Kudler Fine Foods: An Overview
Kudler Fine Foods was established in 1998 and deals with food products. It has been growing and expanding steadily over the years and it now plans to diversify on its products portfolio. This is in addition to ensuring that the customers are being served effectively and efficiently (Atkinson, 2008).
The company is planning to improve on its catering services and open another store. This will be enabled by effective marketing and strategic changes within the company. By carefully studying the internal and external environment of the company, it will be possible to carry out a marketing campaign that will improve the competitiveness of the company in the market.
It needs to integrate modern technology with its operations to enable it reach out to many people through the internet and thus increase its market base. This will also make operations faster and efficient (Atkinson, 2008).
Main Aim of Draft Strategic Plan
The main aim of the draft Strategic plan for Kudler Fine Foods is to provide a framework for improving its catering services together with coping with the growth and opening of another store.
The first action in the formulation of the strategic plan is to re-draft the vision and mission statements to reflect the values of the company and make it relevant and competitive in the market. The vision will be focused on offering a variety of food products to cater for the diverse nature of the clientele’s culture. This change in vision will result in a corresponding change in the mission statement in order to pursue the new vision.
The second step will be a SWOT analysis of the firm. This will involve the review of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats in the industry within which the firm is operating within. This analysis will help in the drafting of new company values and aligning the same with the new vision, mission, objectives and goals as mapped out in the company’s strategic plan (Keizer, 2009).
A market analysis is required to determine the feasibility of expansion brought about by the opening of a new store. The expansion plan is the major part of the project. This will involve the marketing strategy and many other important aspects related to the new establishment (Alkhafaji, 2003).
This is the final step in the expansion plan. Once the new food store is established, the project will be considered as complete. The company will have a website through which it advertises all its services, in addition to a fan page on Facebook and MySpace. The different outside catering services and new outsourcing activities like mid-morning catering for tea and snacks will also be introduced (Lumbourgh, 2009).
The Vision
The vision statement should focus on the diversity of the clientele. This is given that the customers are mostly drawn from the working class, students and travelers. They all have different preferences; for example, the travelers will prefer take-away snacks, working class customers are likely to eat from the joint whereas the students fit in both categories.
The idea of outside catering also needs to be embedded in the vision statement to highlight Kudler Fine Foods’ prowess in providing outside catering services. This will directly affect the mission statement.
The values of the company include offering first class service to its customers and an established good customer relation. The cordial relations extend to the business environment to include the suppliers and community at large.
The employees of Kudler Fine Foods share a familial relationship. Innovation and diligence amongst the staff will be highly rewarded. This should be maintained at all times to foster a working environment conducive for invention, innovation and a productive working culture.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
- A competent management team which is self motivated.
- A positive track record in the community.
- An established and wide customer base.
- Growth in corporate clientele base.
- Competitive advantage over other food stores because of the variety of foods offered.
- Location in the Central Business District.
- Extensive sitting space which can accommodate a large number of customers.
Weaknesses
- Inadequate members of staff.
- Increased operation costs, for example electricity and license fees.
- A financial management system that is prone to errors.
Opportunities
- Provision of services on a twenty-four hour basis since the bus companies in the vicinity have buses arriving and departing late in the night and at dawn.
- Increase in the number of events organizing companies providing opportunities for outside catering.
Threats
- Market is very sensitive to price fluctuations.
- New competition in the market from new establishments.
- Lack of enough experienced staff.
Market analysis
Improvement of Kudler Fine Foods’ stores is included in the plan for expansion and restructuring of the company to deal with the competition in the market. In order to successfully capture customers’ preferences and needs, a market analysis will be carried out for a period of two months.
This is in order to analyze customer satisfaction, needs and experiences that will help determine the scope of operations in the new store (Alkhafaji, 2003). The new foods’ store will be four streets away from the parent store and will be named Kudler Fine Dishes.
It is targeting clients drawn from the establishments on the other side of town, clients interested in subjecting their palates to nice food. This will take the services near the client in addition to attracting new clientele. Kudler Fine Dishes will have a new look. Branding and enhancement of staff appearance will also be carried out.
Training on members of staff will be carried out to improve customer relations and management skills amongst all the new and old members of staff. This is in line with previous feedback on the conduct and quality of services provided by staff.
An analysis will be carried out to discern different food preferences during different hours of the day. It will also include gauging the perception of new services, for example outsourcing to a different company the mid morning catering services. The new establishment will have a smaller sitting capacity.
The project is feasible and Kudler Fine Foods is in a position to successfully implement the project of opening a new food store. This feasibility statement is aimed at highlighting the position of the management on the project and the unanimous acceptance of the same.
The new food store is scheduled to open in five months’ time and its operations will start immediately.
Success Factors for Implementing the Plan
- A strong financial base
- A competent and focused management team
- Self motivated and hardworking staff
- Pre-amble planning and analysis of the project
- A wide client base
- A positive track record in catering services
Budgetary Allocations
Risk Management Plan
The risk management plan is a detailed guide on how to deal with risks involved in a project or venture. The management team is well organized under the leadership of a project manager. The latter has allocated the role of risk management to one of the team members. The risk manager is responsible for the identification and analysis of all risks involved in the project. Some of these risks are as identified below:
- Failure of the new food joint to capture the market as anticipated
- Risk of the food joint making losses in the initial stages and failure of recovering capital during the envisaged period of time
- There is also the risk of the project requiring more capital than budgeted for
There is a contingency plan for any of these risks in case they occur. This is in form of money set aside and factored in the budget. The contingency fund will cater for any risks in the event they occur (Keizer, 2009). Contingency plan is put in place to reduce the chances of a risk occurring and to mitigate the effects of the same when it occurs.
In this case, the strategy put in place to counter the risk of failing to capture the market as anticipated is effective advertising before and after the opening of the new food joint. This was a plan put in place by having the Kudler Fine Foods joint create a fan page on the social networks identified earlier. This enhances its popularity even in far flung localities. The opening of a new store will be highly publicized (Keizer, 2009).
Conclusion
Offers will be put in place, creating an attractive package for the customers. This is for example a free glass of fresh fruit juice for the customer after a meal. This will further publicize the joint, and the risk of failure to capture the market will be reduced. Kudler Food Store can use this draft of a strategic plan to enhance its appeal to the public and in the long run, open a new store to finalize its expansion plan. The plan addresses the main issues, although it lacks in finer details.
References
Alkhafaji, A. F. (2003). Strategic Management Formulation, Implementation and Control in a Dynamic Environment. New York: Haworth Press.
Atkinson, A. (2008). Market case study. Web.
Keizer, M. (2009). Supply chain risk management. Web.
Lumbourgh, H. K. (2009). Sample strategic plan. Web.