Whether you are taking a cup of tea, coffee, pap, or you are baking, one critical ingredient that determines how your meal tastes is Sugar.
Asides from rendering your tea or cake/meal sweet in taste, sugar has other health benefits that make it a really important ingredient in food and beverages.
In the Nigerian sugar market, we have different brands of sugar produced either in a powdered form or a cube form. Also, while companies produce sugar for household consumption, which is produced in smaller quantities, it is also produced and packaged in large quantities for industrial purposes to be sold to breweries, bakeries, etc.
In this article, we will be comparing two well-known sugar cube brands that are really popular amongst consumers.
St. Louis Vs Golden Penny Sugar
While St. Louis Sugar cubes have been in the market for a very long time and has more or less monopolized the sugar cubes market, we have seen more brands try to become competitors in this sphere, thereby filtering the market with their own products of sugar cubes. Golden Penny Sugar was introduced to the market in 2013 by Flourmills Nigeria Plc and has since become popular amongst sugar consumers, especially in households.
Content
- First of all speaking of the content, sugar is made from the leaves of the sugarcane plant through photosynthesis and stored as a sweet juice in sugarcane stalks. At the factory, cane juice is extracted, purified, filtered and crystallized into golden, raw sugar.
- Sugar consists of 50% glucose and 50% fructose.
- Glucose provides energy to the muscles and acts as a source of energy for the brain and nervous system.
- While St Louis sugar which is made in France but imported into Nigeria by the Milan group, an Indian family business, is very likely made from sugar beets, Golden Penny sugar is made from cane sugar.
Price
- Price is an important factor in this comparison. Considering the prices of both commodities, St. Louis sugar which has been in the market for over 2 decades is priced at around N1,500 per pack of 90 cubes of sugar. On the other hand, however, the Golden Penny Sugar cube pack, which entered the market in 2013, is priced at around N1,200 per pack.
- The strategy employed by Golden Penny Sugar is called pricing penetration in marketing, which is a marketing strategy used by businesses to attract customers to a new product or service by offering a lower price during its initial offering.
- Hence, we can say that the pricing mechanism of Golden Penny sugar has given her a boost in this segment, so we can say Golden Penny sugar takes the lead here.
Size
- In terms of size and quantity of the sugar cubes in both brands, both St. Loius and Golden Penny pack of sugar cubes contains 90 cubes of sugar and weigh 500g for each pack.
- However, considering that Golden penny sugar costs less for the same number of sugar cubes, we could conclude that Golden penny sugar provides more quantity to customers compared to St. Loius.
- Hence, in this category, it will be fair to say Golden penny sugar takes the lead.
Variant
- Flour Mills Nig Plc, the manufacturers of Golden Penny sugar, in 2013 launched two variants of the product, which are the cube sugar in 500g packages and the granulated sugar in 500g and 1kg packages.
- This has helped create a form of variety to meet the needs of some customers in need of different variants and quantities of the product.
- On the other hand, St. Louis sugar has only been produced in cube form and the company has not hinted of plans to start production in granulated form.
- Golden penny sugar, once again, takes the lead with the diversification of its product.
Marketing & Advertising
- Advertising and sponsorship are key marketing strategies that companies use in gaining market presence and popularity. They also do so by signing ambassadorship deals with celebrities and other organizations of great repute.
- While advertising is a crucial part of product marketing, St Loius sugar has no form of advertisement whatsoever. The brand does not have an advertisement or campaign video to its name despite the fact that the company has monopolized the market for quite a long time before the emergence of competition.
- However, Golden penny sugar has videos and articles introducing its products to the target market.
- Golden penny sugar takes a clear lead in this category.
Summary
Considering these five categories, we may conclude that both companies have significantly maintained or increased their market share. Although St Louis sugar can be said to be thriving on a first-mover advantage and goodwill, Golden penny sugar is making strides in the market with its variance, price, as well as its marketing strategies.
St. Louis is contraban in Nigeria. Nairametrics should know that and not be seen to be promoting a banned product.