Products offered by Sapphire

Different types of dyes are used in the production of their products. Some of which include:

 Basic dyes
 Acid dyes
 Mordant dyes
 Substantive direct dyes
 Developed dyes
 Azoic dyes
 Disperse dyes
 Vat dyes
 Reactive dyes
 Pigment dyes

Raw materials used in the process

 Whitening agent
 Wetting agent
 Fixing agent
 ‘Detergent
 Silicon
 Stiffening agent
 Water proofing agent
 De – foaming agent
 Enzymes
 Caustic Soda
 Soda Ash
 Acetic acid
 Oxalic acid
Yarn dyeing is the special type of dyeing process. Yarns are dyed in package form or hank form
by yarn dyeing process. It is slightly different from woven or knit dyeing. Dyed yarns are used for
making stripe knit or woven fabrics or solid dyed yarn fabric or in sweater manufacturing.

Yarn dyeing is used by sapphire to make various garments. Most of their profits in the B2B
segment are brought about through yarn dyeing.

Pricing

According to the officials of sapphire, quality is preferred over price as they consider their
reputation to be more important than their profits. They believe that if quality of the products is
maintained, the profits will be earned automatically. They believe in retaining their customers by
their quality standards up to the mark and their prices low. In this way, they try to build their
reputation in terms of quality and not price. The company prefers quality over price. For sapphire
retaining customers and making a name for themselves in the existing market matter a lot so in
many cases they are flexible in terms of their pricing such that they are ready to offer relatively
lower prices to more loyal and important customers. They know that by keeping the buying
company in their loop constantly will benefit sapphire as a whole both financially and in terms if
their repute especially in the long run.

Supply Chain

The raw materials that are purchased and used by Sapphire have been discussed earlier. Some of
the main suppliers of Sapphire include:

 Clariant Chemicals: Clariant AG is a Swiss speciality chemicals company, formed in

1995 as a spin-off from Sandoz. The company is focused on four business areas: care
chemicals; catalysis; natural resources; and plastics & coatings.
 BASF: BASF SE is a German chemical company and the largest chemical producer in the
world. The BASF Group comprises subsidiaries and joint ventures in more than 80
countries and operates six integrated production sites and 390 other production sites in
Europe, Asia, Australia, the Americas and Africa.
  Rudolf Pakistan: Rudolf Pakistan (Private Limited is an expert in making textile and
leather auxiliaries. It excels in making chemicals and dyestuff which not only enhances the
functional aspects of textile but is also cost-effective.

There are 3 main types of suppliers that supply sapphire with the raw materials:

 Strategic Supplier: Where supplier relationship management starts even before an

agreement with supplier is signed, in order to ensure the competitive advantage of the
company in the long run.
 Tactical Supplier: Tactical sourcing on the other hand is a short term, transactional
activity, commonly practiced in small to medium size manufacturing organizations. It is
however, pro-actively managed within the purchasing organization to ensure the
organization has the right material at the right price and right time.
 Commodity Supplier: The Company derives its margin or gross profit from the difference
between the price at which it is able to sell the commodities to its customers and the price
at which it purchases the associated volumes from its Commodity Suppliers.

Buyer – Seller Relationship

Sapphire has a diverse customer base. Sapphire has a number of different customers that buy
different products from the company.

These companies include the following:

1. Hirdarmnai
2. Norlanka
3. Russel UK
4. Sols
5. Nike
6. B&C
7. B-Line

Sapphire greatly values its customers such that it focuses mainly on customer feedback. The
customers are required to give their valuable feedback via email. The other way they give feedback
is that the companies send their auditors to Sapphire who tell the management to adjust the orders
according to their own satisfaction. This way the customers remain happy with Sapphire.

Sapphire also offers a variety of additional services to its customers. Sapphire is known for its
quality and testing. Whilst other companies often outsource for quality testing, Sapphire has
special machines like the Spectrophotometer that makes them stand out from the rest. This USP
of the company often makes other businesses remain in contact with Sapphire.

The main reason for customer retention for Sapphire is that the company pays less importance to
pricing. Rather Sapphire focuses on quality which directly influences their customers. Mostly
Sapphire offers less prices to the customers they badly want to retain. The company knows that
loyal customers are more beneficial for the company especially in the long run.

Promotion

Like its competitors, Sapphire too, promotes its products and services via road shows. Road shows
are a series of series of marketing evens comprised of business meetings and conferences organized
all over Pakistan.

Even though Sapphire is a B2B company, it also indulges in marketing activities via media outlets.
Sapphire is famous for its Sapphire Lawns that is advertised vastly on every platform. Be it social
media platforms or mainstream media platforms, Sapphire Lawns has always led the way to market
its products. However, all this comes under the B2C business design.

As far as B2B is concerned, Sapphire sends a team to its clients which present their products and
services and convince the customers about how Sapphire can add value to its products.

Sapphire also uses its technology to attract customers. Latest technology and state of the art
machinery is also one reason why Sapphire stands out from the rest of its competitors.
Recommendations

Sapphire is operating efficiently as far its operations and financials are concerned and even though
their B2C promotions are working fine, however, their B2B promotions are not up to the mark.
Sapphire must look into more ways of market their products to broaden the B2B customer base.

Sapphire should also look to penetrate into new markets and start to expand in other different
product categories. This way the company can make a name for themselves in different industries
as well. This will not only benefit the company in terms of their reputation but also will make them
stronger financially.

Sapphire should also take advantage of their market name and expand their operations
internationally. If they are able to do this they can really do well both financially and in terms of
operations.