Análisis de la viabilidad de la expansión regional de la compañía Fercementos S.A.S en el departamento del Quindío

Abstract

The construction industry in Colombia and specially in Quindío, Caldas and Risaralda departments; has had a high growth in recent decades, contributing $ 760 billion Colombian pesos annually. Fercementos S.A.S., is a company located in Armenia, Quindío capital. It has had great development in this industry for more than 40 years and it has developed successful administrative strategies, that seeks to have the best relationship with its clients who see Fercementos S.A.S. as a reliable, efficient, friendly and competent ally for the acquisition of its products. This has allowed the company to be a leader in the marketing of construction materials. For this reason, the objective of this project, it is to analyze the viability of the regional expansion of the company in the Department of Quindío. It was observed that the construction market in Armenia is growing in the same way that the Colombian coffee regions are doing it. Housing costs in the Department of Quindío are cheaper than in big cities such as Bogotá or Medellín, which makes people seek to build or buy their homes in cities as Armenia, Pereira or Manizales. Fercementos S.A.S. identifies an opportunity to expand its business with the opening of two new sails points, where one of them will be situated in Armenia and the other one in Filandia, a municipality near the capital of the department. One of the reasons why the municipality of Filandia was chosen is because in several fieldworks implemented during the development of the project, it was evidenced that there are only a few hardware stores with a small amount of products; as consequence, people have to travel to Armenia to find more variety of products and better costs. The size of the commercial premises of the sales points was based on the turnover capture that it is planned to achieve. Both premises are previously built and it is only necessary to remodel and adapt each one with the specifications of the Fercementos S.A.S brand. The expected 30 % growth with the opening of the two new selling points, in comparison with the present sales of Fercementos S.A.S. Currently, the company has a 12.6 % share in the construction industry market. On the other hand, in Armenia, there is a brand recognition towards Fercementos S.A.S., therefore, a growth opportunity was seen to cover greater segmentation within the industry. As a communication strategy, the company has used voice to voice method and it has been very useful in Armenia, since it is a city with a small population. Likewise, the company uses catalogs due to the fact that a wide variety of products of different brands and with different uses are sold, this helps customers to have clear and simple information about what they are buying. Additionally, an important strategy that has helped the company to grow in the region is the alliance with the Argos company. Most of Colombians perceive the Argos brand as the main supplier of cement and concrete, as well as its corporate colors that are deeply rooted in Fercementos S.A.S. as a brand, they allow to achieve almost immediate recognition from the customers. This strategy is unique in Armenia, because the distribution of Argos materials in the department of Quindío is carried exclusively out by Fercementos S.A.S. xvi The initial investment for the this project will be $ 522'380,333 Colombian pesos, which is made up of the total commercial cost added to the fixed capital, that is the adequacy of the points of sale. This initial investment will be made with 30 % of the company's own resources and the remaining 70% will be support by a financial entity (the financing model can be observed in the financial chapter).