Analysis of the market landscape of AFA Spring Ltd.

Abstract

The word AFA stands for Anis, Faruk and Alamgir, which are the nicknames of the three founders of this company. The three were batchmates at Bangladesh Institute of Engineering and Technology in the 1978 batch. After graduation, all of them went abroad and worked for a few years before returning back to Bangladesh. Thinking of starting something of their own, they looked at the nascent leaf spring industry of the country and saw a window of opportunity. With an initial capital of 25 lacs, they established a factory in Manikganj and began producing leaf springs on a commercial basis. The company had its hurdles early on but soon gained traction and established itself as one of the premier leaf spring manufacturers in the local market. With success from leaf springs, the company soon went on to produce other types of automobile spare parts such as nut gauge, oil filter, air pump filter, brake nut etc. However, despite enjoying relative success since inception, in the past few years the company has seen its market share decreasing slowly owing to the entry and aggressive marketing of a few new competitors, some with foreign investors, who have come up with innovative product and marketing strategies to grab share in this competitive industry. AFA Spring Ltd. lacks a proper marketing department, marketing data and statistics. Till present, not enough focus has been given towards understanding the market, the target group, their needs, and the competitors’ profile and so on. Because of these gaps of knowledge, the company is not being able to anticipate the market needs, the changing scenario in the industry, the moves of its competitors etc. and these are leading to reduced revenues, growth and market share. To reverse this trend, this project has undertaken an analysis of the marketing landscape of this industry in the country.