Launching Caskets in North Africa - 1st Round BAIN case

Additional information for the candidate, if asked:

The casket is a "Coffin", a wooden box in which people are buried as part of the last rites in some religions.

1. Is the Casket market attractive?
   1. Is it big enough?
   2. Is it profitable?
   3. Does it have year-long revenue (vs. cyclic)
2. Is it feasible for Eastwood to run Casket business?
   1. Strategic alignment/brand impact
   2. Initial investment
   3. Operational capabilities

The candidate should start with the population and first identify no. of people dying every year = 75million/75 years = on an average 1million people die every year. The candidate should call out that he has used the equal distribution of the population.

At the last stage, the candidate should observe that for a $10million size player, the $250million market is a big enough playing ground.

Among the factors that the candidate asks, he should have profitability of the current players, competitive landscape, etc.

Share Exhibit 2 with the candidate.

If we need to infer from the currently available data, I would say that the casket market looks attractive from Easywood perspective:

• It is big enough;
• All the players are more profitable than Easywood’s profitability;
• The market does not look too fragmented;
• Given that it is a casket market, we can assume that the market will not be cyclical.

The major concern for Easywood would be the impact on its brand. They need to analyze how the potential buyers of ‘bedroom furniture’ customers will react if they know under the same brand, caskets are also sold.

They should launch a separate brand to avoid a negative impact on their existing furniture products.

Easywood should enter the casket market, with a separate brand.

• The market looks attractive from a size, profitability, competitive intensity perspective.
• Operations feasibility does not look like a concern, given Easywood’s expertise in making and selling the furniture

Thank you for completing my case!

I hope it was useful and helpful for you.

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https://www.preplounge.com/en/profile.php?id=54457

Best,

Gaurav