CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

Supply chain management (SCM) has become a defining concern of modern manufacturing enterprises, understood as the integration of key business processes from the end user through original suppliers that provides products, services and information that add value for customers and other stakeholders (Lambert & Cooper, 2000). The resource-based view (RBV) offers a useful theoretical lens for understanding why SCM matters for firm outcomes, holding that a firm can achieve sustained competitive advantage and superior efficiency when it possesses resources and capabilities, including well-managed supply chain processes, that are valuable, rare, difficult to imitate and non-substitutable (Barney, 1991).

Nigerian empirical evidence broadly supports the link between supply chain practices and firm-level outcomes. Oshodin and Omoregbe (2021), studying the Nigerian manufacturing sector, found that strategic supplier partnership, customer relationship management, information sharing and information quality significantly influenced both competitive advantage and organisational performance. More recently, Yadua, Nwoye and Ibrahim (2025), surveying supply chain personnel across seven listed fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) firms in Nigeria, found that sustainable manufacturing, reverse logistics, supplier relationship management and green packaging all had significant positive effects on organisational performance, with stakeholder satisfaction as the underlying outcome measure.

BUA Foods Plc, a subsidiary of the BUA Group and one of Nigeria's largest FMCG companies, was formed in December 2021 through the integration of BUA Group's sugar, flour, pasta, rice and edible oils businesses into a single entity, and was listed on the Nigerian Exchange Limited in January 2022. The company operates a vertically integrated model spanning production, processing and distribution across major industrial complexes in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kano and Kwara State, positioning itself to deliver value "from farm to table" (BUA Group, n.d.). Despite this scale and integration, BUA Foods' flour business, like the rest of Nigeria's milling industry, remains heavily dependent on imported wheat, with the BUA Group reporting that approximately 99 percent of Nigeria's annual wheat requirement of about 5.67 million metric tonnes is imported (BUA Group, n.d.), exposing the company's supply chain to foreign exchange volatility, shipping costs and global commodity price fluctuations.

This combination of large-scale vertical integration on one hand, and significant import dependency on key raw materials on the other, makes BUA Foods a compelling context in which to examine how specific supply chain management practices relate to organisational efficiency. It is this concern that motivates the present study.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

BUA Foods Plc has pursued a vertically integrated supply chain strategy intended to deliver efficiency and reliability across its sugar, flour, pasta, rice and edible oils divisions. However, the company's continued heavy reliance on imported wheat, reported to constitute approximately 99 percent of Nigeria's total wheat requirement (BUA Group, n.d.), exposes its supply chain to foreign exchange volatility, port congestion and global commodity price shocks, conditions that could undermine production continuity, cost control and delivery reliability regardless of the company's internal supply chain investments.

A further difficulty is that existing empirical evidence on the relationship between supply chain management practices and organisational performance in Nigeria's manufacturing and FMCG sectors has largely been drawn from cross-firm samples (Oshodin & Omoregbe, 2021) or pooled data across several listed FMCG companies (Yadua et al., 2025), rather than from a focused, firm-specific examination of a large vertically integrated conglomerate subsidiary such as BUA Foods. Consequently, it remains unclear which specific supply chain management practices, such as supplier relationship management, information sharing, inventory and logistics integration, or customer relationship management, most strongly influence organisational efficiency within a firm of BUA Foods' particular scale and import-exposure profile. It is this gap that the present study seeks to address.

1.3 Objectives of the Study

The broad objective of this study is to examine the relationship between supply chain management practices and organisational efficiency at BUA Foods Plc. The specific objectives are to:

1. examine the effect of supplier relationship management on organisational efficiency at BUA Foods Plc;

2. determine the effect of information sharing on organisational efficiency at BUA Foods Plc;

3. assess the effect of inventory and logistics integration on organisational efficiency at BUA Foods Plc

4. evaluate the effect of customer relationship management on organisational efficiency at BUA Foods Plc.

1.4 Research Questions

The study is guided by the following research questions:

1. What effect does supplier relationship management have on organisational efficiency at BUA Foods Plc?

2. What effect does information sharing have on organisational efficiency at BUA Foods Plc?

3. What effect does inventory and logistics integration have on organisational efficiency at BUA Foods Plc?

4. What effect does customer relationship management have on organisational efficiency at BUA Foods Plc?

1.5 Research Hypotheses

The following null hypotheses are formulated to guide the study:

Ho1: Supplier relationship management has no significant effect on organisational efficiency at BUA Foods Plc.

Ho2: Information sharing has no significant effect on organisational efficiency at BUA Foods Plc.

Ho3: Inventory and logistics integration has no significant effect on organisational efficiency at BUA Foods Plc.

Ho4: Customer relationship management has no significant effect on organisational efficiency at BUA Foods Plc.

1.6 Significance of the Study

Theoretically, the study extends the resource-based view (Barney, 1991) and Lambert and Cooper's (2000) process-integration conception of supply chain management to a large, vertically integrated Nigerian FMCG conglomerate subsidiary, complementing cross-firm evidence from Nigeria's manufacturing sector (Oshodin & Omoregbe, 2021) and FMCG industry (Yadua et al., 2025) with firm-specific, dimension-level findings.

Practically, the findings will assist the management of BUA Foods Plc in identifying which supply chain management practices most strongly influence organisational efficiency, thereby guiding resource allocation toward the most impactful improvements. Other Nigerian FMCG and manufacturing firms, investors evaluating BUA Foods as a listed company on the Nigerian Exchange, and policymakers concerned with food security and import substitution may also draw on the findings. The study will further serve as a reference for future researchers examining supply chain management and organisational efficiency in Nigeria's food manufacturing industry.

1.7 Scope of the Study

This study is delimited in content to supply chain management practices, measured through supplier relationship management, information sharing, inventory and logistics integration, and customer relationship management, and organisational efficiency, measured from the perspective of staff of the case study organisation. Geographically, the study is confined to employees of BUA Foods Plc at its corporate head office and associated operations in Lagos. The primary data will be collected through the administration of structured questionnaires, and does not extend to a comparative assessment of other BUA Group subsidiaries or other Nigerian FMCG firms.

1.8 Definition of Terms

Supply Chain Management: the integration of key business processes from the end user through original suppliers that provides products, services and information that add value for customers and stakeholders (Lambert & Cooper, 2000).

Organisational Efficiency: the extent to which an organisation uses its resources, including time, materials and labour, to achieve its intended outputs with minimal waste.

Supplier Relationship Management: the systematic approach an organisation uses to manage its interactions and partnerships with the suppliers of goods and services it relies upon.

Information Sharing: the extent to which relevant operational and strategic information is exchanged between an organisation and its supply chain partners.

Inventory and Logistics Integration: the coordination of stock management, warehousing and transportation activities to ensure the timely and cost-effective movement of goods across the supply chain.

Customer Relationship Management: the practices an organisation uses to manage and improve its interactions with customers in order to enhance satisfaction and loyalty.

Vertical Integration: a strategy in which a firm owns or controls multiple stages of its production and distribution process, from raw material sourcing to final product delivery.

Resource-Based View: a theoretical perspective holding that firms achieve sustained competitive advantage through resources and capabilities that are valuable, rare, inimitable and non-substitutable (Barney, 1991).

References

Barney, J. (1991). Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. Journal of Management, 17(1), 99–120.

BUA Group. (n.d.). Foods. Retrieved August 2026, from https://buagroup.com/foods/

Lambert, D. M., & Cooper, M. C. (2000). Issues in supply chain management. Industrial Marketing Management, 29(1), 65–83.

Oshodin, E. A., & Omoregbe, O. (2021). Supply chain management, competitive advantage and organizational performance in the Nigerian manufacturing sector. Journal of Romanian Business and Economics, 6(2), 57–68.

Yadua, J. C., Nwoye, M. I., & Ibrahim, U. A. (2025). Sustainable supply chain practices on organizational performance of selected fast-moving consumer goods companies in Nigeria. Journal of Information Systems Engineering and Management, 10(63s), 51–60.