Impact Of Perceived Service Quality On Customer Satisfaction And Brand Loyalty
[A CASE STUDY OF HONEYWELL FLOUR MILLS PLC]

From the above table, it could be seen that Flour Mills of Nigeria Group has a total installed capacity of 6,690 metric tons per day. Dangote Group has an installed capacity of 3,500 metric ton per day and the Ideal Group has a total installed capacity of 2,720 metric tons per day.
Assume that all these mills are operating at full capacity. The current operations (in bags) per day (17980 x 0.78 x 20) bags =280, 488bags per day. That is, it is estimated that 20 bags of 50kg bag of flour will be obtained from a metric ton of wheat; assume an extraction rate of 78% for the main product and 22% for by -product (Wheat Offal or Bran).
For the purpose of this study, attempt will be made to use only two mills i.e. Honeywell Flour Mills and Lister Flour Mills as a case study. This is due to the following underpinning factors:
-    Time constraints for the submission of the project report.
-    Detailed information will be obtained from the 2 companies due to researcher's familiarity with the companies.
In all, attempt will be made to produce an objective report, which will serve as a true representation of the happenings in the Flour Milling Industry.
3.1.1     Honeywell Flour Mills Plc
Honeywell Flours Mills Limited is a quality market leader in the Nigerian Flour Milling Industry. The mill operates at 100% of its installed capacity and mill 1650 metric tons of wheat per day into "Honeywell Superfine Flour". Flour milling operations commenced in July 1998.
The factory is located within the Tin Can Island Port, Apapa, Lagos, Nigeria where proximity to the port allows an efficient bulk discharge from the vessel directly to the wheat silos by means of suction discharge and conveyors.
"Honey Superfine Flour" is well positioned in the market as a quality product for bread baking, and has gained respect and acceptability in the Nigerian market. Honeywell Flour Mills Limited, the producer of Honeywell Superfine, has very stringent quality control policy, covering all stages from wheat supply to the finished products.
The company monitors the quality of its product at every stage of the entire production process to ensure that the highest quality flour is produced. Thus, the company works in very close collaboration with producers or suppliers of raw materials, packaging and auxiliary material. The distribution network is also very closely monitored to ensure that Honeywell Superfine is delivered under the best quality conditions at all times.
The company produced the six best handling procedures of its product to all dealers and bakers in year 2001 to eliminate quality complaints.
In addition, external baking tests are carried out in six locations within Lagos on a daily basis to crosschecks in house comparative analysis report. All the mills basically often start with good quality wheat, but end up blending such wheat with other varieties of lower quality standard, which in the end steps down the overall quality of their finished flour.
However, Honeywell Flour Mills Limited is highly committed to producing consistently good quality flour all the year round with the use of only the best grade of wheat. For the total satisfaction of their teeming customers, Honeywell Flour Mills will never follow the "Joneses".
As part of the efforts to build longstanding business relationship, Honeywell Flour Mills Limited responds swiftly to customers' complaints.
-    Puts in place a customer friendly process and procedure
-    Involves in the totality of the customers business
-    Emphasizes professionalism in all transactions and dealings.
Honeywell Flour Mills Limited maintains an excellent Marketing Department through which the company extends top quality service to its numerous distributors and end-users. This enables them to respond promptly to any reported complaints by their customers. The milling plants are managed by quality trained and seasoned staff with proven knowledge of modern milling technology.
Honeywell Flour Mills is an expert on preventing problem rather than curing them. "For Honeywell does it well" at all times.
The ever-growing demand has led to two major expansion projects between 1999 and year 2001, which increased capacity from 200 metric tons per day to 650 metric tons per day.
"Honeywell Superfine Flour" has national coverage. Customers are located in the East, North, South and Western parts of the Nigeria. The customers are flour dealers as well as bakers.
Bran