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Holland Sweetener Case

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Holland Sweetener Case Write Up
1.How should Holland Sweetener expect NutraSweet to respond to its entry into Europe and Canada?

Ultimately Holland Sweetener should expect NutraSweet to aggressively defend the entry into Europe and Canada. This defense is based primarily on the fact that this entrance will give NutraSweet the ability to show Holland Sweetener how it plans to subsequently defend the US Market.

In 1986 Canada and Europe combined made up 550 tonnes of demand for aspartame. While this certainly was growing (expected to be 1,800 tons by 1991) it paled in comparison to the current demand in the United States market of 5,100 tonnes (expect to be 8,000) tonnes in 1991.

If Holland Sweetener had cost structures comparable to NutraSweet, efficiency was gained at 2,000 tonnes of aspartame production, nearly four times greater than their current capacity. In addition, NutraSweet had done a fantastic job of building up brand awareness, quoted in the case study at 98% recognition of the NutraSweet logo. This is something that certainly Holland Sweetener would have no access to, making their launch even more complex.

Given the overall market size and Holland Sweeteners small and likely expensive cost of production, Holland Sweetener should expect NutraSweet to engage in an all-out price war. The European and Canadian markets are not the ultimate prize; it is the United States Market. NutraSweet needs to get Holland America to go bankrupt before the United States patents expire in 1992. If global pricing in 1986 was $70 per pound, Holland Sweetener should expect not only long term contracts put in place prior to Holland Sweetener’s entrance, but also willingness by NutraSweet to lower pricing (maybe even up to 50%) through creative incentives and discounts that could be repealed once Holland Sweetener went out of business.
2.What actions has Holland Sweetener taken, or should it take, to affect NutraSweet's behavior?

Has Taken
1.Lodged a complaint with the European Commission. They lodged this complaint that the multi-year contracts are not competitive. Long term this won’t get Holland results as they scale and staying power of Monsanto is too great, even if one year max contracts were put in place.

Should Take2.Communicate the desire to keep prices high. Prior to launch, Holland Sweetener should do everything in their power to publically signal the desire to keep pricing as high as possible. They should launch a trade focused PR campaign talking about this being a premium product and the incredibly high cost of manufacturing.
3.Communicate the desire to expand the aspartame pie. In addition, potentially they should signal going after the sugar based product market, attempting to expand the overall pie. Monsanto during this period (1892-1986) was averaging nearly $300 Million in net income with sales nearly $7 Billion. It had the cash and horsepower to bury Holland Sweetener. If Holland Sweetener instead was focused on expanding the pie they may be seen as less of a threat.
4.Communicate their focus on the niches. Try to signal a focus on underserved areas of the trade. If NutraSweet owned Coke and Pepsi then focus on filling the Holland Sweetener capacity with smaller, more boutique 1-2 ton customers that aren’t as meaningful for NutraSweet.
5.Signal no interest in going to the United States. Again, the real prize for NutraSweet is the United States. Don’t threaten this, in fact run from this. Similar to a “Made in the USA” campaign, develop a “Made in Europe, for Europe” campaign to engender loyalty from that consumer base and signal, at least publicly, no intention to go the United States aspartame market.
6.Work on building a branded table top business. Absolute profit dollars per pound of aspartame would likely be higher in a vertically integrated aspartame market. Potentially leveraging the “Made in Europe” campaign, focus on building a niche business (at first) line of products to be sold through grocers and develop a consumer brand that will start to be of value when selling in the Business to Business market. If Holland Sweetener could build a “Mercedes” brand image, and position NutraSweet as a “Chevrolet” they might be able to carve out market space.
3.What value does Holland Sweetener bring to the game?
1.The first element of value is providing a legitimate secondary source of supply for manufacturers who use aspartame. At the time of this case aspartame was a dominate ingredient in the high intensity sweetener business. If Monsanto generally, or the NutraSweet brand specifically had any major supply chain hiccup or quality issue, aspartame dependent companies were not in a good place. Holland does bring value in simply being a small (maybe 15%-25%) secondary supplier to beverage and/or other food companies in this space.
2.The primary place of value, however, does not lie in what they bring to driving the aspartame business, but in what they bring the manufacturers who need aspartame. NutraSweet essentially had a monopoly on the market and commanded prices that represented hundreds of millions of dollars of premiums. Adding a second option for aspartame, Coke and Pepsi (and dozens of others) could use NutraSweet to transfer value from Monsanto to them.
4.How should Holland Sweetener attempt to capture this value?

Ultimately it will be incredibly difficult to capture this value. In a world of pure, rational economics they should negotiate a share of the “savings” from Coke, for example, before the price negotiations begin on aspartame. Let’s say that Coke is paying $70 per pound in 1986 and Monsanto was willing to lower the price to $50 per pound to ensure Holland Sweetener didn’t get the business. Holland should only bid if Coke agrees to share the $20 in some reasonable split. The larger company, the harder this is. However, this strategy is probably the only long term sustainable win for Holland Sweetener. While they are playing this strategy out they should capture value in niche areas (such as a vertically integrated table top business) to keep volume running through the plant and maintaining credibility in the market.

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