Snack food company

ProHub Comment

This is a classic make-vs-buy case requiring structured analysis of financial economics, operational capabilities, and strategic positioning. The candidate must compare outsourced distribution (20% commission) against in-house operations, using provided competitive benchmarking data to surface the cost disadvantage and build a financial model showing improvement potential despite short-term revenue decline.

Estimated Time 15 minutes
Difficulty Medium
Source PeterK
50 / 100
A snack food company hires a contractor to distribute their products (e.g. cookies, crackers). They would like to bring distribution in-house and hire full-time workers to distribute their products (i.e. put the products on the shelves in the stores). Should they switch to the other model?

Clarifying Information

  1. The contractor takes 20% commission
  2. The client has ambition to triple their sales in the near future
  3. Other players own the value chain and do distribution in-house
  4. The client is a large player, but not among top-5 companies
  5. The client has a national footprint