Some information were easy to find, while others not so easy. We divided the work between us, because we thought that this way each member will be more efficient. Of course, you drown our attention that the report should be a whole and all parts should be in harmony. We tried to harmonize our work as well. Introduction The first Prêt a Manger shop opened in London in 1986. Prêt, as they call it nowadays, was founded by two good college friends, Julian Metcalf and Sinclair Became. The name “Prêt a Manger” (ready to eat) was inspired by the French phrase “Prêt a Porte” which means ready to wear.
The two rinds with a degree in Urban Estate Management saw a gap in the market. City workers who went out to get a snack in the lunch break could either go to an independently run sandwich shop, unhealthy fast food or a supermarket where quality and service was very low. They wanted to change this, to avoid chemicals, additives and preservatives mostly as you could find in France: freshly cooked vegetables, an array of salads and regional cheeses, as well as filled baguettes, pastries, and the sandwiches.
The first Prêt a Manger shop served 7000 customers per week. The company’s mission statement can be mound on every shop window: “Prêt creates handmade, natural food, avoiding the obscure chemicals, additives and preservatives common to so much of the ‘prepared’ and ‘fast’ food on the market today”. The mission statement captures the unique reason why the company exists and describes about what is the company. We can deduct a commitment to their customers by offering them natural and fresh food every day.
By describing clearly their mission statement they managed to reach the target market and by displaying the mission statement in every shop reassures the customers that their purpose hasn’t changed and it is very important to them. However, they did adjustments regarding the changing eating habits of the people by introducing soups, sushi and cakes. This adjustment increased sales by 35% in 2003. Julian and Sinclair faced some difficulties when they decided to expand outside London so they appointed Andrew Role as a partner and chairman of the company.
Currently Clive Schlep is the CEO of the company. Prêt a Manger primary goal was to introduce an alternative to fast food, unhealthy, low quality food from the very beginning and it succeeded on many levels showing a consistent, unchanged mission over the years. It IS no ender that has become the Auk’s leading independent premium sandwich seller. Entrepreneurial context Entrepreneurship represents the capacity and willingness to develop, organize and manage a business venture along with any of its risks in order to make a profit.
Combined with land, labor, natural resources and capital it can produce profit. Entrepreneurial spirit is characterized by innovation and risk- taking and it is an essential part of a nation’s ability to succeed in an ever changing and increasingly competitive global marketplace. From a entrepreneurial point of view, Sinclair Became and Julian Metcalf started he business from scratch, which includes everything from idea conception to managing the company for the long term.
They chose to emphasize that they are a healthy food shop’s chain, their mission statement highlights its values, culture and ethics for being natural rather than being different. The success of the strategy that they adopted, consist in four factors. First of them is that their goals are simple, consistent and long term. They want to differentiate their products on the market by using natural ingredients and avoiding preservatives and obscure chemicals. Their sandwiches are freshly made wrought the day in each and every Prêt kitchen.
This is the fact what make prêt special is that they don’t buy from a big sandwich factory because they wanted to make people in the food business trust Prêt, so they spent years earning customers respect . The second factor is the profound understanding of the competitive environment. Their strategy is based on a deep and insightful appreciation of the context in which they are operating. To create a good strategy you have to take account about the competitive rivalry, prêt along with its natural products has an unmatched competitive advantage over its rivals.
Most of its rivals like Costa, Struck, EAT, KEF and McDonald’s don’t have any claims of natural ingredients or products . Even if they have similar products the quality is the one that makes the big difference be;en them and Prêt a Manger. The third element is represented by the objective appraisal of resources. Their strategy is effective because they are exploiting internal strengths, while protecting areas of weakness. Their partners are dropping off the very best ingredients to the shops every day, they don’t mind that good, natural food goes off quickly.
They don’t keep sandwiches, baguettes and wraps overnight. Prep’s food team meets every Wednesday afternoon to discuss our food and everything their customers have suggested. The only advantage for its rivals could be better recipes but Prêt a Manger team spend hours finding new healthy and tasty recipes, launching up to 20 new ideas each month, some of them are classic, some a bit weird and wacky. The hardest task is to ensure that the products are free from the endless additives that plague modern food. Suppliers have to go to great lengths to meet the fanatically high standards.
The last factor that stand out is the effective implementation, without this one the best-laid strategies are f little use. Critical to the success is effective leadership in terms of capacity to reach decisions, energy in implementing them and ability to foster loyalty and commitment among subordinates. The company must allowed effective marshalling of resources and capabilities and quick responses to changes in the competitive environment. In order to have qualitative products and excellent customer service as its trademark they implement a strict training and employee development, regulating its own standards.
They are following every day the products that weren’t sold and if the set targets for a particular ay are not met, they will not sell the same products the next day to avoid the waste of resources. They are committed to the highest feasible levels of animal welfare and environmental stewardship and they are answering fast at all news about the ecosystem that appear, for example, they removed tuna and cucumber sandwiches from stores after being shocked by environmental film The end of the line.
Prêt A Manger wants to offer quick and friendly service to each of its customers, aiming to serve each and every customer in a minute or less “Our commitment to quick and friendly service, coupled with he quality of our products, is why our customers come back time and time again,” said Andy Chalking, Group Director of IT . Efficiency was the reason why the company accepts contactable payments in the I-J: with contactable payments now accounting for over 40% of all transactions in its UK stores.
Prêt a Manger adapted fast at the new paying technology , being one of the first companies that implemented this system as a considerable factor in delivering a quick and convenient service to customers. Porters five forces A helpful and widely used framework, Porter’s five forces model will help us understand better the company from the point of view of competition and profitability. The food service industry is very large and there is a lot of variety food. Today we can easily find in our cities Mexican, Italian, Chinese food restaurants or restaurant chains.
It is exceptionally important to bring diversity in order to survive in the food service industry. Further, over the time changes in people tastes has occurred. They want to consume healthier foods and don’t want to waste their time by waiting half an hour for a meal. In order to understand better the industry you need to segment it and attach trainees to it. Your main aim should be to serve the most profitable customers. Prêt a Manger segmented the market and based on its target customers needs decided what to offer to them and how to be a valuable company.
Firstly, we examine Press position from the potential entrants point of view. The food service industry is pretty saturated. Of course new restaurants, fast food chains will appear, but Prêt is not afraid of the new entrants because Prêt entered the market with product differentiation and gain competitive advantage from this. The firm possesses the advantage of brand recognition and customer loyalty. Clients when hear about Prêt have a clear and fix opinion about their products and for new entrants it would be hard to compete against it. Ret managed to build economies of scale, while for a new entrant that would cause a problem, because they are faced with the choice of either entering on a small scale and having high unit cost, or entering on a large scale and having cost for underused capacity. The main source of economies of scale for Prêt is new product development. Regarding the distribution channels, Prêt is distributing its products in its own store. There are a lot of stores, so customers can easily find one on their way to org or near their homes.
While for a new company it takes time to build a functional distribution channel and they might be risk averse as well building more barriers to distribution. If we are talking about threats I will continue with the threat of substitutes. As we learnt, if there are close substitutes and products price increases, the Customers show more willingness to switch brand. Prêt is relying on the fact that they produce and sell freshly made healthy food, however there are more companies who do that.
In order to compete with the other companies Prêt tries to be involved not just in offering good quality food and exercising every day the company’s vision, but showing empathy, caring about people and environment and be sustainable. The bargaining power of the buyers is high because there are a lot of substitutes. Buyers are sensitive on prices and especially if they are loyal customers. They expect the same good quality of the food and by being a loyal customer can spot the increase of prices and they might feel unsatisfied.
Prêt should be careful and monitor its customers in order not to lose them and deliver value through their brand identity. Finally, the bargaining power Of suppliers is moderate, because Prêt works with local suppliers who are often small companies. “Prep’s suppliers have to go to great lengths to meet our fanatically high standards. Our wassail mustard is brown (not fluorescent green), our ham is pale (not bright pink) and our dried apricots are brownish (not orange). The list is endless but important. Do you have a friend or neighbor who makes delicious natural food? Anything from jam to sausages.
Please let us know or get them to call us. We are always looking for delicious, ‘out of the ordinary ingredients. ” Prêt takes an advantage of local natural DOD by getting reliable suppliers and keeping the high standards. Suppliers are important in order to maintain the quality that is why Prêt is so picky. The company knows, that people like local tastes so whenever it has the possibility it adapts. For example, it introduced hot food: hot wraps and soups. Strategic Business Units Strategic Business Units, or Subs, are organizationally complete and separate units that develop their own strategic direction.
They still report back to company headquarters but operate as independent businesses organized according to their target markets. They are often large enough to have their win internal organizational divisions. For companies organized along SIBS lines, such decisions are easier and result in a more efficient use of resources. It is clear when an JOBS is active in a growing or stagnant market and whether it is a market leader. Sables that are leaders in growing markets are assigned additional resources while those that lag in stagnant markets are shut down so that the company as a whole operates more efficiently.
Press JOBS are mainly the sandwiches, wraps, soups and drinks like coffee, tea and juices. Without these items the company wouldn’t exist and these are the elements which bring profit to the company. Corporate strategies Corporate strategy is concerned with where a firm competes. In order to identify the strategy Of the corporation we have to know the scope of the firm’s activities, so we are directing our attention to the range of product and market activities the firm undertakes.
Corporate strategy decisions include investment in diversification, vertical integration, acquisitions and new ventures; the allocation of resources between the different business of the firm; and divestment. In case of prêt a Manger the question “Why we exist? ” had a clear answer because Became and Metcalf knew their purpose will e to “create the sort of food they craved but could not find anywhere else the food has to be healthy, and the customer has to be served fast. After they set their objectives, Prêt a Manger had to decide which will be the scope of the firm, where they will compete.
The focus market is compose by employees who want to have a breakfast or a healthy lunch with hot food served quickly, students and workers in search of sandwiches well done and full of nutrients, companies that can order delivery menu in case Of a meeting or conference, but also passenger buyers who wants to taste the organic coffee or the natural juices. When discussing strategy a distinction is commonly made between corporate strategy and business strategy because the last one refers only at how the firm competes within a particular industry or market.
If the firm is to prosper within an industry, it must establish a competitive advantage over its rivals. For Prêt a Manger the key of success in the fast food and sandwich market was their care with which they choose suppliers in order to make products that are fresh, natural and have best quality. This is the way in which they survive and succeed on a market where the demand and supply increased dramatically over the past ten years. Their competitive advantage is unique and natural products that doesn’t need a lot of advertisement, the attractive packaging is enough because the attitude is “let the product speak of itself’.
Corporate strategic decisions encompass both the breadth of the firm’s product range, named product scope, and the extent of its involvement in the industry value chain which means vertical scope. The scope of a firm’s business is likely to change over time, some companies deciding to change their direction but others wants to involve deeply in the field that they chose and starts a vertical integration. Even if the retrial reach of business organization is a way of improving coordination and reducing risk, nowadays is preferable to outsource the firm.
This is also the way in which Prêt a Manger is thinking, over the years they build a strong brand by making and selling their food, juices and coffees, but they didn’t start to develop in other areas. Said in a clear way their work is based on finding reliable suppliers of raw materials, which have farms that comply with the rules of British livestock. They use British higher welfare chickens that are reared in purpose-built house with windows down each side to allow the trial light to stream in, also enjoying more space than the industry standard, giving them the room they need to move freely.
They also have straw bales and perches to play with to keep them fit and active. The Prêt Chefs are insistent about quality, provenance and traceability Of the ingredients they use, that’s why all beefs come from British farms, a good life for the cow means a better beef for the customers. The same high standards selection criteria are applied to vegetables, fruits, seeds, oils and coffee. None of the ingredients are transported by air. Then the activity moves into the facial prêt kitchens, there is made more than half of their food.
Every early morning is get a delivery of ingredients to the shops, from apples to wild crayfish, and chopping and slicing start, those involve a lot of work but it is very useful. The chefs make sandwiches, salads, baguettes and wraps by hand throughout the day. Making food by hand means that the chefs can ensure ingredient is at it should be, they carefully check the fruits and vegetables to make sure they don’t have any bruising or blemishes.
Then the products are sold by the strict trained employees and the feedbacks from customers are waited. Marketing of products is done through continual improvement and maintaining quality, which is generally through word of mouth. In terms of diversification this appears when the expansion of an existing firm into another product line or field of operation is realized. Diversification has two types related and unrelated. Unrelated diversification takes place when the additional product is very different from the firm’s core business.
Unrelated diversification is sometimes also referred to as conglomerate diversification, it occurs when a firm expands into a similar field f operation, this type of diversification is sometimes referred to as concentric diversification. In Prêt a Manger case none of related or unrelated diversification appear, they are developing the firm on a horizontal direction which involves movements into the same stage of production. Prêt strategic plan is not franchise their chain because they want to maintain their quality standards, that’s why they are taking care with the decisions about horizontal diversification.
When the brand got bigger, expansion plans come into question and new partners were needed to achieve successful growth. This is why in 2001 McDonald’s Corporation bought a 33 per cent stake in the company that gave Prêt access to their global infrastructure in property as well as improved construction and distribution and new ways of spreading the brand abroad. McDonald’s didn’t had any direct influence over what prêt sells or how it sells, it invested in Prêt because they liked what the chain does and they gain from the alliance.
In February 2008 Prêt a Manger was acquired by Bridgeport for an estimated IEEE million, McDonald’s also sold its shares. Julian Metcalf and Sinclair Became reinvested the money back in the equines, still holding around 25% of the shares and they kept the same management staff. Global strategies Global strategy mainly covers three areas: global, multinational and international strategies. It consists of those strategies that enable the company to achieve its objectives by expansion. The first question which rose in our mind is why would a company become global?
The main arguments are reaching scale of economies in product development, serving global customers and exploiting national resources. In case of Prêt a Manger the question of becoming global arose in 2000 when new entrants with high nominative pressure like Struck and Subway appeared. There was a need to expand to face the competition. In 2002 due to external factors the company identified good market opportunities and it decided to expand in ASSAI, Japan and Hong-Kong. From 2012 the company is having a logical expansion in Europe which is mainly due to profit.
The global strategy of the company is that it doesn’t offer franchise. This is mainly because the company wants to have control and low risks. Besides, it built a strong company culture over the years so it would be risky to ruin it. However, the company offers bestiaries, joint ventures and strategic alliances. As I mentioned in 2002 a heavy expansion of Prêt has started. Japan seemed to be a challenging but at the same time promising country. Studies showed that Japanese are conscious consumers with high purchasing power and spend usually 20% of their budget on food.
Unfortunately, entering the Japan market has failed. The company strategy was to create a joint venture with Japanese McDonald’s and opened 14 stores. Japanese McDonald’s decided to break the partnership so the shops were closed. In the same year, Prêt expanded in Hong Kong as ell where it gained success. They learnt from the Japanese failure and they started to adapt their foods to the local ones. Appeal to local taste was the main strategy. For the first time in Hong Kong you could find hot soups and hot wraps which were very popular.
The menu is different, but the values and corporate culture is the same. There are 14 shops in Hong Kong which enjoys success. In the USA the first shop was opened in 2000 in New York and the company’s main challenge was to get good suppliers and workforce. They made an expertise to see customer tastes and networks in food industry. It Was very important for them to analyze every single aspect because they could produce what customers want and have a high satisfaction as feedback from the clients.
For example, this way they found out that Americans don’t like mayonnaise in the sandwich as British people do. Prêt made an alliance with McDonald’s as well. It seems controversy that Prêt made alliance with McDonald’s thinking that they are selling opposite goods, but the truth is that they needed investors to be able to grow and develop globally. In the present, Prêt has more than 50 shops in USA from which 36 are in New York. A selective factor which had an effect on the company’s smooth growing was that from 2001 Aqua’s and Auk’s law system became the same.
HRS, financial and value offering Human resources Human resources management represents one of the most critical elements within company’s support activities. Only about five per cent of applicants are hired to become prêt a Manger member of staff, and recruitment process involves a general interview, as well as interview with local store manager (Williams, 2014) One of the unique elements of Prêt a Manger HRS practices relates to the fact the employee recruitment and selection process involves toting of employees about selection o f a new member of staff after a spending a day with team.
Prêt has a comprehensive library of training courses which are open to any employee looking to progress in their career, and these courses are matched to the skills gaps identified. The training courses vary tremendously, as there is as much available for the Team Member that wants to take on a Barista role, as there is for the young Head Office Manager wanting to learn about conflict resolution and how to coach rather than direct. From the company point of view Prep’s people are the single greatest asset. Press apprenticeship scheme – a program that seeks to help young people who, through no fault of their own, have ended up on the streets.
When these apprentices join our shops, almost invariably they are scared, lacking in self-belief, and with little sense of aspiration. There can be fewer more powerful motivators for the employees around them, than to be part of the support network that sees these vulnerable individuals blossom, and find stability in their lives once again. Value offering Prêt A Manger has long set the industry standard for fresh food with its careful choices among ingredients and additives and efforts to use local and organic products wherever possible.
This is what the company’s clients value the most. Financial Sandwich chain Pretax Manger has said it plans to create at least 500 new jobs in the I-J this year, as part of a plan to add 1 ,OHO new staff worldwide. Its announcement came as it reported sales rose 17% in 2012, to IEEE million. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization also jumped 1 7%, toted. 1 million. Sustainability Sustainability becomes a more and more important factor in the businesses and especially in large corporate companies where they have special budgets for CAR.
Sustainability is being able to endure and survive in an environment into the future. In terms of business, sustainability management is about incorporating social, economic and environmental factors into your business decisions. It involves placing an emphasis on future, long term goals for your business rather than focusing on short term profits. Unfortunately, the benefits of sustainability are often indirect, intangible and almost impossible to measure. These benefits include things like customer goodwill, brand, reputation and certainty of supply.
However, for some companies these sustainability strategies create competitive advantage. Now, let’s talk about Prêt a Manger sustainability management. Prêt cares deeply about sustainability and try to be consistent about this issue. First of all, they use organic and natural products and emphasis this aspect on every logo, posters, packaging and menu. An interesting strategy that Prêt uses, is that they don’t hide their sustainability reports on their website or lecture people about what should they do. The company shares its values and let the consumers decide whether they agree or not.
But as we know, consumers are skeptical about the values, views shared. Sometimes clients think that is just a lot of talk so Prêt needs to do some tangible, measurable sustainability projects. I found out, that the company donates all unsold sandwiches to charities and distribute them between homeless people in order to avoid waste. At the end of each day, Prêt restaurants offer their unsold food to dozens of homeless shelters in ensuring that their fresh natural food goes where it is needed and not into the bin.
The Prêt Charity Run now operates a fleet of electric vans that deliver over 12,000 fresh meals to numerous shelters for the homeless in London each week. The nature of the prêt equines and reputation of providing fresh food daily with a short shelf life means that there will always be some food left on the shelves at the end of each day. They also help vulnerable people to get on their feet and get employment. They have a foundation called Prêt Foundation Trust throw which they manage all the charity work.
Last year they raised over El -mm for the Prêt Foundation Trust and IEEE ,OHO of this was at Christmas. Workers are paid with more than the national minimum wage. They show interest in their clients as well and they are not afraid to share their sandwich recipes for customers to try them at home. Further, they replaced all plastic bags with recyclable paper bags and they use paper pots as well. Already in the 1 sass, they became the first retailer to replace the usual plastic sandwich containers with cardboard sandwich boxes.
In 2007, they reduced the number of plastic bags used by 24% simply by asking customers if they actually wanted one. For the company is important to deliver value to their customers and they are sure they can achieve this by giving high quality products. They express the provenience of their supplies, for example they use free-range chicken, grass- De beef in their products. They care about their customer’s health investigating not to offer just tasty, delicious fresh food so a lot of new salads and light soups were introduced, additionally, salt and fat were reduced.
They started to reduce their carbon and water consumption. Especially regarding to the carbon consumption they introduced bench marking, keeping energy consumption under control, also they changed some Of their equipments and of course changed the behavior of their staff making them understand how to use energy efficiently. Saving water is important as well, using equipment like rated taps, timers on urinals and efficient dishwashers helps them achieve their goal.
