Sales forecasting practices of Egyptian public enterprises: survey evidence

Abstract

The sales forecasting practices of Egyptian public manufacturing companies are reported on and discussed in this paper. The survey revealed the major drawbacks in conducting the forecasting function in Egypt. It shows that few qualified forecasting personnel are available and computers are not used in sales forecasting by most companies. Egyptian companies tend to prepare individual-products forecasts in both monetary and physical units; forecasting is mainly used for the domestic market, and they are reluctant to produce long-term forecasts. Egyptian practitioners are less familiar with the objective than the subjective techniques. The more statistically sophisticated the forecast technique, the lower reported level of usage. Both production planning and budgeting were the major area of use. The lack of top management support and the turbulence change of the company’s market were among the top sales forecasting implementation problems in Egypt. Some recommendations are provided to improve forecasting practices in Egyptian industry.