Ragi Delight: Scaled Down Business Plan for Ragi-based Biscuits

This report is about Ragi Delight, a company that sells healthy, gluten-free biscuits made of Finger Millet or Ragi. The report includes a description of the product, target market, competitor analysis, and marketing strategy.

Scaled down Business plan for
an idea or service

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1. Executive summary for business-plan:
The product for this report is Ragi-based biscuits. The company name is Ragi Delight. The
company will target three segments- young people including students who are environmentally
conscious, the corporate workers and middle and old age people who are looking for a healthy
snack. Start up cost of Ragi Delight is anticipated to be 17,603.79 Euro at the initial stage which
means later this company have further plan to increase capital investment in the company.
Even with the imported Ragi, the final cost of a packet of biscuits will not be too high. By
keeping the fixed cost low, the company will soon reach the breakeven point.

TABLE OF CONTENT
...............................................................................................................EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
..........................................................................................................................................................2
1. Executive summary for business-plan:....................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................4
2. Description of product and service:.........................................................................................4
3. Price of the product and service of Ragi Delight:....................................................................9
4. Where to sell the product and service of Ragi Delight:.........................................................10
5. A Promotional plan:...............................................................................................................11
6. Page outlining all start up cost:..............................................................................................12
7. Pro forma income statement:.................................................................................................13
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
The product chosen for this report is Finger millet(also called ragi) based biscuits. Ragi
or Finger millet is a cereal crop that cultivated in regions of Africa and Asia. Ragi is gluten free
and therefore, biscuits made up of Ragi are gluten-free and offer a business opportunity that is
yet to be exploited in the UK (Littlechild, 2018). This report will describe the product, that is
Ragi-based biscuits and provide an evaluation of the target market. It would be followed by an
analysis of the competitors. The price strategy and promotional plan will be presented in the
form of marketing mix. The budget of the proposed business will then be evaluated.
MAIN BODY
2. Description of product and service:
The business idea is to make healthy, gluten-free biscuits for the health-conscious customers in
the UK. The biscuits will be made of a cereal crop called Finger Millet or Ragi, that is grown in
regions of Africa and Asia. Main countries that cultivate Finger Millet are India. Sri Lanka,
Malaysia, China, Japan and Madagascar. India being the largest producer of finger millet in the
world (Ferreira, 2020). The crop is known as Ragi in India. Though the cereal is expensive that
the traditional cereals like wheat, its benefits far exceeds its costs. The cereal Ragi can be
imported from India and Sri Lanka, where it is cheaper than the rest, and be utilized to make
Ragi-based biscuits. In the UK, the demand for healthy food items has been rising consistently.
So is the demand for sustainably-produced food products. Finger millet is a water-intensive and
drought-resistant crop and can be grown even in the rain-scare regions, with little or no need or
irrigation. That makes Ragi-based biscuits a sustainable food-product. The name of the business
company has been chosen to be Ragi Delight, showcasing the cereal it is made of. Ragi Delight
will sell exclusively products made of Finger Millet or Ragi. Ragi Delight's focus will be on the
young customers who consume biscuits a lot and on the older customers who are looking for a
healthy snack.
SWOT analysis of Ragi Delight:
The company is selling a healthy alternative for a widely consumed food item, i.e. biscuit. There
is growing demand for healthy biscuits. Being gluten-free offers the product a competitive
advantage in the biscuit market. Though there are some companies selling gluten-free biscuits,

biscuits made up of finger millet is absolutely an uncharted territory in the UK. Consuming Ragi
also offers other advantages such as weight loss, aids in controlling diabetes, makes bones strong
and keeps skin and hair young and healthy (Sytnyk, 2017).
Weaknesses of Ragi Delight:
Finger millet is not a cereal that is domestically cultivated in the UK and therefore, it has to be
imported from Asia. The import duties would increase the final price of the product. Owing to
the fact that Ragi-based biscuits is a new product in the UK market, it is difficult to ascertain
how the product will do in the UK market.
Opportunities in front of Ragi Delight:
The healthy food product market is a thriving market and Ragi-based products could become a
huge hit in the UK, like Avocado did in the USA, if marketed wisely.
Threats faced by Ragi Delight:
Ragi, being a new food substance, might fail to attract customers. Importing finger millet from
India and Sri Lanka might prove to be expensive to the company, raising the cost of the product
considerably. In that case, ragi-based biscuits would become a luxury item for the common
consumers.
2.1 Description of target market and secondary market:
Target market means the location of the audience where a company want to sell their
product, target market are one of the most important thing in the marketing and selling of the
product. Every business organization have their own target market which means Ragi Delight
also have their own target market which can only target those audience which later can be
converted into potential customer. The target audience of Ragi Delight are those customers who
are health conscious and want healthy diet in their everyday meal plan. This company will going
to target youth who want to stay fit and active and who want to maintain their health while eating
nutritious meal or snacks such as biscuit. Ragi Delight company have performed STP analysis to
understand the target market. The three stage process of STP helps in determining what are the
different customer groups, in accordance with the demand and sale of the product, and which
group or segment will be best to sell the product. Therefore, STP helps in finalizing the ideal
customer profile for the business Ragi Delight. These STP include:
Segmentation: After a research conducted on the biscuit market and collecting and analysing
customer data, it was identified that various segments make the buy decision when it comes to a

food product, depending on the following factors: Demographic factors such as age, gender,
sexuality, occupation, educational backgrounds, etc.; Behavioural factors such as loyalty to a
product, lifestyle of the customers, benefits wanted by the customers, etc.; Geographic factors
such as region and neighbourhood (Melnychuck, 2018). The three main segments that emerged
from the analysis are: Segment One, the environmentally conscious youth who want sustainable
and healthy food items; Segment Two, the middle-age and old-age couples who are looking for
healthy alternatives to traditional food items like biscuits and cookies; Segment Three, cooperate
workers who want healthy snacks to consume in between hectic work hours.
Targeting: This step involves analysing the demand created according to the segments.
Segment Two constitutes the largest segment as it include two age groups, i.e. the middle aged
and the old-aged. This segment will bring the highest earning to Ragi Delight. The customers in
this segment can afford biscuits that are on the higher end, if they offer a nutritional advantage to
them (Bacon and Tate, 2019). The customers in this segment are loyal and they are very likely to
recommend the product to their friends and family. Ragi Delight should focus on attracting this
segment. Segment One is likely to be fascinated by the Ragi-based biscuits as they are both
healthy and sustainable. But being students and low-earners, they might find the products a little
expensive. Segment Three, if targeted properly can also bring good earning to the company as
the cooperate folks can not only afford the biscuits, but are more likely to consume more
quantity per day per person.
Positioning: In this step, Ragi Delight has to decide where will it place its product and how will
it advertise it to attract the largest portion from each segment. To attract Segment One and Three,
SMM (Social media Marketing) is the best tool. Young people and Corporate folks both surf
internet a lot and by advertising on social media and other platforms that these customers are
likely to visit, Ragi Delight can become a success in the UK. To attract Segment Two, traditional
advertising channels such as print media and TV ads can be resorted to.
Customer profile:
customer profile is one of the most important thing in understand the customer buying
preference, Ragi Delight need to understand the customer profile to understand their target
audience, these profile include:
Demographic information: Ragi Delight need to gather information of target market where they
can understand the demographic of the customer, customer buying preference keep changing in

food and beverage industry which means customer can be attracted througth targeting a spefici
age group.
Product and service: product and service are some of the most important part in the customer
pofile, every customer have their own taste and preference regarding the product and service
offered by the company. Food and beverage is main product of Ragi Delight which means taste
and preference of customet keep changing.
Lifestyle and personality: lifestyle and personality of customer play vital role in the customer
profiling, when Ragi Delight plan to reach customer they need to understand the lifestyle and
personality trait of the customer which means they need to attract customer one the basis of
personality factor which are age, gender, culture and taste and preference.
Buying decision: every customer have their own taste and preference and their own buying
decision which means Ragi Delight need to understand the buying decision of the target
customer, there are various tools which are very beneficial in customer profile in business
organisation.
2.2 Competitor analysis:
Every business organization face competition in the industry where they deal in, these
competitors are the biggest barrier in the process. Some competitions provide tough competition
to the company and some competitors are market giant who tend to rule the industry and their
movement impact whole industry. Rage Delight also going to face huge competition in the
market, their main competitors are those market giant who are already have established brand
name in food and beverage industry. Ragi Delight have used porter five force to understand the
competition in the market, these five forces are:
Competition in the Industry- There are big biscuits companies in the UK such as United
Biscuits Ltd., Burton’s Foods Ltd. and Mondelez UK Ltd. These biscuit brands have captured
majority of the customers (Chen and Li, 2019). A newer brand like Ragi Delights might find it
difficult to compete with these giants. Some of these giants have brands of healthy biscuits too.
For example, United Biscuits have a brand called McVitie’s Digestive which sells biscuits made
of wholewheat. Besides, there are other emerging companies in the healthy biscuit category such
as Northumbrian Fine Foods.

Potential of New Entrants into the Industry- Biscuit industry is an industry where no single
company has a monopoly. Though there are biscuit giants like United Biscuits, it is easy for new
companies to enter the biscuit market.
Power of Suppliers- The major ingredient that goes in the making of Ragi-based biscuits is
Ragi. That can be acquired in competitive prices from India and Sri Lanka. As there are many
suppliers of Ragi in Asia as well as within India, no supplier can manipulate price.
Power of Customers- Customers hold tremendous power when it comes to driving the prices of
a commodity. The product of Ragi Delight is healthy and eco-friendly, customers are going to
value it (Novikova and Pashkevych, 2018).
Threat of Substitute- Though there are substitutes in the healthy biscuit category. Ragi Delights
is the lone tiger in the Ragi-based biscuit category.
Table of competitor analysis:
Ragi Delight United Biscuits Burton’s Food
Competition Expected to be higher
than its competitors.
In the affordable
range.
Higher than United
Biscuits, yet in the
affordable range.
Strength Ragi-based biscuits
provide a range of
health benefits. The
strength of Ragi
Delight lies in the
material which will
going to use in the
making of the biscuit.
The company is
selling a healthy
alternative for a
widely consumed
food item, i.e. biscuit.
There is growing
demand for healthy
United Biscuits have
McVities’ Digestive
that fall in this
category. The strength
of United biscuit lies
in the ingredient they
use, this company is
well know for
providing gluten-free
biscuit which provide
healthy diet to the
customer. Another
strength is brand
image and name of
the company which
They have a lot of
brands under their
label. Some of them
are healthy
alternatives. The
strength of the
Burton's Food lies in
the reputation they
have in delivering
high quality food
product to the
customer in the
market. Another
strength of this
company lies in the

biscuits. Being gluten-
free offers the product
a competitive
advantage in the
biscuit market.
will going to give
competition to Ragi
delight.
marketing strategy
which is much better
than Ragi Delight.
Weakness Weak of Ragi Delight
lies in the brand name
and reputation
because this company
is new to the market
so they have face
market giant who tend
to lead the market.
Although Ragi is a
water-intensive and
drought-resistant crop.
It can be produced
cheaply and can have
brand image in no
time.
Weakness of United
biscuit lies in the raw
material they use in
making of product,
sometimes they have
bad review regarding
using bad quality raw
material which lead to
impacting the brand
image.
Weakness of Burton's
Food lies in the weak
market share as
compared to their
competitor, sometimes
this company can not
able of use their brand
name and reputation
because their
competitor use certain
strategy which impact
the reputation of the
company. No efforts
to attain sustainability
of the product.
3. Price of the product and service of Ragi Delight:
Ragi Delight have wide range of product but mainly this company focusing to manufacture
biscuit to win the target audience who are health-conscious. The cost of making this biscuit will
be covered in the budgeting of the operational plan in the process. The price structure of Ragi
Delight biscuit are:
Type Cost
Plain biscuit 2 Euros to 5 Euros
Chocolate Biscuit 3 Euros to 10 Euros
Vanilla Biscuit 2 Euros to 5 Euros

Fruit Biscuit 3 Euros to 10 Euros
Interpretation: pricing of the product need to be meeting standard of customer purchasing power
which means Ragi Delight have to analyse every price of product, at first plain biscuit is being
rate after understand the cost of good sold and cost occur in the making of the product. Every
product of Ragi Delight will be making profit for example plain biscuit product will be making
profit of 1 Euro because of the biscuit is sold on the price of 2 Euros then cost will be 1 Euro and
profit will be 1 Euro.
Budget analysis:
By doing a break-even analysis, it can be determined when will the business start to make a
profit. The formula for break-even analysis is: Fixed costs/ (Sales price per unit – Variable cost
per unit). Fixed cost for one year for Ragi Delights can be calculated by adding the cost of
setting up of a factory to manufacture biscuits, raw material that goes in the making of biscuits,
property taxes, salaries of employees, interest paid on loan, etc. Variable costs include daily
wages of labour, the cost of imported Ragi, etc. If the fixed cost is low, breakeven point would
be reached soon.
4. Where to sell the product and service of Ragi Delight:
Ragi Delight will going to sell their product to urban area of the country, they will look
for cultivated cities where the youth is more conscious about their health. It is very clear that
after the impact of COVID-19 people have become more health-conscious which means this
company have to target the right location of the customer to sell the product. This product will be
sold to the collage canteen, cafe and restaurant and to all those places where the food and
beverage are available. This company will going to sell their product in their own store and also
in supermarket and local store. To sell these product Ragi Delight will going to make SMART
goals to understand the selling and pricing strategy:
SMART objectives set for the company Ragi Delight:
By setting Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound objectives for
Ragi Delight, its foundation can be strengthened. Firstly, it need to be determined what are the
several kinds of ragi-based products will Ragi delights be selling. A detailed plan then needs to
be designed to how ragi will be acquired and in what cost, how much one packet of ragi-based
biscuits costs and what can the company do to bring down the costs (Bondarenko, Diugowanets

and Kurei, 2020). Ragi Delight will ascertain when it will launch its brand and what promotional
strategy it will employ to market its biscuits. The time frame of the events followed by the
launch also needs to be fixed.
5. A Promotional plan:
Promotional plan for Ragi Delight:
The promotional plan for Ragi Delight have highlighted use of various promotional
platform which can be used in the promotion of the product and to reach the target audience, this
company have used various social media platform for their promotion such as:
Facebook's ads: Ragi Delight have to run various campaign to reach as many audiences as
possible, the main product of the company is biscuit so Ragi Delight. This company will use
Facebook audience analysis report tool to understand the target audience, various campaigns will
be run together to reach target audience.
Video campaign: to promoted product of Ragi Delight, this company will use video campaign,
first vedio campaign will be running for 1 month under 'Cost per click' type of ads policy of
Facebook. Facebook charge $0.97 per click with $7.19 Cost per impression.
Lead ads: another social media platform can be used such as Instagram for lead ads, Ragi
Delight have planned to lunch image ads on Instagram that will be long for 1 month under lead
ads banner. Instagram will charge $5 to run the ads more than 1 month.
With an effective marketing mix, Ragi Delight can launch its brand in the most
impressionable way. Marketing Mix stands for the 4Ps of marketing which decides what the
product is, what it will cost to make and what it will cost a customer, where will the product be
positioned to increase its sale and what promotional strategy will be opted to best market it
(Barrow and Brown, 2018).
Product- The core strength of Ragi delight is that its product is very much in demand. Biscuit is
a snack that everybody loves. The only issue with biscuits was that they can unhealthy.
Replacing the traditional biscuits, with an healthy alternative, gives Ragi Delight a huge
advantage. To effectively convert this advantage into higher sales, the packet should be designed
to showcase its qualities. It should be clear from looking at a packet of Ragi Delight's biscuit that
it is nutritious and eco-friendly.

Price- The price would be higher than a normal packet of biscuit because the imported Finger
Millet would cost more than the ingredients that are put in normal biscuits and cookies. The
higher price can be used as a strong point by advertising it to the customers that the Ragi-based
biscuits is a better product as it is both healthy and environmentally friendly, which gives it a
natural edge over similar products by competitor brands. Ragi Delight can offer discounts to the
customers of Segment One, who admire the product but are a little conscious of its price. After
trying the biscuits once, they might become regular customers.
Place- For the young customers and the customers who have a corporate job, that is Segment
One and Three, online media is the best place to advertise. Through effective SMM, the attention
of these segments can easily be captured (Hanák and Grežo, 2020). Inside a store, the ragi-based
biscuits should be kept separately, in the same shelf as biscuits, but at the same time, they should
appear distinctly as healthy alternatives for biscuits. To target middle-age couples, TV
advertisements and to target old-age couples, advertisements in newspapers in the most effective
way to connect to Segment Two.
Promotion- An effective promotional plan is incomplete if it does not account for the timeline of
the product, starting from its launch, and the dynamic marketing strategy employed at each stage.
Before the product is launched, video advertising in the form of TV ads and YouTube ads can be
used to capture the minds of potential customers and create an initial brand image. Once, the
product is launched, Facebook and Instagram ads to lure the young customers and ads in print
media to influence the choice of older generation, can be employed.
Promotional plan before, during and after:
Ragi Delight have promotional plan before starting any such activities which means they will be
targeting food and beverage industry and their customer, before starting any advertisement
activity Ragi Delight have to plan certain things in promotional plan. Before lunching the
promotional plan this company have plan to completely analyse the market and identify the
customer in those target market.
During the promotional plan Ragi Delight have planned to add more budget to ensure flow
remain good in the process. After the promotional plan, this company have plan to analyse
outcome of the promotional activities.

6. Page outlining all start up cost:
Start up cost: Start up cost of Ragi Delight is anticipated to be 17,603.79 Euro at the initial
stage which means later this company have further plan to increase capital investment in the
company. In the first year of start up this company will going to have profit of 10000 Euro as
estimated. Second year, Ragi Delight will try to invest more capital investment so it is very clear
that this company will going to have profit of 15000 Euro in second year, whereas on 3ed year
this company will cross estimated profit of 20000 Euro.
Start up cost:
Calculating Ragi Delight start up cost and time frame:
Item Budget Actual
Land $10000 $10000
Building $10000 $80000
Rent $500 $500
Furniture and equipment $50000 $40000
Machinery $50000 $40000
Capital $150000 $200000
Marketing $1000 $20000
Salary and wages $5000 $20000
Total $276500 $410500
Action Plan of Ragi Delight:
Setting up of action plan for Ragi Delights mean deciding on how will the company be managed.
For Ragi Delight is a new business venture, the employee strength would be limited. In such a
circumstance, it is better to follow Matrix organizational structure (Amrani and et.al., 2020).
Things like providing customer service and order fulfilment could be done using the online
media. As the business grows, effective changes could be brought with a change management
plan.
Controlling measures to improve employee performance:

Employee performance could be monitored using KPI (Key Performance Index). Managers and
Team leaders play the most important role in engaging the team members in open discussion and
maintaining a positive atmosphere. Motivated employees are productive employees.
7. Pro forma income statement:
Current year 2022 2022
Sale revenue 20000 38000 48000
Cost of sales -10000 -19000 -24000
Gross profit 10000 19000 24000
Operating expense
Rent 1000 1000 1000
advertisement 3000 4000 5000
Total operating
expense
-4000 -5000 -6000
Operating income 6000 14000 18000
Total Net income 6000 14000 18000
CONCLUSION
The business plan of setting up a biscuit company was analysed in this report. The company
would make and sell biscuits made up of Ragi or Finger Millets. The SWOT analysis of the
business was presented. The company would target three segments: young people, corporate
folks and middle and old age couples. With an effective marketing mix, Ragi Delight will market
its Ragi-based biscuits. Porter’s five force analysis was employed to do a competitive analysis of
Ragi Delight, which found it sufficiently competitive. The Budget of the company was analysed.
Employee performance ill be measured by KPIs.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
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Guide to Creating and Developing a Successful Business. Kogan Page Publishers.
Bondarenko, V., Diugowanets, O. And Kurei, O., 2020. Business plan as a Basis for the
successful investment management.
Chen, Y. And Li, J., 2019. Implementation of Lean methods on a daily basis by small and
medium sized manufacturers (Master's thesis).
Ferreira, M.M., 2020. Business Plan for a Digital Marketing Agency:“M4 Design” (Doctoral
dissertation).
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business plan proposal in applying for angel investment. International Journal of
Entrepreneurial Venturing. 12(6). pp.617-647.
Littlechild, S., 2018. Regulation and the nature of competition. Journal of Air Transport
Management. 67. pp.211-223.
Melnychuck, O., 2018. THE BUSINESS-PLAN HIS STRUCTURE AND MAINTENANCE OF
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Sytnyk, A., 2017. Business plan development for a start-up company.
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