The Unit Economics of Brick Making

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• Overview & contents
• i. Important Notice and Basis of Preparation
• 1. Executive Summary
• 2. The Unit Economics of Brick Making
• 3. Market Analysis
• 4. Products and Positioning
• 5. SWOT and Competitive Position
• 6. Site, Plant and Production
• 7. Route to Market and Sales Strategy
• 8. Regulatory, Environmental and Quality Compliance
• 9. Management and Organisation
• 10. Capital Requirement and Funding
• 11. Financial Projections
• 12. Break-Even Analysis
• 13. Debt Service and Working Capital
• 14. Investment Returns
• 15. Sensitivity and Scenario Analysis
• 16. Value Creation Levers
• 17. Risk Management
• 18. Implementation Timeline
• 19. Conditions for Success and Exit Options
• 20. Key Performance Indicators
• 21. Key Assumptions
• 22. Conclusion
• A. Appendix A: Consolidated Financial Summary
• B. Appendix B: Capital and Depreciation Schedules
• C. Appendix C: Funding and Debt Schedules
• D. Appendix D: Risk Register
• E. Appendix E: Glossary

Everything in this plan follows from the economics of a single unit. A concrete masonry unit is cement, aggregate, water and compaction — and cement is by far the most expensive ingredient.

Two structural facts emerge. First, cement is roughly 43 per cent of material cost across the range, and is bought from a concentrated supplier group with limited negotiating room for a small producer. Cement price movements pass almost directly to the bottom line, which is why the sensitivity analysis in Section 15 treats cement as a primary risk rather than a routine input.

Second, the margin ranking is the inverse of the volume ranking. The stock brick — the highest-volume, most-requested product — returns 28 per cent while the M190 hollow block returns 43 per cent. The reason is geometric: a hollow block uses roughly 4.9 times the material of a stock brick but sells for 6.2 times the price, because it replaces several bricks in a wall and saves the builder mortar and labour.

2.1 The correction that matters: margin per unit of capacity

Materials alone consume roughly two-thirds of revenue, and cement alone 29 per cent. That is the defining feature of the cost structure and the reason a bulk cement supply agreement is treated as a condition precedent rather than a procurement preference.