ASSESSMENT OF THE COMPETITIVE STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY THE LOCAL SUGAR MILLERS IN KENYA
Shitanda Soita Peter
Masters Student, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya
Dr. Wario Guyo, PhD.
Lecturer, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya
Citation; Peter, S. S. & Guyo, W., Assessment of the competitive strategies adopted by the local sugar millers in Kenya. International Journal of Arts and Entrepreneurship 4 (10), 40-62.
The Kenyan sugar industry for the last twelve (12) years been operating under trade protectionism by not allowing other developed economies to sell their sugar direct to Kenyan market with a view to allow the industry time to develop to be competitive. Instead, shortfall in supply of the local sugar has been bridged by imports by sugar millers. Specific objectives of the study were: to examine the adoption of cost leadership strategies, to assess the adoption of differentiation strategies, find out the adoption of low-cost focus strategies and to assess the adoption of differentiation focus strategies among the local sugar millers in Kenya. The study used descriptive survey research design which was conducted among all the 12 sugar firms in Kenya. From the findings, the study concludes that more brands of differentiated sugar should to be produced and patented for company’s future competitive growth and firms need to use organizational competence to build product reputation and also forge for new avenues such as the manufacture of gasoline (ethanol) from molasses, production of energy from bagasse and even packaging of drinking water to cushion against escalating costs. In addition to improve differentiation process the following measures to be put in place: use of latest technology, continuous advertisements and invest more resources in researching for other new product uses, more brands of differentiated sugar needs to be produced and patented for company’s growth, and in order to overcome challenges associated with resources such as personnel the Company needs to procure high skilled and creative Human Resource.
Key Words:Competitive strategies, Sugar Millers in Kenya, differentiation strategy, cost leadership,Focused low cost.
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