Pallas Pharma: This Market Size Looks Too Big

Consulting
hard35 min0 submissions
Goldman Sachs
Scenario

A junior consultant has sized the annual replacement market for a household appliance in US. The number is being used to justify a $95 M capacity investment.

Their working, verbatim

Population is 260m. Average household size is 3, so there are about 87m households.

Penetration of this appliance is 20%.

Appliances are replaced every 4 years.

So annual replacement demand = 260m × 20% ÷ 4 = 13.0m units per year.

At $1700 per unit, that is a market of roughly $22,100 M a year.

The partner has asked you to check it before it goes in the deck.

Supporting data

derived hints

corrected units m
4.3
overstatement multiple
3

stated working

households m
87
population m
260
household size
3
price per unit
1700
stated units m
13
penetration pct
20
replacement years
4
Your task

Check the estimate. Your answer should provide:

  1. Analysis — find the error and quantify how much it distorts the answer.
  2. Risks — what depends on this number being right.
  3. Recommendation — the corrected size, computed, and how you would sanity-check it.

State any assumptions you make.

Ready to move forward? Up next: Marlow Chemicals: Pressure-Test This RecommendationNext question
How you'll be graded

100 points, 60% to pass.

  • explanation20
  • residual review15
  • error identification35
  • quantitative correction30
Hint
Reveal suggested structure

Unit consistency; households vs individuals; recompute; sanity-check against a known anchor