A Case study of Salinas Corporation (a salt manufacturer)

Date

2007

Degree

Bachelor of Science in Agribusiness Management

College

College of Economics and Management (CEM)

Adviser/Committee Chair

Montes, Nimfa D.

Abstract

The salt industry was developed through the ASIN Law (the Republic Act 8172) also known as the Act promoting Salt Iodization Nationwide. The purpose of the ASIN law was to eliminate micronutrient malnutrition particularly iodine deficiency disorder through salt iodization, mandated by the agencies such as DOH, BFAD, DTI,DOST, NNC and LGU's. In 1999, only 10-20% of the Philippine population consumed iodized salt, However in 2003, according to the National Nutrition Survey, utilization of iodized salt increased to 56.4% of the total population. Improvements of the utilization of iodized salt were accounted for the agencies responsible for the implementation of ASIN Law. There is continuing public information and advocacy in order to convert the people to use iodized salt instead of ordinary salt. In relation to this, the study on Salinas Corporation was conducted to present an overview of the salt industry; to give a background about Salinas Corporation in terms of its four functional areas: production, personnel, marketing, finance; to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of Salinas Corporation's commercial and industrial salt sector; to identify and analyze major problems and issues faced by the company; to generate and evaluate alternative solutions to the identified problems; and to identify the best solution and design an implementation plan for the chosen solution. To achieve these objectives, the study utilized primary data such as production operations, applications and the problems and constraints. These data were obtained from personal interviews with the HRD Manager, Mr. Gerard Khong Hun. Secondary data on the industry of salt were gathered from unpublished theses, and different government agencies such as Bureau of Mines and Geosciences, National Statistics Office and Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission. Salinas comes from the Latin word salinae which literally means salt works or salt ponds. The word signifies the company's starting point in the salt industry, and the definition of its core business. The production area of the firm is divided into three sectors, the industrial salt, commercial salt (iodized) and the new generation products. As what the company believes, "Your success is our success", they focused mainly on their three key elements such as quality, technology and services. Salinas Corporations is a family owned business. Mr. Johnny Khong Hun, head of the family is the president of the company. The company is divided into four sectors such as marketing, operations, finance and administration. Salinas has a separate production area called Pacific farms, Inc. It is the largest salt producer in the country located in Bolinao, Pangasinan. Founded in 1958, its 500 hectare salt works produced a total of about 40,000 MT of salt annually. It produces 25,000 MT of industrial salt per season of categorizes them according to purity, grain size and other quality factors important to their customers. For commercial salt, it produced 10,000 MT for our Filipino consumers, annually. It was 2001 when Salinas partnered with dumpier salt, the largest salt producer in the world to be able to ensure supply of salts to meet the demand of the Filipinos. Dampier Salt has an area of 236,000 hectares and produces over million tons of solar salt annually. It is among the most reliable, productive and efficient salt producers in the world. Based on the analysis of the researcher, the main problem of Salinas was price competition which leads to the decrease in their respective sales. The price competition was bought about by the increase in the volume imported salts in the Philippines which were priced lower as compared to the commercial and industrial salt produced by Salinas. To address the decreasing sales problem, the researcher formulated different recommendations for Salinas Foods, Inc. and Salinas (IM) Corporation. It was recommended that Salinas Foods, Inc. further develop its market by catering to the institutional buyers such as fast food chains, restaurants, and bakeries. This was suggested because of the stiff competition between Salinas and other salt importers like Arvin International Marketing and Artemis Salt Corporation. It was also recommended that Salinas (IM) Corporation develop its market by catering to the high end industrial users of salt such as Del Monte Philippines and Kraft Philippines. This is to ensure the demand for their industrial salt and also for the company to provide the needed quality of salt using industries. Through these recommendations, Salinas Corporation would be able to increase its market share and further increase its profit. As an area for further study, it is recommended that a marketing plan be conducted for the company.

Language

English

Location

UPLB Main Library Special Collections Section (USCS)

Call Number

LG 993 2007 M17 A75

Document Type

Thesis

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