break,

9
students and staff will know what to expect and be very willing to come and purchase more –

ensuring success of the third step, loyalty, from the very beginning.

Loyalty

The third and last important phase of marketing is loyalty. Loyalty is hard to earn in

customers, especially over a three‐day period but we are confident that after our marketing

strategy is put in place and the trial phase is executed effectively, customers will be satisfied

with our product and know what to expect when coming to purchase a lunch at Rice, Rice

Baby. Because of the great taste and many options we hope that customers will continue

coming to customize their meal everyday.

Another factor that will help customers to be loyal are the small incentives we are offering, as

described in our strategy.

Distribution plan

In order for us to have the highest quality and freshest offering of product to our customers,

we will require the use of kitchen facilities such as a freezer for the vegetables, a microwave to

steam them, access to a sink to make the rice and lots of counter space for the rice cookers.

The quality of our food is a very important part of our distribution plan. To ensure freshly

made rice, we will best utilize the facilities we have access to in order to achieve our objective.

Financial Plan

Capital Costs
Capital Items Total Cost Amortised Cost/year

Rice Cooker $170 $42.50*

* Theoretically, we will assume that the rice cooker would last for 4 years, so as a capital cost

we can expense it over the four‐year period.

We will be buying one large rice cooker and borrowing at least three from other families as

further described in our cost of production.

Operating costs

Theoretically, we would have to expense the following utilities: telephone, gas, heat, and

electricity as well as the cost of rent, insurance and maintenance. We will also be paying for

advertising and promotion.

Estimated total revenue

Forecast: Total Production Requirements

45 out of 50 people will buy Rice, Rice Baby

90% of 400 people = 360 people will buy the product over 3 days

10

Our research has indicated that 90% of the ECS community would buy Rice, Rice Baby but

given that this will be a competitive market, our forecast will assume that half of all ECS

consumers that indicated a willingness to purchase will buy within the 3‐day selling period
(approximately 200 units per day).

Our forecast will be built on the assumption of three customizable product categories:

‐ Product A = plain rice

‐ Product B = rice + sauce

‐ Product C = rice + sauce + toppings

We will assume that of the 200 units sold per day:

‐ 10% (20 units, 60 units over three days) will be product A

‐ 20% (40 units, 120 units over three days) will be product B

‐ 70% (140 units, 420 units over three days) will be product C

Our cash flow projection as well as our production costs will be based on the above

assumptions.

Cost of Production

Product A Product B Product C

Item Quantity Total Item Cost 10% (60 units) 20% (120

units)

70% (420

units)

Boxes 600 $96 $9.60 $19.20 $67.20

Napkins 500 $10.95 $1.10 $2.20 $7.65

Forks 600 $47.40 $4.74 $9.48 $33.18

Rice 55 X 1kg $302.50 $30.25 $60.50 $211.75

Chicken 3 X 1kg $30 $30

Peas 3 X 2kg $16.47 $16.47

Corn 3 X 2kg $16.47 $16.47

Broccoli 2 X 1kg $5.98 $5.98

Soy Sauce 2 Jugs $27.98 $6.22 $21.76

Teriyaki Sauce 3 Bottles $16.47 $3.66 $12.81

Fortune

Cookies

600 $32.00 $3.20 $6.40 $22.40

Total $389.69 $48.89 $107.66 $445.67

Overhead

Allocation

(Capital costs)

$170 $17 $34 $119

Total Cost + OH $559.69 $65.89 $141.66 $564.67

Per Unit Cost $1.10 $1.18 $1.34

Above is an itemised list of all the items required for the manufacturing of our product. We

have allocated all the costs to our three different product offerings (A, B, C) in order to give us

11

an accurate estimate of our unit cost in order to assist us in our pricing strategy. All items food

were purchased at Costco and in China Town, t‐shirts for advertising will be purchased at

Bang On and Chinese‐style food boxes were ordered from ULINE. Also, many extra materials
for presentation were purchased at Bureau en Gros. We will have to buy one large rice cooker,

and borrow others from several families with permission. We will be using containers from

home to store the food and heat it up at school.

After calculating our unit costs, we will marry it with price sensitivity to complete our pricing

strategy.

‐ Product A = $2.50

‐ Product B = $3.25

‐ Product C = $4.00

Cash flow

To reference the cash flow statement see appendix E.

Charity description

Through Friends of the World Food Program, we will be donating our profits to the United

Nations World Food Program (WFP). The WFP is the largest humanitarian organization in the

world, which is working to put hunger in the forefront of political decisions and to promote

policies to directly benefit the poor and hungry. WFP hopes to feed at least 100 million people

in 80 different countries around the world over the course of 2009. As the food branch of the

UN, the WFP meets the emergency needs for food as well as the use of food to support

economic and social development around the world.

The Friends of the World Food Program is a U.S.‐based, non‐profit organization, which tries to

build support for the WFP in the U.S. Friends of the WFP unite many different organizations
and individuals in the U.S., which are committed to solving world hunger. They advocate and

fundraise to support the life‐saving food assistance programs around the world.

We will donate our profit directly to the Friends of the World Food Program, requesting that

they send our money to relief efforts for the Southeast Asia disaster. Recently, throughout the

21st century, Southeast Asia has been victim of huge environmental and social disasters. Rice

paddies have existed in Southeast Asia for thousands of years and as a main revenue generator

for all of Asia, these paddies are an important part of their culture. The maintenance of the

rice paddies is extremely important to Southeast Asia and because of the major environmental

disasters, they are being destroyed. We chose to send our money to their relief of these Asian

countries because we feel that there is a strong relation between out product and the

economic and social needs of Southeast Asia.

UN World Food Program: http://www.wfp.org

Friends of the World Food Program: http://www.friendsofwfp.org

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APPENDIX A

Name:_______________________

Grade:_______________________

Date:________________________
 Rice, Rice Baby

1. Would you buy a bowl of rice?

Yes / No

2. If so, how many times would you purchase it over the course of 3 days?

- Once

- Twice

- Three times

3. How much are you willing to spend on a bowl of rice (all rice is served with an option of

sauce)?

Option A (plain rice):

- $2.00

- $2.50

- $3.00

- $3.50

Option B (rice + toppings):

- $3.50

- $4.00

- $4.50
- $5.00

4. What kind of toppings would you like on your rice?

Vegetables:

- Carrots

- Peas

- Broccoli

- Corn

- Onions

- Other: ___________________________

13

Protein:

- Chicken

- Tofu

- Other: ___________________________

5. Which sauces would you like on your rice?

- Soy sauce

- Plum sauce
- Hot sauce

- Teriyaki sauce

6. Would you be interested in buying brown rice?

Yes / No

Thank you!
14

APPENDIX B

Demand Curves

‐ Grades 1‐4 were not able to fill in the price section of the survey so these 10 surveys

were excluded from this curve

‐ Another two surveys were excluded because of lack of interest in the product

‐ The total amount of surveys included in this demand curve is 38

15
Product Interest

White and Brown Rice

‐ Four surveys were excluded because question was not answered

16

Toppings
17

Sauce Choices
18

APPENDIX C
19

APPENDIX D

Dear parents of the junior school,

Every year, the grade 11 economics elective participates in the Student Stock Exchange (SSX).

The SSX involves many Montreal students creating companies and selling products at their

respective schools, with all profit going to charity. All students subsequently come together at

Loyola High School to be officially judged and potentially win awards. This year at ECS, we

have 5 teams participating.

In some parts of the world, the verb "to eat" literally means, "to eat rice." As much as half of the

daily calorie intake for 50% of the world’s population comes from eating rice. Rice is an

important staple on the global menu so we thought we should represent this during the

Student Stock Exchange through our company, Rice, Rice Baby.

The white iconic grain that we are offering has many healthy qualities (a source of fibre,

protein, manganese and selenium). In addition to your choice between rice varieties you can

pick your sauce and selected toppings for your rice. The toppings vary from chicken, corn,

peas, broccoli and onions, to soy sauce, teriyaki sauce and chilli sauce. Our rice will be served

in Chinese‐style take‐out boxes and everyone will be given a complimentary fortune cookie

with every purchase.

So why should you purchase Rice, Rice Baby? Our rice is definitely delicious, healthy and offers

you many options to cater to your personal palate, but buying our rice will benefit more than
just you. We wanted to start a business that also gives back. This is why we use only fair trade

rice and feature a link on our website to http://www.freerice.com/ which is a website made in

partnership with the UN World Food Program that allows you to play word games to help fight

hunger though rice donations. We will also be donating our profit to the United Nation World

Food Program, requesting our money is sent directly to recovery of Southeast Asia, where rice

paddies are incredibly important.

Enjoy our rice,

‐The Rice, Rice Baby Team (Lexi Stefanatos, Kelly Steinmetz, Laura Bergman, Anne‐Geneviève

Guay, Kia Pouliot)

P.S Visit the website of the UN World Food Program yourself and donate! http://www.wfp.org

20

APPENDIX E
Cash Flow Statement

Rice, Rice Baby

Starting date Feb‐10

Ending Date March‐26 39,898 39,898 39,898

Beginning Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Total

Cash on hand (beginning of month)

CASH RECEIPTS

Cash sales‐ Plain Rice 50 50 50 150

Cash sales‐ Rice + Sauce 130 130 130 390

Cash sales‐ Rice + Sauce + Toppings 560 560 560 1,680

Sale of Shares 400 400

Loans received 135.20 135.20

Total cash available 0 0 2,755

CASH PAID OUT

Advertising 250 250

Materials and supplies (in COGS) 390 390

Office expense 0 0

Rent or lease: vehicles, equipment 0 0

Supplies (not in COGS) 20 20

Utilities 0 0

Wages 0 0
Other expenses 0 0

SUBTOTAL 660 0 0 0 660

Loan principal payment 135.20 135.20

Dividends Paid 400 400

Donation to Charity 1,560 1,560

TOTAL CASH PAID OUT 660 0 0 2,095 2,755

Cash on hand (end of month) ‐660 0 0 ‐2,095 0

Units sold

Price per unit Day 1 Day 1 Day 2 Day 3

Total

Units

Total

Sales

$2.50 Product A 20 20 20 60 150

$3.25 Product B 40 40 40 120 390

$4.00 Product C 140 140 140 420 1,680

Total sales 740 740 600 2,220

21
Profit

Total Sales $2,220.00

Less:

Expenses $659.64

$1,560.36