Dr. Carduff
Executive Summary: “Ice-Fili Case”

“You cannot defeat a nation that enjoys ice cream at minus 40 celcius”- Winston Churchill. Ice-Fili has been a strong competitor in Russia’s frozen ice cream market since before the cold war. It has survived through the transition of government and privatization in 1992, and has continued to make its presence known throughout Moscow and the surrounding areas through the turn of the 21st century. However, surviving change is an everlasting battle. Recently, consumer tastes are drastically westernizing with the introduction of large refrigerators enabling households’ ability to store cartons of ice cream at home. This has allowed supermarkets to make a substantial impact in terms of ice cream market share. The change in consumer taste, combined with management issues, operating inefficiencies, and poor distribution, has placed Ice-Fili in need of strategic decision making to aid its future success.

In order to combat these changes, we as consultants have devised two major strategies through financial and market analysis that we feel will help Ice-Fili to regain a strong foothold in the Russian ice cream market. These strategies have been designed to create stronger consumer demand for Ice-Fili’s 150 ice cream products, increase Ice-Fili’s distribution and marketing efficiency, and maximize sales revenues. We believe that the implementation of any or all of these strategies will result in higher profitability margins derived from increased revenues and lower costs; higher earnings will allow Ice-Fili further opportunity to address other issues such as union representation threats and relocation issues. The strategies are as follows: 1. Switch distribution channels from kiosks to Ice-Fili ice cream trucks; particularly in the summer months where demand is high. Currently, Ice-Fili uses