Food and beverage is one of the fastest growing sectors in Egypt. With strong population growth, and increasing purchasing power and consumer sophistication, Egypt is one of the largest markets in the region for food and beverage products. During the last few years, local producers faced with growing competition, have had to re-engineer their businesses  to provide higher quality products and better packaging in order to be competitive both locally and internationally. This quiet revolution has made the food and beverage industry one of Egypt's more promising sectors for investors and  it has also proven attractive to foreign direct investment as the result of assets that are attractively priced following the recent decline in the local stock market and the depreciation of the Egyptian pound.

Egypt is one of the world's largest food importers, and volatile economic performance resulting from the fluctuating cost of imported raw materials, packaging components and spare parts for machinery has placed a strong focus on cost containment.

Business priorities now include the mastering of segmented channel management, operational excellence, new products to meet emerging customer needs quickly and efficiently, rapid demand management with less room for error, and expansion into global markets.  Furthermore, many businesses are actively seeking export opportunities to earn much needed hard currency. Food and beverage manufacturers must deal with raw materials that have different characteristics across consecutive batches, production processes that are inherently variable, and perishable goods with limited shelf lives, all of which can impact profitability, lock up inventories and create redundant capacity in supply chains. The latter must be streamlined for agility and higher efficiency as manufacturers seek to reduce working capital requirements by reducing supply chain inventory.

With global and local competition intensifying, and the peculiarities of the Egyptian market continuing to include extensive governmental regulations and immature distribution channels, the value of enhanced financial controls and improved operations may be critical to business success.