Brand Association and Sales Growth: A Study of Nigeria the Flour Milling Industry

Branding has developed in the minds of customers a strong and positive perception of a company's products or services. However, most of these businesses struggle to use branding strategy to differentiate themselves from competition and grow sales. The goal of this study is to assess the impact of brand association tactics on the sales growth of flour milling enterprises. The major technique of data collection was administered questionnaire to the sales and marketing employees of the selected flour milling enterprises in Lagos State. The findings indicated that brand connections have a positive and considerable impact on sales growth. The study recommends that brand managers should also ensure that customers' interactions with the brand remain consistent in order to generate sales growth.

Peculiarities of formation of competitive strategy of the enterprises of flour-milling branch of Ukraine

The article deals with the peculiarities of formation of competitive strategy of the enterprises of flour-milling branch of Ukraine. The paper substantiates the necessity to determine the stage of the life cycle of the industry in the process of formation of the competitive strategy. The market analysis of flour-milling industry of Ukraine is carried out on indicators: size of the market, commodity nomenclature, buyers and their behavior, raw material base and intensity of competition. The paper determines that the flour-milling industry of Ukraine is at the stage of growth and has a number of tendencies, such as: decrease in sales volumes, increase in export volumes, standardization of products and average level of competition intensity. The following stages of the life cycle of the industry are studied: introduction, growth, maturity and decline. The paper proves the necessity of distinguishing the stage of renewal in the life cycle of the industry, which is implemented on the basis of modern technologies. The practical significance of the research consists in developing recommendations for choosing a competitive strategy of the flour mill enterprise in accordance with the stage of the life cycle of the industry. The enterprises of the flour-milling industry of Ukraine, in accordance with the stage of the life cycle of the industry are recommended to form competitive advantages on the basis of the concept of "lean production".

Estimating competitiveness of Greek food and beverage industry: a comparison between Greek flour milling industry and Greek food and beverage industry

PurposeThe objective of this study is to estimate the competitiveness for both the Greek food and beverage industry as a whole and the flour and milling industry, justifying the certain economic factors and the way which these factors affect on it.Design/methodology/approachThe Greek food and beverage firms which published their balance sheets for the studying period were studied. According to the existing literature two equations were created and estimated as a simultaneous equations system.FindingsSummarizing the results both for the whole food and beverage industry and the flour milling industry are observed significant similarities on how certain economics factors such as profitability, market share, sustainable growth, age and operating costs affect on competitiveness as measured in this work. This may happen due to the high degree of concentration but also in the special characteristics which present both the Greek food and beverage industry and the flour milling sector.Research limitations/implicationsThe fact that this work referred only in Greek firms can be a limitation of this research, in spite of that it can provide useful and safe conclusions for the Greek food manufacturing industry.Practical implicationsThe provision of proposals for increasing firm competitiveness to managers as well as to policymakers.Social implicationsThe importance of food and beverage industry for the Greek economy as well as that the flour milling industry holds an important position in the Greek food and beverage industry makes the study of the competitiveness for both of them to be important from both an academic and research perspective.Originality/valueThe Greek food and beverage industry is the strength of Greek manufacturing and at the same time an important lever for the development of the entire Greek economy. The high quality products it produces and the organized promotion of its products in international markets are elements that give it an advantage and stimulate its competitiveness. The flour milling industry is one of the sectors in which there is intense competition and whose presence in terms of sales, turnover, employment and gross value is particularly important, so a simultaneous study of these cases is very important.

262 Fiber and Co-product Utilization in Pigs

Fiber is one of the four macronutrients that yield dietary energy for pigs (others are starch, fat, and protein). To yield energy, fiber must be fermented (primarily in the hindgut) by microbes producing volatile fatty acids (VFA). Price increases for traditional feedstuffs such as cereal grains and protein meals have stimulated the pork industry to consider dietary inclusion of fibrous co-products that are produced when grain is processed into human food, fuel, and bio-industrial products. High fiber co-products include distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS), oilseed meal, expeller, and cake, and co-products from flour milling. As omnivores, pigs are ideally suited to convert these non-human edible co-products into high quality food animal protein. Thereby, co-products can partially offset increases in feed cost provided their price is competitive per unit of net energy or digestible lysine, but also present risks and feeding challenges. Effects of feeding high fiber co-product may depend on diets being balanced for energy value or not. In weaned pigs, high fiber diets were thought to reduce feed intake, and thereby hinder energy intake during the energy-dependent phase of growth. However, such a relation is not solid across the spectrum of dietary fiber. Fiber characteristics play a role in gut health and early development. High fiber diets have lower energy digestibility and concurrent lower feed efficiency, but increased feed intake may maintain growth. In growing-finishing pigs, high fiber diets increase viscera mass, and thereby reduce dressing percentage. In restricted-few sows, fiber and produced VFA play a role in reaching satiety responses. In conclusion, depending on the price of high fiber co-products, high fiber diets may be part of a range of solutions to reduce the feed cost, and may thereby support economically-sustainable pork production.

THE MILL TRADITIONAL CRAFTS OF DAGESTAN: ETHNIC CULTURE, TERMINOLOGY

The article is devoted to the characteristics of the traditions of mill crafts in Dagestan, their development in the historical perspective. The topic is poorly researched. At the same time, there are valuable observations on the topic made by Dagestani ethnographers. Admittedly, "mill" adaptations and crafts appear with the advent of agriculture, and crafts using water mills begin to develop in the conditions of arable farming. The design of water mills with a horizontal turbine is considered an invention of the Caucasian peoples. Watermills in Dagestan in the conditions of mountain rivers have become widespread. Researchers attribute the emergence of such crafts in Dagestan to the beginning of a new era. Written sources about such mills belong to the middle of the XIV century. On the basis of linguistic (terminology) materials, we can make a cautious conclusion that initially watermills were widespread in the Dagestan foothills. Then they spread to the mountain zone. The mill industries of Dagestan can be divided into flour-milling, grain-milling, and production of oils, pastes (urbech) from fruit seeds (apricot seed oil was especially popular), cereals (flax, hemp), oilseeds (sunflower), vegetables (pumpkin), and others.In the past, if a river flowed near the village, water mills were actively built. They were in every village and often there were several of them. In addition to public mills, there were privately owned and owned by individual tukhums mills. Water mills in Dagestan "survived" until the end of the twentieth century. Presumably in EIGHTEENTH and early NINETEENTH century in the plains and foothill zone of Dagestan began to spread of water mills with a vertical turbine, borrowed from Russian. In the twentieth century, steam, electric, and windmills were also used here. Today, historic watermills are still used in a number of places to make traditional urbecha paste (oil) and rarely flour.

Control of the size and compositional distributions in a milling process by using a reverse breakage matrix approach

A method based on the reverse breakage matrix approach is proposed for controlling the effects that milling has on the particle size distribution and composition of the comminuted material. Applicability, possibilities, and limitations of the proposed method are tested on examples related to the process of wheat flour milling. It has been shown that the reverse matrix approach can be successfully used for defining the particle size distribution of the input material leading to the desired, predetermined particle size and compositional distribution in the output material. Moreover, we have illustrated that it is possible to simultaneously control both, input and output particle size distribution, together with the composition of the output material.

On the Use of Biobased Waxes to Tune Thermal and Mechanical Properties of Polyhydroxyalkanoates–Bran Biocomposites

In this work, processability and mechanical performances of bio-composites based on poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) containing 5, 10, and 15 wt % of bran fibers, untreated and treated with natural carnauba and bee waxes were evaluated. Wheat bran, the main byproduct of flour milling, was used as filler to reduce the final cost of the PHBV-based composites and, in the same time, to find a potential valorization to this agro-food by-product, widely available at low cost. The results showed that the wheat bran powder did not act as reinforcement, but as filler for PHBV, due to an unfavorable aspect ratio of the particles and poor adhesion with the polymeric matrix, with consequent moderate loss in mechanical properties (tensile strength and elongation at break). The surface treatment of the wheat bran particles with waxes, and in particular with beeswax, was found to improve the mechanical performance in terms of tensile properties and impact resistance of the composites, enhancing the adhesion between the PHBV-based polymeric matrix and the bran fibers, as confirmed by predictive analytic models and dynamic mechanical analysis results.