Fast Company Berhad (FCB) specialise in manufacturing and packing all types of instant beverage premixes including coffee, tea, and chocolate. FCB now produced 50 products under "SEDAP" brand, with the capacity of 200,000 sachets of daily outputs. The company was established in 1980 and become a listed company in 2010. Besides the domestic market, the company products are also exported to more than 20 countries, for example, China, Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Russia, etc. FCB relies on one major supplier from Brazil for raw materials. The company used cane sugar as one of the ingredients for its instant beverages. Even though there is enormous pressure from consumer associations regarding the use of sugar in instant beverages, FCB is unable to find the right alternative for sugar that will not change the taste of its products. However, FCB's research and development department continues to do research to reduce the level of sugar in its product. Due to this scenario, the Marketing department faces difficulties to sell FCB products to the customers who prioritise healthy drinks. Amid this, the FCB brand received good responses from other types of customers and currently, the market share of FCB in the domestic market is around 30% and ranked at the 4th place in the industry. For the international market, FCB recorded approximately RM20 million in sales per year. Since its public listing in 2010, FCB has won several awards such as "Most Valuable Malaysian Brands" by Reader Digest Magazine and "Best Small Capital Companies" by the Malaysian Beverage Association. FCB products currently had Halal and Good Manufacturing (GMP) certificates.

 In 2021, FCB's Managing Director has identified two (2) major challenges, which are the Covid-19 pandemic and the weakening Malaysian Ringgit currency. Covid-19-related disruptions and lockdown have affected FCB production and marketing activities. FCB had 80 employees and 40% of them are foreign workers. During the Movement Control Order (MCO), these foreign workers are not allowed to come to work, and the company has operated below its normal capacity and is unable to meet customers' demands. During MCO, many supermarkets had limited business operations, and this interrupted marketing activities for product testing. FCB's marketing staff are lacking digital marketing skills and depended on traditional marketing approaches. Thus, sales in the domestic markets decreased due to MCO as lower consumers recorded in supermarkets, hypermarkets, convenience stores, food outlets, and petrol kiosks. The weakening Malaysian Ringgit currency against US Dollar also affected FCB's profit. 

Overall, in 2021 the profits dropped by 15% due to lower revenue generation from the international markets. Additionally, the sales revenues for global markets are also affected by Covid-19, and the hike in the value-added tax and the sugar tax imposed in some countries. FCB has a strong cash flow and low gearing ratio, and this gives a positive outlook to the shareholders. Recently, the Managing Director announced that there is a possibility that FCB's supplier will increase the prices of raw materials. Following this, FCB will increase their products' price by 10%. The Marketing department needs to be more aggressive and adopt digital technology to penetrate the market so that the price increase will not lead to sales reduction. The Marketing department sees the Vietnam market as a potential for FCB for future investments. For the domestic market, there is a fast-growing market for instant drinks and FCB can take this opportunity to open cafes for example for market penetration strategy. However, the challenges from the customers who prefer healthy drinks remain for FCB to tackle in the future. Market analysts predict a slowdown in the national economy but forecast that consumer spending will continue to increase, particularly among the 25-to 40-year-olds consumers. The competition in the beverages industry is tight as there are nearly 30 companies in the industry, however, FCB is optimistic about its future growth and believed that its strong branding is the cornerstone for the company's success which enabled FCB to remain competitive and relevant in the industry. FCB is in the process of preparing its strategic planning for 2023. The Managing Director asked you as a Management Accountant to do a relevant analysis for this planning. 

REQUIRED: 

(a) Prepare strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis for FCB. Briefly explain your answer. (6 Marks) 

(b) Analyse FOUR (4) factors that should be considered if FCB decides to make an investment in Vietnam, using the Porter's Diamond model. 

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

Here is a SWOT analysis for Fast Company Berhad FCB Strengths Strong brand reputation and recognition with SEDAP brand Wide product range with 50 prod... View the full answer