There are over 400 companies that
export chocolate from Belgium.
Twenty-five percent of them handle only chocolate, while the remaining
seventy-fiver percent are more diversified and involved in equipment, chemicals,
etc.
Over 400 companies. This must be easy, right? Many of the companies us trial and error when
expanding into foreign markets. The
supply certain products in hope that something will stick. They track sales and quickly move to the next
product if one is failing. If a particular product is selling well in a few areas,
they really begin to push it on to the market.
An article by Filip Abraham describes this process. The
link here, https://www.vlerick.com/en/research-and-faculty/knowledge-items/knowledge/the-success-of-belgian-chocolate-export
is to a website that describes this process
and calls this a “beachhead.”
A beachhead is the second step in the
expansion process. “This
happens when the exporting firm starts selling large volumes of the chocolate
product in a specific geographic market. The beachhead is strengthened when the
firm sells the same product in more and more destinations.” This lowers costs (shipping/storage) and
increases revenue. A true win, win for
the company!
Once they have established the market for their product,
the company needs to maintain it with selling valuable products at a reasonable
cost to the customer. They can also be
looking for new markets to grow into, to further expand their reach.
I did not realize there were over 400 companies that exported chocolate from Belgium. I thought that this was very interesting in my opinion, especially from somebody that doesn’t like chocolate. I never knew what a beachhead was, nor have I ever heard this term before. As Belgian chocolates are very well known, I can only image the process of exporting and keeping up with all the demands for this chocolate. This thing I found most interesting about this is the fact that most chocolate producers are selling more than only the chocolate in the foreign markets. The fact that less than 25 percent of all the chocolate being exported to firms export only chocolate products while the other 75 percent are active in a variety of sectors. These sectors include food products, machinery and chemicals. Overall I think that this was a very interesting article to read about on the export strategies for chocolate in Belgium.
ReplyDeleteGreat post!
It was interesting to read about the 'beachhead' step; it's also amazing that there are over 400 companies exporting chocolate. I thought that there would be no way all of those companies could exist due to competition. The article mentions companies were able to start selling chocolate in Russia and China, which, due to the population, could bring in huge revenues.
ReplyDelete- Kevin Rindfleisch