VRINE Certification
Effective use of the resources of a company is critical to the enhancement of its profitability. The key resources being utilized for current operations at the Prince Edward Island Preserves Company are its diverse products. The company offers a wide range of products that range from preservatives, vinegar, honey, tea and mustard. All these products are repackaged.
Evaluation of the resources using VRINE model shows that these resources allow the company to meet its market demands and protects it from the uncertainties of the market. Some of the products such as strawberry jam occupy approximately fifty percent of total demand for the jam product in the entire market.
For the company to meet this demand, it is planning to introduce more varieties of the product to diversify the preferences of their customers (Beamish, 2003).
The products produced by the company can also be classified as rare since the jam products it produces surpasses the quality of any jam product produced anywhere else. This is due to its high fruit content and the champagne or liquor touch. This makes the resource scarce relative to demand.
Due to the uniqueness of the products, other competitors who produce the same products find it difficult to imitate the products or substitute it with other products that give out the same benefits. The company is also able to exploit the resource. The resources of the company are therefore, VRINE-certified for competitive advantage (Barney, 1995).
The Prince Edward Island Preserves Company has been increasing the competitive edge of its resources through increasing the fruit content and adding champagne, whisky and liquor into the jam products. This makes their products unique hence increasing their demand. The company has also increased the appeal to its products by giving out a gift package consisting of different products.
SWOT Analysis
The company has a mixture of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Its strengths are shown through its unique production techniques that make its products to be of high demand among the diverse customers. This has made the company to enjoy outstanding rates of growth as the sales increase substantially every year for the six years it has been in operation.
The company’s weaknesses may be seen in the ever increasing prices of its products. As much as it has not affected the sales yet, it is dangerous for the future of the company. The opportunity that the founder of the company realized was that the company could actually present the strawberries in Prince Edward Island as a food product that would meet the world-class standards.
One of the threats that the company faces is the possibility of losing quality staff due to its seasonality in terms of employment. Some employees, including those in management positions, worked for the company only on a seasonal basis. High rates of employee turnover are detrimental to the growth and development of any organisation.
Bruce MacNaughton has been contemplating future growth of the company, two cities were lingering in his mind; Tokyo and Toronto. He was wondering whether the customers of both cities could be pursued and what means could be used. The area that Bruce is to major on is the use of mail order to reach those people. This way, they would receive the products as parcels and not necessarily need to go to the stores to get it.
Having company control stores in properly cited location would not be such a bad idea either since it would ensure that all customers could access the area easily due to proximity. The use of distributors is also a good way of ensuring that many people are reached.
Resources representing core and distinctive competencies
For a resource to be a core competency, it must meet three conditions. First, it should not be easy for other competitors to imitate. Second, it should ensure customer satisfaction after use. It should also be possible to apply it to many other products and markets. One of the uniqueness of the Prince Edward Island Preserves Company includes the way it produces some of its products.
The ingredients in the jam products are unique to this company and it has ensured a strong consumer base that yearns for an extra tin of jam. The company also has a good working environment and has high morale-what every employee wants in a workplace. These will be very useful as the company considers future growth and success.
Evolution of PEIPC
Prince Edward Island Preserves Company started as a small company which marketed specialty food stuffs only. Later on, Bruce MacNaughton, the founder and major shareholder, saw it wise to seize the opportunity and make high quality food products from strawberries. This went well and the company made more than $ 1million from sales the following year. This was not such an easy task, however (Beamish, 2003).
Six years later after the company was founded, it opened a retail branch which was expected to expand visibly. Earlier on, the company had diversified by opening a restaurant that continued the theme of quality that the company practices and was a great success that later expanded substantially.
In the evolution of the company there is enough evidence to show that the company is experiencing steady growth and if this trend is maintained and the other weaknesses and threats to development eliminated, the company is likely to experience steady growth. The resource requirements for the new market options under consideration include a permanent staff.
The company has been employing some of the staff at seasonal basis and this is a threat to the future of the company since employees are not guaranteed of a secured constant salary. The company should therefore, consider employing permanent staff and select employees who are qualified and result-oriented.
Conclusion
Prince Edward Island Preserves Company is a company that started small but grew steadily to reach great heights due to the strategies that it employed. The strong company base that exists at the moment is attributed to the efforts of the company to maintain its theme of high quality and service.
The future of the company is secure since the trends of growth are steady. If the company deals with some of its weaknesses and seize every opportunity, it would grow substantially and get international recognition.
Recommendations
As part of the evaluation team, I recommend MacNaughton to consider employing all its employees at permanent basis to ensure that it provides morale to its workers and a good working environment. Providing permanent employment to its employees will help the company maintain a team of best quality staff. Such offers would also attract other qualified employees due to the guarantee of employment at permanent basis.
I would also encourage MacNaughton to maintain the prices of its products at reasonable levels to ensure that it maintains its customer base that it has established over the years.
As much as it has continuously maintained its customer base even after introducing a 10 percent increase in the price, it is important to know that a wide range in price between their products and those outside might lead the people to think twice and reconsider their options in terms of purchases.
Fig 1 Total Assets Turnover Ratios
Fig 2 Profit Margin, Return on Assets (ROA) and Return on Equity (ROE)
References
Beamish, P. W. (2003). Prince Edward Island Preserve Company. London: Ivey Publishing.
Barney, J. B. (1995). Looking inside for competitive advantage. Academy of Management Executive. 9(4), 49-46.