Case Study Analysis : SaSa Presented By : Aashik Francis(01) Anand Chaturvedi(09) Anshul Jain(15) Aysha Hazel(30) Delshya Selvaraj(45) Hareesh Gundeeti(55)

Introduction
Situation Analysis
Sa Sa Cosmetics is a very successful Hong Kong based discount cosmetics retailers. The case describes how Sa Sa became successful, culminating in its IPO in 1997. Since then, however, its fortunes have declined somewhat. Most big companies have faced a crisis period after 10-20 years of their induction. We believe that Sa Sa Cosmetics is passing through a similar phase as these big companies. They lost their core competency in discounted retail stores as many new competitors came up with similar models looking at Sa Sa's success in this field. The case discusses recent initiatives that were undertaken to sustain growth momentum. Sa Sa also undertook some marketing research studies. The research findings appear to confirm that Sa Sa may have some major problems. As 2001 comes to a close, Sa Sa contemplates what else can be done to improve profitability and keep on growing.

History
Sa Sa cosmetics started on April 1st, 1978 in Hong Kong by husband and wife team Simon and Eleanor Kwok, as a simple cosmetic retailer. Soon they realized that discounted store concept had greater possibilities in cosmetic segment and started selling products at a lower margin than its competitors.

The company was able to give big discounts to customers because in order to get bigger volume discounts. More than half of Sa Sa’s merchandise were parallel imports, which on average produced a gross margin of 15% to 20%. they carried a higher gross margin of 30% to 40%. Sa Sa was able to sell the products at a discount to MSRP or even use them as loss leaders at times to attract customers into the store.

By 1981, after three years of