Brocart Case

Context

Founded by Alice and Guylain Brocart, Brocart SARL is a French company that started its activities in 2006 in a garage in Besanon, The company invested in second-hand surfacers to manufacture special glasses (customized) for off-standard ophthalmic corrections. Brocart has since expanded and transferred its operations to new premises in the Besanon area. It now has 22 employees (17 directly assigned to production) and is a member of the Health Innov'Health competitive cluster. The owners want to keep their momentum and double the turnover of Brocart within 3 years, that is by 2022. Also, they think that the foreign markets would help them reach this objective.

During its first years of existence, Brocart was almost exclusively dedicated to the manufacturing (sanding and polishing) glasses for people with very low vision. Since 2012, the company has begun to meet a growing demand for glasses for athletes (e.g. diving masks, golf glasses ...). Through R&D projects and its skills upgrading program, Brocart has developed significant agility and capacity to provide a multitude of lens shapes with varying optical powers.

A first experience outside borders

Foreign markets have never been developed in a thoughtful or proactive way by Brocart. To this day, the company responds, at the most, to unsolicited orders from foreign markets A and B. Albeit, sales to these two markets are maintained as shown in the table below. Would it be inQuestion 1 -Brocart's interest to invest more to maximize its income?

Year Regions	2016	2017	2018
France Market (country) A Market (country) B	(000) 3 140 212 57	% 92 6 2	(000) 3 958 327 70	% 91 8 1	(000) 4 660 358 78	% 91 7 2
Total	3 409	100	4 355	100	5 096	100

Brocart at a crossroads

With the recent 50% increase in operational capacity, Brocart believes it is time to make strategic choices, choices that the Brocarts do not want to make "blindly". They ask themselves:Question 2 - "What are the product market pairs to prioritize and target in order to achieve the profitable and sustainable expansion of our business? "

Strategic options :

Lenses for visually impaired in market A ?

Lenses for visually impaired in market B ?

Lenses for athletes in market A ?

Lenses for athletes in market B ?

Or a combination of the options above ? Question 3 -choose which combinations of those could be the best? Brocart: additional information on the company

Imperative conditions

For Brocart, the following conditions must be present (or absent) from a market for it to be considered. Market for glasses for the visually impaired:

A corruption index below 50 according to the Transparency International Index

At least 30% of the population must be aged 50 and over

At least 60% of prescriptions must be filled by optometrists or ophthalmologists

Market for glasses for athletes :

A corruption index below 50 according to the Transparency International Index

At least 30% of the population must be between 30 and 49 years old

At least 40% of prescriptions must be filled by optometrists or ophthalmologists

Marketing and Sales Team

Brocart currently has a marketing director (trilingual: French, English, Arabic) and two sales representatives (one of whom is of German origin).

Main strengths and weaknesses identified as part of Brocart's CHROME

Strengths / benefits: Ability to innovate, develop new techniques (surfacing, driving, smoothing) and react to opportunities.

Weaknesses / disadvantages: does not have a productive apparatus allowing it to reach important economies of scale in the short term. In addition to the sales made to date in markets A and B, Brocart has a rather limited experience (and knowledge) in exporting activities.

Other elements

Brocart wishes to maintain a minimum of control over its products, i.e. a short distribution channel as well as regular feedbacks from the market.

Brocart holds trade secrets on the manufacturing processes of visually impaired glasses.

Thanks to its website and its activity on social networks, requests for more and frequent information from importers (all countries combined) confirm an interest in athletes glasses (diving masks, golf).

Areas with a high coefficient of inbreeding and those with certain geological features (mountains, desert, urbanization) are likely to cause vision problems in the population.

Alice Brocart is in touch with two manufacturers of special glasses from country A since a meeting at a recent industrial fair in November 2018. They have an interest in the manufacturing techniques (sanding, polishing) developed by Brocart.

Access to the network of vision specialists in country A is long and laborious (using fax in 95% of cases) while in country B, the most modern modes of communication are used.

France has concluded a free trade agreement with country A.

Market Report - Brocart

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