Market

MARKET INTRODUCTION

Dandora is a source of wastes for most recycling companies, it is invaded by middlemen that collect trash from the people working and making a living out of the dumpsite.
Every type of wastes you could ever think of is found in dandora dumpsite, and a number of companies need the wastes for various reasons.
Trade on the site has been controlled by a group of cartels that collect illegal tax from both the middle men and the people collecting wastes.
Business around this dumpsite is homogenous, the way business is conducted between the people on the dumpsite and the middlemen has been the same for some time now.
The middle men buying trash are only concerned about the profit they will make and not the welfare of their suppliers of trash. With a high demand of the wastes, middlemen have become more selfish,exploiting both their suppliers as well as the buyers of the wastes.
Records on respiratory diseases and injuries have been recorded as one of the factors affecting the people working and collecting trash from the dumpsite, making it more difficult for them to survive.(splitting their income on medical and meeting their basic needs).
A number of NGO'S are working on the dumpsite and educating the people on the use of safety equipment and the benefits of these equipment and yet no one is providing the equipment.
the provision of the equipment will be something new in this market.

WHO ARE OUR CUSTOMERS

Number of potential buyers or users of our products are about 30,000 people that work on the dumpsite. They operate from the dumpsite where they form groups and each group is responsible for the collecting trash on specific area.
The geographical dimension or size of the site is about to 30acres .
social-economic activities of these people is that they are part of the bottom of the economic pyramid, they form social groups at the site that have been useful to them
The social groups formed have been a source of comfort, and also ways to raise extra money
customers daily routine activities is to, wake up very early in the morning waiting for the sun to rise and waiting for lorries that throw thrush, so that the scramble for new wastes that bring some food that the eat from. Even other electronic devices like spoiled pressing irons, kettles are collected and sold to companies that recycle scrap metal.
They work the whole day, until the sun finally sets.
For security reasons they do not go back to their homes because its dangerous at night and most of these people have built temporal structures around the dumpsite.
some of the customers have built permanent shelter near the site.
These people have accepted that their lives evolve around the Dandora dumpsite.

And another segment of the customers are the recycling companies who will buy the trash using our company from the trash collectors. These will be our secondary source of revenue.

BUYING REASONS AND TRENDS

The number of individuals that visit the clinics for respiratory infection has increased, we received a record from the NGO's that this number has doubled in the recent years.
And the people from Dandora do not have health insurance so if they want to get better treatment it is very expensive, more often than not, they get to use local chemists to buy drugs.
They have been educated on the safety measures to take but no one has provided them with the protective equipment. So with our product they will be able to use and test how effective these protective equipment are in relation
Gender inequality has been a problem that most female customers have raised as an issue, they say most of the times women are not seen as being able to work on the site and as such they are not able to collect certain type of wastes. So with our products women will be able to collect most of the wastes without being injured.

COMPETITORS

The agents that are already buying wastes will be the main competitors. The industry has been seen to be more attractive because of the high profits made so therefore high competition is expected. The threat of new entrance is moderate due to low start up capital and the process to start up a business in this industry is less complicated.

ALTERNATIVE

At the moment their is solution to their current problem, but the alternatives we have though about that will make our product difficult to imitate are:

providing them with bigger carts,
And also the use of gas masks instead of ordinary protective masks
paying them extra money
partnering with Ngo's to provide medical schemes.

After an assessment on our industry we illustrate further the rivalry of the industry using porters five forces.

Threat of New Entrants- due to a high profitability in this market there is an anticipation of high completion from the entrance of new firms. This is because of low barriers of entry in the industry therefore resulting into high threat of new entrants. our firm needs to be more innovative there by establishing better sustainable competitive advantage
Supplier Power-low bargaining power from our suppliers of labor because of a high rate of unemployment for both skilled and unskilled labor in this region(Nairobi, Dandora to be specific), a large number of companies in Nairobi produce and sale protective safe equipment as well as other input materials which will be needed for our company.
Buyer Bargaining Power-when we start the bargaining power will be low because we are the only ones with such a unique offering, and later own the bargaining power may be high due to the nature of our industry. And other companies imitating our offerings, so this will mean making our offering better at every moment and developing a good competitive strategy.
Threat of Substitutes- very low, there are no industries that has a similar product.
Intensity of Rivalry-this will be quiet high because of the attractiveness of the industry, every business in the firm wants a high profit.