As the Developing market of Southern Africa there is endless growth opportunities and constant ask for high growth pushed by the business, this growth comes normally in a very erratic way but as Service is the number 1 KPI for Supply we need to ensure we service markets accordingly.

There is currently a severe shortage of RM (noodles) for Dettol Bar soap, the biggest category for Southern Africa.

At Reckitt Gross Margin is very important and therefore cost-saving initiatives is a must to ensure the business has a strong Return on Investments (ROI).

The company is looking for ideas on how to mitigate this risk, including what is the incremental cost and ROI for the business based on your proposal.

You should use the information provided below as well as anything you already know about Reckitt to support in forming your recommendation. You will need to present this to the SA leadership team to get their alignment for your proposal.

• Before your interview: Go through the information provided and build a proposal/presentation to answer the questions below
• On the day of your interview: You will have 10 minutes to present your proposal back to the interview panel.
• There will be 5 minutes to answer any questions the interview panel may have on your recommendation

Brief from Supply:

Southern Africa has a sales target for R30mil for Q1 2022. Zambia is the biggest market for Southern Africa makes up 40% of the sales. Markets normally sell their goods at a 5% margin.

Due to over sales in Q4 2021 Zambia has a severe shortage of Dettol Bar Soap:

Market	Sales Target (ZAR Mio)	Stock on Hand (ZAR Mio)	Goods in Transit (ZAR Mio)
Zambia	12	4	4
Zimbabwe	9	8	5
Botswana	6	4	3
Namibia	3	2	1
Total	30	18	13

Below are the current freight costs that Reckitt pays to service these markets; these costs are very strongly regulated as we need to ensure to drive ROI.

Market	Distance	Rate per truck (ZAR)	Value per truckload
Zambia	2 000km	7,500	R100 000
Zimbabwe	1 500km	5,000	R100 000
Botswana	1 000km	3,000	R100 000
Namibia	1 500km	5,000	R100 000

There are 3 factories globally that produce bar soap, one of these factories has excess noodles that they can sell to SA Factory, but due to lead time that is required to ensure they have Q1 sales, it will need to be air freighted.

Factory	Metric ton available	Value in Finished goods	Airfreight cost (USD)
Reckitt Bahrain	30	R30mil	30,000

Taking into consideration the information provided and any Economical information available you need to build a proposal to answer the following questions:

• Can the Southern Africa region deliver its Q1 sales target and what would it look like by market?
• Provide us with 2 options and then your best recommendation on how to make the above a reality?
• What is the incremental cost and ROI on these options?

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

To address the challenges and uncertainties in the Southern Africa region and propose a solution lets analyze the situation and provide recommendations Question 1 Can the Southern Africa region delive... View the full answer