Today its one of the Auk’s leading food retailers and part of the John Lewis partnership established in 1929. A company held in trust for the benefit of its employees and one of the top ten UK retail businesses, has over 185 Waitress Supermarkets and 27 John Lewis Department Stores throughout the I-J. Its policy has consistently been to deliver the highest quality of service for its customers and to that end the supermarket has invested heavily in its business to ensure it remains a top retailer.
Waitress has chosen a focused differentiation strategy targeting the market with a wide range of quality of fresh products and sourcing of fresh meat. Waitress has developed its own brands products which is important cause they give retailers high level of control of these products and generally have a higher profit margin. It has also specialized in the sale of fine wines, which hold a high profit margin. Major competitors include Tests, Sunburst’s, USDA Safety, Somerville and Marks and Spencer.
There are many internal and external factors within the Waitress, which affect the working culture and environment of the company. The Waitress business environment may be visualize in terms of layers, beginning with the instant internal environment within the organization, and moving outwards to the external environment surrounding the business and influencing its organization and operations. The external environment includes an array of dimensions, including political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal factors.
LAYERS OF THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
Making sense of an organization’s macro-environment(s) – Dry Thomas Difference. Both the internal and external environments reflect the strategic changes with respect to changing circumstances within the Waitress organization. The analysis of the external environment can be analyses by PESTLE framework, which categories environmental influences into six main types: political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal.
This is also known as ‘environmental scanning’. The PESTLE is a useful strategic tool for understanding market growth, decline, business position and potential operations which affect the organization over the long term. The results obtained can be used and implemented to take advantage of opportunities and to make possibility plans for threats when preparing business and strategic plans within the Waitress organization.
MACRO-ENVIRONMENT – POSTAL MACRO-ENVIRONMENT
- Political Government policy Foreign trade policy/regulations Taxation Social policy Planning policy EX. law (Competition) Economic Unemployment Interest rates Globalization
- Socio-cultural Social & cultural values Education Training Organic food supply Environment awareness Technological Industry Infrastructure (IT) Next-generation POS Transport Bar Coding and Stock Management Online shopping
- Environmental Energy Consumption Waste recycling Environment laws Legal Health and safety laws Consumer law Business law Employment law
Waitress need 700 million kiwi of gas and electricity to power its shops, offices, and its distribution operations within the U. K. Energy is also single biggest contributor of CO emissions, so they have renewable resources in most of there stores. By 2010 it aims to adopt in all of it stores.
OPPORTUNITIES THREATS
Expansion into the north-west Sale of Non-food products Mark four stores Retail Partnerships Increase number of services Marks & Spence’s & Deco’s Own Brands Overseas groups entering the market Manufacturers are still seeking to legally slow down the of penetration of own brands.
STRENGTHS: Waitress’s strong point refers to both internal and external customers. Strength is a “resource advantage relative to competitors (like Tests, USDA, etc) and the needs of the markets. It is a distinctive competence when it gives the Waitress a comparative advantage in the local or national marketplace. Strengths also arise from the resources and competencies available through its organization.
WEAKNESSES: Waitress’s weaknesses, not only from its point of view, but also more importantly, from customers. It may be difficult for the Waitress to acknowledge its weaknesses, as it is best to handle the bitter reality without procrastination. Weakness has its own “limitations”. The deficiency in one or more resources relative to competitors that impedes its own organization effective performance.
OPPORTUNITIES: Another major factor which determines how Waitress can continue to grow thin the marketplace. Opportunities are everywhere, such as the changes in technology, government policy, social patterns, and huge market and so on. Opportunity is a major concerned situation in a Waitress’s environment. The Waitress market share is only 4% compare to other retailers. By identifying the previously overlooked market segment, changes in competitive, regulatory circumstances, technological changes, and improved buyer and supplier relationships could represent opportunities for the Waitress.
THREATS: A threat is a major unfavorable situation in its organizational environment. Waitress has its own threats, but still it have to face them. The fact is that they are external factors that are out of our control. The threats can be from competitors where they mite reduce the cost margin to survive in this competition word. Waitress need to be prepared and face threats even during turbulent situations. Threats are key impediments to the organizations current or desired position. The entry of new competitors slows market growth and increases bargaining power of key buyers or suppliers, technological changes, and new or revised regulations could represent threats to a Waitress success.
SOOT analysis can be matched using internal and external factors of Waitress, which creates a strategic matrix. The internal factors are within the control of Waitress organization e. G. Personal, finance, marketing, sales, customer relations etc. The external factors are out of the Waitress control e. G. Political and economic factors, legal, technology, competition etc.
