Shea Butter Export Business

Executive Summary

Pinnacle Trade Ghana Limited is a start-up company developed by Felix Larry Essilfie for the sole purpose of investing in the export of Shea Butter into the global market. This company seeks to lay out a simple strategy for developing a long-term international trade business by raising an initial capital of $150,000.00 for the development of an export business while showcasing the expected financials and operations over the next four years. Our business strategy is to market the company and its products to a consistent stream of motivated international market with buyers that are willing to buy high standard quality Shea Butter from Africa at competitive prices. We are working diligently to increase supplies of high quality American Shea Butter Institute (ASBI) Certified premium Graded Shea Butter into the USA and the European markets.

The company projects a strong rate of growth at the start of operations.

Objective

Our objective is to have:

• An average sales of sales of $250,000.00 in 2017 and more than $ 750,000 by 2022.
• A Gross margin higher than 15%
• Net income more than 9% of sales by 2022.

The mission of Pinnacle Trade Ghana Limited is to supply its international buyers with a complete line of the highest quality Shea Butter products that is not only safe but innovative and adheres to all local and international legal regulations and standards. The company is also committed to building customer trust and confidence by providing its international customers with well-functioning and long-lasting business relationships.

Keys to Success

• Establishing and maintaining well-functioning long-term working relationships and contractual agreements with American and European importers and Wholesalers.
• Effectively communicating to our customers, our position as a differentiated provider of the highest quality line of Shea Butter products in the World.
• Commitment to honesty and integrity in all relations as well as fair and ethical treatment to our employees, customers, consumers and business partners.

Company Summary

Pinnacle Trade Ghana Limited is a private limited liability company registered in Accra-Ghana for tax purposes. The company is established to export high quality internationally certified premium Grade Shea Butter products into the USA and the European markets at competitive prices. As the company grows, it will expand into export of other non-traditional agricultural commodities including Fresh pineapple, fresh vegetables such as chili pepper etc., and black soap ( alata samina). The company intends to aggressively develop a network of importers, wholesalers and major retailers that will purchase high quality Shea Butter Products overseas.

Company Ownership/Legal Identity

Pinnacle Trade Ghana Limited is a company established and owned by Felix Larry Essilfie. Currently, the company is at the advanced stage in securing export license from the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) for regulation purposes. Furthermore, the company has commenced processes to secure membership certification from the Ghana Chamber of Commerce and Industry. This is to enable the company obtain all the necessary export documentations to legally and effectively operate as a corporate entity in Ghana.

Products/Services

Pinnacle Trade Ghana Limited will supply high quality internationally tested and certified refined and unrefined Shea Butter products to importers, wholesalers and major retailers in the U.S and European markets. Our list of Shea Butter Products include the following:

Unrefined:

• PTGLUSB01 - Regular Unrefined Shea Butter
• PTGLUSB02 - Organic Certified Unrefined Shea Butter 1
• PTGLUSB03 - Organic & ESR Certified Unrefined Shea Butter 1+2
• PTGLUSB04 - Fair For Life Certified Unrefined Shea Butter 3

Refined:

• PTGLRSB01 - Regular Refined Shea Butter
• PTGLRSB02 - Organic Certified Refined Shea Butter 1
• PTGLRSB03 - Organic & ESR Certified Refined Shea Butter 1+2
• PTGLRSB04 - Fair For Life Certified Refined Shea Butter 3

Product Description

The company will specialize in the supply of natural, hand- crafted Shea products comprising of premium-quality Shea kernels, and different qualities of Shea butter: Our source has the internationally certified and approved technology to select, handle and process the best Shea nuts available while preserving the natural qualities of the nuts at the same time. Our Premium Quality Shea Butter products which will be processed from Shea nuts obtained from Shea Trees which Grow Wild in Ghana, will have have the following features:

• Samples tested to ensure consistently high-quality kernels.
• Nuts traceable to individual women women processors.
• Organic/fair trade certification by IMO and Ecocert.
• A quality assurance system will be applied to our source.
• Processed with premium quality nuts

Competitive Comparison

In order to differentiate our products and compete effectively on the U.S and European market, we have chosen a supplier whose products are tested and certified by the following international bodies:

• The American Shea Butter Institute (ASBI)
• USDA Organic
• EcoCert
• Fair Trade
• Control IMO MarkeTechnology
• AGROLAB GROUP

Marketing Summary

The Company intends to maintain an extensive marketing campaign that will ensure maximum visibility for the business in its target markets. Management of the company will engage a number of traditional and experimental sales and marketing strategies in order to have a high inventory turnover.

Our main approach is to communicate the unique and desired attributes of our products to larger segments of the American and European markets. We will sell superior products, yet one that can be considered a commodity. It is therefore important that we effectively communicate the unique aspects which make our products ideally suited for a niche market.

The unique aspects of our products include superior product selection and processing, quality assurance, and efficient distribution. These are the things we will do once we start doing business. The tactics we will use to communicate these strength include personal selling at international trade shows, targeted print advertising, and improved communication capabilities via information system improvements and a sophisticated website which will be designed to showcases the Company’s operations, the product lines that it carries, how to become a trading partner with the business, and policies regarding trade and carrying terms.

We will also identify specialty publications in the U.S and European market which we will run print ads. Plans will also be made to use search engine optimization tools and methods that will increase the Company’s visibility when selected key words regarding the importation and exportation of products are used among major search engines.

Market Analysis

Shea butter traditionally has been used in the food industry for margarine, pastry, and chocolate, where it is used in place of cocoa butter. Increasingly, Shea butter is used in “natural” and high-end cosmetics and soaps. Shea nuts, as opposed to the intermediate product of Shea butter, have been the dominant product traded internationally.

Europe remains the largest market worldwide for shea butter imports, with the Netherlands and France dominating imports much of which is then re-exported. European trade statistics group shea butter imports in a category with other tropical vegetable fats and oils. An analysis of these statistics, coupled with our company’s initial research, reveals that West African supply has increased substantially in the past five years to reach 1,215 metric tons (MTs) and a total value of US$896,000 since 2000, an increase of 15 percent and 7 percent respectively. Principal suppliers are Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, the former to France and the latter to the Netherlands.

Although the latest annual statistics are not yet available, our research confims a continued expansion in the volume and value of the European import market for Shea butter of 2,000 MTs and US$1.5 million since 2001. With its untapped potential, the U.S. market can be easily accessed directly by West African suppliers, and increasingly U.S. importers are demanding pure Shea butter directly from the source (West Africa). There are three principal end users for Shea butter: the chocolate, cosmetics, and natural products industries. Our market analysis is mainly geared toward assessing the growth of these principal users.

Market Segmentation

The American and the European importers of Shea Butter: Market research suggests that there are approximately 200 importers of Shea Butter in the American and European markets that will be able to handle the quantities of our shipments and are in our target market. Combined, they import a total average of about US$13,000,000 per year of Shea Butter from West Africa.

American and European Shea Butter wholesalers and Major Retailers: These markets will serve as a safety valve for our export business. By maintaining relationships with them, we have an alternative market with established distribution channels.

Marketing Strategies

The Company’s advertising campaign strategies will be accomplished through Internet , Print and Media Campaigns, attending trade shows, and public relations. At the onset of operations, the Company will develop a number of relationships with internationally based trade brokers that will allow the business to immediately begin divesting inventories of products. Management will draw on these existing relationships to build a network of brokers that source products on behalf of international buyers. The Management of the Company also intends to use an online based marketing campaign platforms (such as Salesforce) to develop its sales. Primarily, the Company will use search engine optimization techniques that will increase the Company’s visibility when selected key words regarding the importation and exportation of products are used among major search engines. The Company’s website will be an expansive online platform that showcases the Company’s operations, the product lines that it carries, how to become a trading partner with the business, and policies regarding trade and carrying terms.

Industry Analysis

Shea Butter has been a growing industry for the past ten years. The most notable growth has been in the European market where imports have increased almost one-hundred percent and the market price has nearly quadrupled. The number of wholesalers and major retailers has increased from a hand to thousands of independent entities. There is a constant within this market to supply the highest quality Refined and Unrefined Shea Butter products and serve one or more niches with the larger market. Ghanaian Shea Butter producers and exporters have made great efforts to improve nut quality, processing methods and distribution in order to better serve this growing market. Demand for Shea Butter on the global market is currently greater than supply.

Competition

The purchase decision of our international buyers will be based on trust in our delivery processes and product offer. Competition include all potential and existing exporting firms that serve small to medium scale importers, and wholesalers and major retailers in the U.S and the European markets. Practically speaking, this means that the large export companies such as Bosbel Vegetable Oils Limited, and others nationwide will not compete with us. Most other companies tend to be regionally focused. The foreign trade is highly fragmented, with large number of small companies that mainly cater for small firms and a few large companies that seek the largest contracts from larger companies overseas. This makes competition within the industry very intense. Through our niche strategy, we intend to avoid competition and its drawbacks such as price wars, etc.

Though our website is still under construction, you can in few weeks later visit us on:

www.pinnacletradegh.com