Italian Paper

Are you looking to clock some case study practice? Check out this prompt and dive in to solve it!

Case Study Prompt

Our client is an Italian paper manufacturer.  They make high-end glossy and matte paper that’s used in corporate brochures and magazine ads for Gucci and Prada, etc.  It’s a commodity product.

They have one factory that produces 150,000 tons of paper a year.  90% of this is sold into the Italian market, which gives it about a 20% market share.  The other 10% is sold outside of Italy. The Italian market will continue to grow at about 10%. Germany and other Eastern European markets are growing at about 15%.

Your largest Italian competitor has 40% share. An international competitor has 10% and the other 30% is fragmented among small players. There are about 12 players and only 2 paper machine manufacturers in Europe. Everyone knows what everyone else is doing and nobody else is investing in additional capacity right now.

They would like to build another factory to produce another 150,000 tons a year.  This would cost $100 million.  They would like us to tell them whether or not this is a good idea.

Case Study Overview

In this case study, your client is an Italian paper manufacturer that would like to build another factory. They have come to you to help them determine if this is the best next step for them. It’s your job to dig into the market to find their best pathway to growth and give your findings with evidence to back them up.

Prepping for your first round interview with a little case study practice? We recommend using the Market Study framework for this case, but it’s to blend it with your own unique business experience to create a framework that will help this specific client.

There are no math exhibits in this sample case interview. The qualitative difficulty is 2 out of 4. It is an intermediate level case you would likely see in a Bain first round.