PRAN social accountability process

Company Logistics:
PRAN has started its operation in 1981 as a processors fruit and vegetables in Bangladesh. It is
currently one of the most admired food and beverages brands among the millions of people of
Bangladesh and other 106 countries of the world where PRAN products are regularly being
exported. They have 52,000 employees and currently producing more than 200 food products
under 10 different categories. Such as: Juices, Drinks, Mineral water, Snakes, Biscuits, Bakery,
Confectionary and Dairy. Aim of this big company is: To generate employment and earn dignity
and self-respect for our compatriots through profitable enterprises. Vision of PRAN is to
improve livelihood.
Now let’s look at their contribution in national economy which will prove that how successfully
they are completing their missions. Due to its international standard of product, competitive
pricing and unique marketing strategy it has won millions of hearts of people throughout the
globe in a very short time. PRAN is regularly exporting their 10 different categories of products
to 106 countries of the world which is a source of foreign exchange. The export was huge. In
2009, 2010 and 2011 the exports were worth $26million, $46million and $60million. It clearly
shows how rapidly they are upgrading. PRAN itself hold 38% of market share where revenue is
worth $80.3billion a year.
PRAN CSR
CSR means “Corporate Social Responsibility”. Different organization have framed different
definition. But there is considerable common ground between them. Mainly CSR is about how
companies manage the business processes to produce an overall positive impact on society.
PRAN major achievement has been trying to consolidate fragmented land holdings and
organizing farmers into contract growers. With the elimination of middleman, PRAN try to give
farmer fair wages that’s how they motivate farmers. Now a days a company’s success not only
depend on its profit they also look after environment, community, people etc. They should have
to concern about their work whether it is not going to harm others. How well PRAN focus on
these points are describing below.

Promises to the environment:
Community Forestation: In different location around Bangladesh, PRAN are planting trees to
save our green planet.
Effluent Treatment Plan (ETP): To ensure safe disposal of factory wastage, they got ETP’s.
Heat Recovery Boiler: They recover the heat to save energy that they produce and utilize in their
production.
Promises to the ENERGY PRESEVATION:
SKY-LIGHT roof to utilize daylight during factory operation.
Using CFL bulbs in factories and offices to reduce power consumption.
Powered trucks to reduce air pollution and usage fossil fuels for all vehicles.
Promises to the Society:
PRAN work together with Red crescent.
Collecting and donating blood.
Working for the disabled.
Working with ‘SAVE THE CHILDREN’
MEASURE EFFECTIVENESS:
There are lots of way to measure the effectiveness of CSR activities. Let’s compare their
activities with the measurement scales.
1.Not too much informative their CSR activities that not up to the mark if we consider the term
inclusivity. By the measurement of inclusivity, they need to give all the information of their CSR
activities but they failed to do so.
2.Absence of numerical figures.
3.How they improve day by day, for understanding that they need to compare their activities
with this year and previous year but we don’t find any sort of document like this. So PRAN has
lack of comparability.

Employee
Equal opportunity is maintained by PRAN for every employee. They give equal right to both male,
female candidates and impartial to religions, race, culture etc. When PRAN select employee, they
choose the employee based on merits and qualifications. Everyone is given clear-cut job
descriptions and equal opportunity to contribute and share their innovative ideas and thoughts to
develop the company
Fair wages
Beside fixed salary PRAN also providing extra payment based on target, performance,
achievement, cost saving, revenue generation. They also proclaim their revenue comes from the
effort of worker. PRAN also honor their effort and paying as much as possible accordingly.
Working condition
PRAN is providing their employee safe and healthy environment. They think that at is a effective
tools for productivity. The employee can ask their question with manger and can also prove some
recommendation. Employee can share their new ideas and work independently.
Physical privacy
Importance of employee life and health is so much to PRAN. They are offering a wide range of
service to their employees like health care, maternity care etc. Their providing service work like a
safe guard for employee.
Social privacy
PRAN is also providing financial support for education to employee’s children from nursery to
post graduation and also providing scholarship to those who did good result under this program.
Information privacy
When recruiting employee PRAN collect information from employee. They use this information
at the time of urgency to know about the past information, to do employee research, to know
employee behave. But they don’t leak out this information to other but use only for inner
investigation.

Affirmative Action or Equal Opportunity Program adopted by the company
Employees are given salary, commission. they are also given reward due to their good performance
as a incentives so that they can hold their best effort.
Every workers and staffs are provided with free food from the factory where product is maid and
they are also provided from cafeterias.
Doctors, nurses and other medical supports is given to every Employee. Their health is cared by
this program. Because PRAN thinks that they are the most important for the production of the
company.
Many development programs are taking by PRAN To develop the human skills though they have
training program also for employee. PRAN wants to provide maximum effort to develop the skill
of employee.
PRAN is also using SKY-Light Roof to take advantage from daylight at the time of factory
operation.
Energy saving Bulbs are using in Factories and offices to reduce maximum Power Consumption.
For transporting their product PRAN is using Powered Trucks to reduce Air Pollution and also
using fossil fuel for all vehicles.

Shareholders
Recently two foreign company make a agreement with PRAN RFL group namely. PROPARCO
and FMO .proparco is a financial institution which is held by north and south private and
public shareholder and Agency Françoise de Development. Their aim to supporting growth,
sustainable development and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs).FMO is the dutch development bank .they are interested to invest in private sector in
developing country and their goal is to develop financial institution ,energy and agribusiness.
This two-well-known company make agreement of 13m with PRAN RFL which was held on 3
February at Radisson Hote.
Controversies with consumer relation:
PRAN -RFL Group yesterday said it provides 20-40 percent fruit pulp in its various juices and
announced a Tk 10 lakh reward if anyone can demonstrate that its juices do not contain any pulp.
"So far, no one can prove that PRAN juices are substandard or adulterated," said Kamruzzaman
Kamal, marketing director of Pran-RFL Group, at a press conference. The assertion comes two
days after the High Court (HC) gave the government two weeks to explain why it should not be
directed to stop production, marketing and sales of Pran's fruit-flavored drinks. The HC issued
the rule following a writ petition that claimed Pran's fruit -- strawberry, mango, pineapple, apple,
orange and litchi -- drinks did not contain any traces of pure fruit. However, Pran officials said
they are yet to get the copy of the HC ruling and will take necessary steps after getting it. The
rule also asked the government to explain why its failure to ban production, marketing and sales
of the products should not be declared illegal. Advocate Manzill Murshid, president of Human
Rights and Peace for Bangladesh, filed the petition following a report published in a daily -
Amader Shomoy - on October 23. The report claimed Pran's fruit drinks do not contain pulp, and
that the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI) has cancelled the licenses of Pran's
various fruit drinks. The Daily Star also carried a report on October 18 after the BSTI annulled
the fruit drink licences of Pran and six other firms.The standard body cancelled the licences of
Pran's mango, orange, lemon, strawberry, litchi, apple, pineapple and fruit cocktail drinks for not
using the minimum 10 percent fruit pulp, Md Nurul Islam, BSTI's deputy director for
certification, told The Daily Star earlier. But Pran said the BSTI cancelled license of just its
orange drink -- and not any of the juice products, standards for which are different. As majority

of the people cannot differentiate between drinks and juices, many thinks that license to make
juice has been cancelled as well, he added. "But we are shocked with the reports in the mass
media about Pran's juices, that they are substandard, adulterated and do not even contain a drop
of fruit juice,” said Kamal.“These reports have affected our image more than our financial loss,"
Kamal added.He further said the juices are made following BSTI standards. "We also have
approval from the Food and Drug Administration of the USA," said Kamal, while adding that
Pran exports its products to 88 countries. "Our buyers in other countries have become anxious,
while consumers have become confused," said Md Eleash Mridha, another one of Pran-RFL
Group's directors.Last year Pran, the country's biggest food processor, exported 450 containers of
juice products, mainly to India, Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia, as per Mridha.When asked
about Pran's compliance with the standards set by the BSTI in June this year, Mridha said the
BSTI is yet to fix the required ratio of pulp that has to be used for making juice for its new
standards.The new standard requires processors to make juice with the quotient of 88-100
percent, said two BSTI officials earlier.Pran's 50-odd juice product category is dominated by
mango, which the company sources directly from its contract growersin the north of the country.
Product Policy
To satisfy the needs of the premium customer PRAN maintain the high quality and for their best
quality they get certificate from International Organization for Standardization (ISO). They are
ISO 9001:1985, ISO 14001:1990 certified company. Hence PRAN have new product is coconut
juice so They are looking to provide the best quality juices They will take some measures, like
1.Products are being produced with the help of superior quality high-tech machineries made in
Italy.
2.Pran import the best quality coconuts from Norway, Hawaiian Islands and also collect the best
quality coconuts from Bangladesh.
3.To maintain the quality and standard of product, products are being tested in their own
laboratory, components of which are European and computerized.
4.They have strictly maintained the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) in every
stage of manufacturing chain.
5. Products are produced health wise and totally untouched.
6. The products are free from any chemical particles.
7. The products are with pure quality & exclusively good for health.
8. The products are marketed with high quality food grade package.
This ‘coconut juice’ will be added to PRAN product category of juice in which they have
established a brand image & also a perception of producing the best quality.

Marketing strategy
At the current situation PRAN is the market leaders and this market growth rate almost stagnate.
So, if They want to grow their own market share then their advertisement strategy should be
informative and persuasive.
PRAN have targeted the children and the youth consumers because they used to spend their time
mostly outside home because of several reasons. Luckily, they are lunching their product in a
time where some religious festivals are coming. So, by keeping an eye on these aspects PRAN
are targeting the families as their customers by offering premium family packs.

Positioning statement:
PRAN have made a new positioning statement for their new product. The positioning statement
is “You need a pure one, when you are thirsty”. The reason behind selecting this positioning
statement is They are emphasizing our product quality & at the same time they are serving the
customer need.
Distribution strategy:
In the beginning PRAN want to going for huge sales for this they have to increase their
distributor’s number in whole country. They have to identify the main distributors in the remote
area of Bangladesh. They have to evaluate their capacity and then try to convince to sell their
product in their distribution network more frequently. PRAN have a plan an action program just
for our distributor’s sales persons. It will be discussing in detail later in the action programs.
Marketing communication strategy:
PRAN have to communicate properly about their product’s quality with their consumers. Their
main target will be those house-wives who are concerned about their family’s health, children, &
young people also. From their market surveys, they come to know that in urban area most of
these kinds of people watch TV from 9 to 12. Then they have to promote their product in TV in
between this time. Then they know that many of them are related with workforce today. For that
reason, they have to browse internet often, internet can be a vital media to access this kind of
customer. And they will also continue the advertising in daily and weekly newspapers and in
weekly and monthly magazines. But we know in our country 80% of our people live in rural area
and 90% of them are illiterate. To attract those people, they have to promote their product in
different media like Radio. By this they can also access those people who are traveling different
places in a day because today in our country the FM trend is very much popular.
Market Research: PRAN are in this market for 30 years and they have already observed many
things about the market situation, distribution network, competitors’ behavior and behavior of
the customers towards their products. By analyzing this information, they are developing their
future market strategies and also try to develop good relation with the distribution channel with
customer. They also have to evaluate customer’s attitudes about their brand effectiveness. Only
after this we can think for market broadening or diversification for the newly lunched product.
PRAN is the pioneer in Bangladesh since 1980 to be involved in contract farming and procures
raw material directly from the farmers and processes through state of the art machinery at their
several factories into hygienically packed food and drinks products. The brand “PRAN” has
established itself in every category of food and beverage industry and can boost a product range
from Juices, Carbonated Drinks, Confectionery, Snacks, and Spices to even Dairy products.

Pricing Strategy:
Currently in our country the government is run by an elected party and our country is now in a
democratic environment. So, we can hope that the government situation will remain same and
the inflation rate will be in control. For this reason, they will try them best to remain the same
wholesale price in the next year. They are expecting that in 2010, the inflation rate decreased to
normal scale and for this reason the product price falls but the total volume of consumption
increased, as a result They are expecting 15% growth in sales revenue. If they could hold this
market situation, then they can expect a large number of profits in near future. PRAN will
introduce three different size of product such as Family pack, premium, popular.
PRAN have stated before that their product’s market is in maturity stage, for this reason they
have to face tough competition. In this market, there are several companies which are providing
goods of the same category. The main competitors are Shezan, Danish, ACME etc.

By the following table, we can analyze PRAN competitors more thoroughly
Company Name Description Whole Sale
Price (Tk)
Retail
Pric(Tk)
PRAN
It is the market leader with 43%
of market share. This company is
in this market for several years.
For this reason, the brand name is
well established and their
distribution channel is relatively
better than other allied industries.
45(1 litre)
24(500ml)
12(250 ml)
50
28
15
ACME
It is in the market not for that
long but due to its marketing
strategy and good backup it is in
the 2nd position with 20% of the
market share.
12(250ml) 16
Shezan
It is in the 4th position having
13% of market share though it is
in the market for a good numbers
of years it’s weak marketing
strategy is responsible.
13(250ml) 16
Danish It is having its 11% market share
because of its weak distribution
channel.
12(200ml) 14

Collaboration with civil society:
PRAN-RFL established two schools located in Narsingdhi and Habiganj. They give education
deprive children without any tuition fees, and also accommodate 150 students. PRAN-RFL
public schools observed the 300 students without any fees and 600 students paying half of the
tuition fees 170 paid full tuition fees. PRAN-RFL public schools observe handwashing day, Title
of the event was ‘Clean hand, healthy life’. Bliss, a liquid hand-wash sponsored the health and
hygiene awareness campaign. About 500 students and guardians participated in the programs.
They learnt correct method of washing hands. Shamsul Alam, General Manager at RFL
Industrial Park, Hasan Md. Manzurul Haque, General Manager at Habiganj Industrial Park, Md.
Mostak Chowdhury, Assistant General Manager at PRAN Industrial Park, Faruque Hossain,
Senior Manager HRM of PRAN-RFL Group. Are the founder and director of this instituition.
Stake holder:
PRAN RFL group employees are them best resource. They give values to their employees’
creativity and innovation. Their culture begins with their four values that drive everything they
do: Integrity, Continuous Innovation, Involvement and Self-respect. They help their employees’
growth. They give them proper training and development. They encourage employees to ask
questions and make suggestions that employee think better. PRAN-RFL group are the one
amongst the few in Bangladesh who has a culture of profit sharing management. PRAN
employees are dedicated to the success of their business. They treat They are employees as a
core resource and family member.

Government & PRAN Relationships
Government and PRAN has authentic mutual Relationships. PRAN lobbing government so that
they can be able to Sell & Export their product without any hassle. There is no such evidence
that proves that PRAN lobbying government, but their activity with BSTI as well as Local land
donner saying another thing.
In local areas, which contain their factories they are more mutual to the political parties for their
business purpose they donate money for the voting campaign as well as they sponsored local
events.
PRAN has become a renowned brand all over the world. It exports since 1996, currently it
exports their products over 118 countries.
If they face problem they solve it through high governor parties or they improve their product.
They have lot of controversial act which is given below.
Lobbing with BSTI
Turmeric powder: In 2013-11-02 The PRAN-RFL Group has recalled its Turmeric powder
product from Bangladesh markets after it was found to be containing toxic materials greater than
the acceptable level.
In a media statement, the group said it had been informed by the importers of higher level of lead
in several batches of its turmeric powder exported to the US.
After the allegations were raised, the group said its product was tested at various national and
international testing facilities like the BSTI and BCSIR.
Several tests conducted at the company revealed turmeric powder containing higher level of lead
while others showed no lead at all, said the statement. The US Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) had said it had found up to 53 parts per million (ppm) of lead in the turmeric product.
A notice from the FDA had warned that such level of lead was dangerous for pregnant women,
infants and young children. (bdnews24.com)
We can easily say that the PRAN group has local lobbying with BSTI that’s why they got
certificate as well as they export those products in other country.

PRAN Juice:
In 2012-11-06 Pran-RFL Group said it provides 20-40 percent fruit pulp in its various juices and
announced a Tk 10 lakh reward if anyone can demonstrate that its juices do not contain any pulp.
"So far, no one can prove that Pran juices are substandard or adulterated," said Kamruzzaman
Kamal, marketing director of Pran-RFL Group, at a press conference.
The assertion comes two days after the High Court (HC) gave the government two weeks to
explain why it should not be directed to stop production, marketing and sales of Pran's fruit-
flavored drinks.
The HC issued the rule following a writ petition that claimed Pran's fruit -- strawberry, mango,
pineapple, apple, orange and litchi -- drinks did not contain any traces of pure fruit.
However, Pran officials said they are yet to get the copy of the HC ruling and will take necessary
steps after getting it.
The rule also asked the government to explain why its failure to ban production, marketing and
sales of the products should not be declared illegal.
Advocate Manzill Murshid, president of Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh, filed the
petition following a report published in a daily -- Amader Shomoy -- on October 23.
The report claimed Pran's fruit drinks do not contain pulp, and that the Bangladesh Standards and
Testing Institution (BSTI) has cancelled the licenses of Pran's various fruit drinks.
The Daily Star also carried a report on October 18 after the BSTI annulled the fruit drink licenses
of Pran and six other firms.
The standard body cancelled the licences of Pran's mango, orange, lemon, strawberry, litchi,
apple, pineapple and fruit cocktail drinks for not using the minimum 10 percent fruit pulp, Md
Nurul Islam, BSTI's deputy director for certification, told The Daily Star earlier.
But Pran said the BSTI cancelled license of just its orange drink -- and not any of the juice
products, standards for which are different.
Land Lobbing:
With the help of current local political party, they are buying land for their project and factory in
a low price. Recently they bought more than 100 acers of land in Natore District for PRAN
medical college and so they bought land in Hobiganj in a same way.
So, overall points showed that the lobbing of BSTI they are selling and exporting adulterated
goods as well as lobbing with local political party they are buying land forcefully

Collaboration of normative Ethical theories with PRAN
MATERNITY WELFARE FACILITIES
According to law, no women shall work during the eight weeks immediately following the day
of her delivery. RFL group gives at least 3 months maternity leave with pay, which is pay in.
Every woman employed in any establishment shall be entitled to and liable for the payment of
maternity benefit, within the tentative date of her delivery and after delivery. PRAN-RFL group
gives only the salary but there is no other additional benefit. Company more like thinking as Act
Utilitarianism, they need to do this they are doing and the employee needs some benefits they are
giving. They are more like think that instead of resting whole pregnancy time it is better if they
do some work and which is also good the mother. And as they have some duties to others they
are giving 3 months of pay maternity leave.
The company provides fair treatment to all their workers, never discriminate with privileged and
under-privileged, female and male, minority or majority. They always kept sustainable working
condition and environment. They provide equal salary to male and female in same designation.
Controversy with the turmeric powder
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had said it had found up to 53 parts per million
(ppm) of lead in the turmeric product, but the company said the product had been tested by
various national and international testing facilities. After the debate they came up to the reason
that Bangladesh soil which is the responsible for the lead in the turmeric and which they have
nothing to do with. They are behaving as egoism, only have interest about their own means not
even about their country and consumers. Rather they could come to mutual acceptable
conclusion and settlement the conflict.
Controversy with flavored juice
The company argued that their flavored juice contains 20% fruit pulp and contained fresh juice
not only the favor, where the BSTI annulled the fruit drink licenses of Pran and six other firms.
The standard body cancelled the licenses of Pran's mango, orange, lemon, strawberry, litchi,
apple, pineapple and fruit cocktail drinks for not using the minimum 10 percent fruit pulp. But
Pran said the BSTI cancelled license of just its orange drink -- and not any of the juice products,
standards for which are different. Egoism-they are only concerned about their business and about
the health and trust of the consumer. Rather than offering 10lakhs of proving awards they could

have arrange a camp of fruit juice where they could offer free juice to consumer and instant take
their interviews and opinion about the Pran fruit juice.
Buying of agriculture land
They bought agriculture land in Natore with the help of their political parties at less price to
make Pran Medical, they are taking land villagers and influencing them by telling that they will
get better health service, but this is destroying the work of villagers, even most of the village
people come cities denying their forefather works, this will more discourage them. Agriculture
lands also decreasing in number and population increasing, if had enough lands then we didn’t
need brings raw foods from the peer countries. In one way they are acting ‘Egoism’ on the other
hand as ‘Rule Utilitarianism’
Conclusion
Pran industry is now world-wide distributed; they have exports in more than 10 countries. We
tried to confuse on every part as per our report but some of the part lacked. The company
maintained their brand and goodwill very well. As Pran has extended tremendously, they have
very less controversies. They gives their more concerned and attention to their employees, and
tried to keep their food quality best.

References:
1. Matten, A. C. (2010). Normative Ethical Theories. In Business Ethics. New York: Oxford
University Press.
2. Zabir Md Abullah, R. A. (n.d.). Retrieved from SlideShare:
http://www.slideshare.net/Mouri36/pran-rfl-group-market-analysis
3. Correspondent, S. (2013, November 2). PRAN recalls turmeric powder in Bangladesh.
Retrieved from bdnews24.com: http://bdnews24.com/business/2013/11/02/pran-recalls-
turmeric-powder-in-bangladesh
4. Pran refutes claims of adulteration. (2012, November 07). Retrieved from The Daily
Star: http://www.thedailystar.net/news-detail-256515
5. Corporate Social Responsibility. (n.d.). Retrieved from PRAN:
http://www.pranfoods.net/csr.php

PRAN social accountability process

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