Performance of New Products at Cairns Food Limited Zimbabwe

Abstract

The purpose of the research was to examine the performance of new products at Cairns Foods Limited Zimbabwe. The aim of the research was to understand why Cairns Foods Limited new products seem to perform poorly after a short period of time in the market. Relevant literature was used to create a background to the study which included peer reviewed journals, books, papers, dissertations and empirical data sources. The research design followed a survey design approach with questionnaires as the main research instrument. The study population was 213 Cairns Foods Limited employees and customers and the sample had 120 participants drawn from the population. The population was portioned into sub-groups that represented Cairns Foods Limited employees as well customers. Each strata defined a partition of the population that were necessary to the completion of the research. After each stratum was defined simple random sampling was used in order to minimize sampling error. The employees were partitioned into the following strata: senior management, middle management, general employees including factory workers, salespersons and lastly Cairns Foods top retail customers. The objectives of the research were to assess the performance of new Cairns products on the market, explore the new product development process at Cairns Foods Zimbabwe, determine the process that is done before engaging in new product development, and to establish the availability of standard procedure manuals for new product development at Cairns Foods Limited Zimbabwe. Findings showed that 50% of Cairns Foods Limited products are performing either poorly or very poorly. This is a red flag for the organization as its core business is that of manufacturing fast moving consumer goods that sell at very reasonable prices meaning the organisation needs to push volume for it to realise good returns. Other issues to look at include the type of product, the market as well incorporating technological advancements. In regard to performance measurement profit tabulations are the most used performance indicator, as cited by about 84% of the respondents. The findings indicate that Cairns Foods Limited places more emphasis on the use of financial measures to measure the performance of its goods as compared to non-financial measures such as time to market. 60% of the participants agree that there are Standard Performance Measures in place for all new products at Cairns Foods Limited. However, 40% of the participants disagree that there are Standard Performance measures in place for all new products. This could show that the procedure or operating practice is not well-known by all employees. 50% of the participants noted that Standard Performance Measures in place products at Cairns Foods Limited form a Standard Operating Procedure for all new products. Recommendations for the organisation and the sector at large are included as part of the dissertation.