Investment Strategy In Macedonia – Executive Market Research Report

Country analysis of Macedonia

It has to be noted that the European market place drives the business environment of Europe and it is influenced by the ideals of Europe. With the same, it can be considered as the largest economy in Europe along with the opportunities of large economic development and also the largest trading partner. The Macedonian market offers various opportunities to the corporations that are very important for the development of the economy and organizations. This makes the most out of the diversity of business practices, cultures, styles of management that they follow and their languages. Along with that it can also be noted that the there are several challenges for the European organizations in the universal business environment. The organizations are very keen to provide a productive economy that will be the vehicle for the overall social warfare.

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The food and the drink industry of Europe is one of the largest industries of Europe. Hence, it is the main contributor to the economy of Europe. Some important data can be provided in this regard. The annual turnover rate of this industry is around 15% with the value-added share of 12.8^%. The employment rate of this industry is around 15%. This food and drinks industry currently generate the highest turnover rate in the world. There are around 280,000 small and medium sized organizations in this sector. Generally, the major players in this industry are the small and medium sized organizations. Around 99% of the food and drink firms are generating more than 50% of the annual turnover all around Europe. Some of the most important products in this industry are the drinks, meat products, bakery, farinaceous and dairy products.

The European industry of food and beverage is one of the biggest sectors in context value addition and the jobs. The sector is also referred to as an asset in the trade with the non-European countries. It might be noted that Europe boasts of having a significant surplus in trade in food-related trades. The food specialities of Europe have earned proper appreciation in the international markets. The export market of the European beverage and food industry have doubled and is known to have reached more than 90 billion EUR. This has contributed to the positive and productive balance of about 29 billion EUR. The European food legislation is further harmonised greatly. These sectors are notably benefitted from the various opportunities that have been offered by the European Single Market. However, the industry also faces various challenges in the domestic as well as the global market. The European Commission is known to have been continuously working towards the improvement of the competitiveness within the food industry of Europe. This also helps in the enhancement of the functionality of the European Single market that has been dedicated to food.

  1. Boost Juice is advised to set the business plan prior to the entry in the market of Macedonia. The motives of the company should be classified into the proactive and the reactive motives. The company is advised to include the measures of proximity in application of the reactive motives. The proactive motives, on the other hand, includes the opportunities of the foreign market, the European tax benefit schemes, the goals of profit and the urge for the management.
  2. Boost Juice should also take into consideration the cultural distances that are evident in the European territories.
  3. The company should concentrate on the factors that will work as the barriers to their successive success in Europe before entering into the European market.
  4. The company should also aim to shed light on the macro-environmental factors operational within the European market that would throw light on the social and the political environments that are least attractive.

1. Environmental preservation

2. Relationship with the United States has witnessed a notable improvement in Macedonia.

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1. Corruption among the government officials of Europe has imposed a significant threat to the legitimacy of the ruling party in Macedonia.

1. The European government recognises the threat that corruption is imposing to its legitimacy and also, it has acted to clamp down on the graft among the government party officials.

2. The country’s ongoing urbanization as well as the infrastructure drive might provide key opportunities for the foreign investment in the landlocked provinces. This might also help in transferring skills and the know-how.

1. Although a strong domestic control in Europe would ensure very little change to the political scene in Europe in the next five years, unsustainability might be observed in one of the states.  

2. The rural poverty is increasing

1. Modern surveillance and the enforcing of ISO along with the regulation requirements to the importers of the products in the European countries like Macedonia could contribute to the competitive position in the high-end market of Macedonia.

1. The strong companies in this country have very limited access to finances and this is restricting their capacity of engaging in the long-term investments and also their R&D activities. With the same, due to this reason they are also restricted to get engaged in mergers.

2. Increasing the mergers, clusters, and strategic partnerships, acquisitions for creating larger firms for engaging in the Resource and Development, and the innovative activities.  This also helps in building a market power by means of an increment in the economy of scale and the access to the new markets of business.

2. The stronger dollar in the year 2016 has put a significant pressure on the food and beverage industry’s revenues that are derived from the international businesses, leading to the fall in the year 2016 by 0.4%.

1. Moderate population

2. Positive attitude of the consumers towards the imported goods and services.

3. Collaboration and the innovation networks among the education system, the clientele and the firms for accessing the new technicalities as well as the hands-on factors is one of the opportunities for the Macedonian companies. These are teamed with the skills oriented to the application as well as the knowledge wherein lifelong learning is a key factor.

1. Negative attitude towards the quality of products and the customer services.

2. Distribution of the wealth’

3. There is a change in the trends and lifestyle of the customers.

1. Strategic focus and technology intensity on innovation in the large and the medium sized companies.

2. There is a strong position of the food and beverages companies in the high-end European markets because of its better quality of the products and the services.

1. The labour intensity in this sector is resulting in high labour costs and the increase in labour productivity is therefore, a central feature in this improved competitiveness.

1. Increase in the use of technology for better services and products.

2. Higher energy efficiency solutions could help in driving the innovation within the country. This would also help in the reduction of the production costs.

3. The progress in the acceptance of e-commerce and mobile technology has been presenting a huge opening within the food and the beverage industry for the direct communication with clientele. This further assists the expansion of the deliverability of the product.

1. Change in technological advancements and the acceptance of the consumers.

2. The changing demographics of Macedonia.

1. The food and beverage industry of this country is very efficient in using input materials and have high expertise in recycling products.

2. There is a very close relationship with the customers. It is to note that it is due to geographical proximity of the supply networks and the related industries that adapting flexibly and promptly has become so easy.

1. 80% of the small enterprises within the food and beverages industry in this country brings in very limited bargaining power to the much bigger customers and suppliers and this is decreasing the range of possibilities for controlling its fate.

1. Increase of the environmentally and ethically conscious customers is leading to the new trends such as the use of organic material and recycles ones.

1. The weak system of property rights as well as the protection of the inventions and patents in the Europe could lead to decrease in the export rate aas well as the restoration.

2. The new workplace pension legislation

Strengths

· The entry to the Macedonian market might help Boost Juice in gaining trade access with the countries of the Balkan group. This is due to the geographic location of Macedonia, which is surrounded by six of the Balkan countries on all sides. The country of Macedonia is known to have free trade access to the Balkan states thereby granting Boost Juice a greater market opportunity.

· The economy of Macedonia is based on the free market. Thus, it can be inferred that the governmental restriction on Boost Juice would be low. This would, in turn, assist the policies of free trade as implemented by Boost Juice.

· Macedonia lies in between the regions of Asia and Europe. Thus, Boost Juice might benefit from easy access to both the areas. In the long-run this might help Boost Juice to bring forth an enhancement in the global presence.

Weaknesses

· The country of Macedonia is small with a lower rate of population and weak economy. This denotes the low market potentiality of the business activities of Boost Juice in the country.

· The business operations of Boost Juice would be affected by the poor infrastructural elements of Macedonia. The strategy of market expansion as adopted by Boost Juice in Macedonia would also be affected by the poor elements of infrastructure in the country.

· Dispute with the Balkan countries such as name dispute with Greece. This will affect the political stability in the country.

Opportunities

· The Macedonian market is reported to have filed in applications for the membership with the NATO and the European Union. It would help Boost to open up the entire European market for their business. Moreover, the alignment with the superpowers might also help in the stabilisation of the domestic policies of Macedonia.

· The European Union membership might help Macedonia to gain greater market opportunities. In addition, this will also improve the infrastructure in the country.

· The entry into the market would help in the increment of the inflow of the foreign investments which would in turn help in the improvement of the national economy. The improvement of the national economy might in turn help in the enhancement of purchasing power of the clientele.

Threats

· The Macedonian economy is heavily dependent on the Balkan nations. This serves to be one of the major reasons for the adverse impact of the global recession on the country. The country might face negative impacts due to the high recession that is being faced by Greece.

· Change in the political superiority in the global scenario will have impact on the smaller countries such as Macedonia. This is due to the reason that these countries are influenced by the superpowers.

· Threat of coup is always there and this will affect the stability of the country. Moreover, military uprisings or coup will destroy the business environment

Economic

The Diamond Framework refers to a framework imp0lemented on the industry levels. The framework majorly focusses on the nations that serve to be the key unit for the analysis. The tool is used for the determination of the fact as to whether the concerned industry within a nation might provide the concerned firms with the conditions favourable for the international competition. In short, the Diamond framework is used for the determination of the firm’s possession of the competitive advantages that are required for the international launches. The major constituents of the Diamond framework are the four determinants that are specific to the country. These determinants are majorly known for providing a proper description of the characteristics of the competitive advantage of the nation as well as the two external variables. The determinants are the demand conditions, the factor conditions, the rivalry, structure and the strategy of the firm, the governmental factors, the opportunities and the other industries that are related or have been supporting the concerned firm.

If the company is to operate the standard marketing in an international basis this will surely enhance their global standardization. If the company is able to use the same marketing strategy in different countries it will showcase their global standardization process indeed. This will also be applicable for the company across various cultures. If their products have the equal appeal all over the world, the global standardization process will be a very successful tool.

  • It helps in developing the ability to sustain the difference between the income and the culture of the United States and Mexico.
  • It aims at the decrement of the involvement of the capital risk in Wal-Mart.
  • It helps in the leveraging of the facility of the local company in terms of distribution, marketing, manufacturing and retailing (Entry Methods).
  • It helps in the leveraging the managerial ability of the local company for the existence in the environment of the given locality (Entry Methods).
  • It helps in the leveraging the contact of the local company with the numerous communities and governmental authorities in order to gain authority and work permit (Entry Methods).

Manufacturing-based entry strategy could be the most appropriate market entry strategy for the chosen company Boost Juice. In this type of entry, the Boost Juice Company would like to implement the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) strategy and they could also acquire relationship with the most famous companies in Europe. It can be said otherwise that they could also make a joint venture with the other established companies there. It is very clear that the company would be highly benefitted if they apply this market entry strategy. This will lead them to make expansion of their business in a successful manner. It will also be a huge problem for the Boost Juice Company if they are not able to make the merger and acquisition in a legal manner indeed. However, based on the determination and evaluation of the internal business factors in Macedonia, this can be concluded that joint venture will be more reliable entry mode strategy for Boost. This is due to the reason that with the help of the joint venture strategy, they will have less degree of financial risk and responsibilities in the country. On the other hand, the local partner participating in the joint venture is expected to depict better understanding of the local market, which will further enable Boosts to cater to the local market effectively. Thus, joint venture mode of entry should be initiated by Boost in doing business in Macedonia.

Socio-Cultural Issues

The following suggestions could be given in order to measure the business growth opportunities for the Boost Juice Company.

  • It is recommendable that the company will have to maintain the wide range of their products and services. They must keep in mind that they will have to improve the quality of their juices as well. They have to catch the attraction of their target customers of other European countries. They can provide the best quality with less cost. This will also improve their chances for the increase of the client
  • In the quest for better brand positioning they will have to look at some of their functions. They will have to refine their juice products, enhance their products and services and invest on the improvement of their products indeed. Their product portfolio will have to advertised and marketing promotional strategies should be appropriate for the attraction of their target customers.
  • They will have to upgrade their competitive strategies as well. They must increase on their cost behaviour and they must provide the products and services according to the customers’ desire.

Conclusion

The paper finally concludes by advising the company to choose the entry based on manufacturing in order to reap better benefits in the future days. The firm is observed to have targeted the children, the youth and the housewives as their major clientele while making an entry into the given market. The firm is also observed to have made the required positioning strategies. The provided recommendations further hint at the fact that the firm might face quick enhancement in the future growth of the business by implementing the given strategy.

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