Review of Coffeeville - Paper Example

Coffeeville is a chain of stores, which provides coffee, cold and hot gourmet food and beverages to their consumers. The store is located in the central business district of CBD. Consumers have testified to professionalism when it comes to the services in the store. The store is jointly by Rufus and Emma who are partners. The primary store was first opened in 2009, which has given birth to four branches that are in the CBD.

The primary store served the CBD for two years and gained its market share. Following this success, the store opens a branch in July 2012, which is a few blocks from the primary one. Subsequently, the partners opened the third in 2013 and the fourth in 2014, which are known to bigger than the first two. The business has been profitable in the last four years; however, it has since started to have some financial hiccups. Lately, the store's expenses supersede the profits, which translated to losses to the entire enterprise.

Identified Business issues and Problems

Relying on the information given, there are numerous issues and problems. The expenses are climbing while they are not making sales. In the external environment, the expenses on utility have been on the rise for the last one and half years due to price rises. Wages are on the rise since they have been hiring baristas. The rent for the four stores rose between 10 to in the past year and a rise is forecasted in 2016. Moreover, coffee beans prices fluctuated in 2014 and remained high until December that year. The prices went low again in 2015 but are forecasted to rise later that year. These fluctuations made the stores to raise their prices in the last year. In addition, red meat cost rose up to 20% in last 6 months and the store is considering increasing the meat-based dishes soon.

When it comes to the general trends, sales that were done 6 months into 2015 are low in every sale category and store. The food sale went down with 10%, Catering went down with 17% and the beverages dropped by 12%. When added to the appreciating expenses, the sales are low for the initial half of the financial year with 19%. The stores were also not left behind; Store 1 experienced foot traffic as low as 5%. Its sale is consistent, however, they are not growing as forecasted. The income is on the wing under the budget when profits are 10-15% lower in the budget due to the high level of expenses. Rufus and Emma are not wary of the situation yet since the budget anticipated money were based on 5% increase in profits.

In-store two the foot traffic dropped by 10%. Beverage and food sales have been steadily under the budget as from July to December timeframe with budget differences consistently appreciating. In addition, the external catering sales in the store have since dropped particularly from 21% percent registered in November to 23% registered in December, which is the best season for the store. In the last one and half years, catering had hit under the budget with the budget variance consistently increasing.

In store 3, there is a registration of 15% drop in foot traffic. Similar to store 2, beverages and food have hit under in the budget between the months July and December with the number one budget variance figures compared to other stores. The external catering trades have also been steadily hitting under the budget between the months July and December with the latter dropping by 16%. Catering has been hitting under the budget for a year in store 3 with a budget variance level on the wing between 13 and 16 %. Store 4, on the other hand, had its foot traffic rising with a small margin of 0.05%.

The beverages and food sales are 3-4% steady in hitting under the budget. On an average the external catering dropped with 5%, however, December was a good month and helped in meeting the budget. More a potential competitor will be opening 100 meters from the store come February 2016.The sales have been on a flat rate with no growth as anticipated for the store in the previous 12 months in spite of the advertising and promotional crudes in the remote area.

When we look at the financial year 2014 2015 in July the profit netted dropped to $48,158 from the last $77,037. Moreover, the financial year 2015 2016 in the month of July, the profit netted dropped to $43,108 from a previous $65,949. On the report of the budget variance of all store, there was a positive variance designates the percentage, which is above the budget and the negative figures show the percentage that is below the budget. Moreover, the enthusiasm in the loyalty club membership has since noticed a drop in members.

Information and Data Supporting the Conclusions

From these issues and problems, we will employ the accompanying tools in supporting of conclusions. We will employ the business and feedback performance data. We will also us the evaluation of the business issues and problems. We will not leave the data needed to race a decision behind. We will also gather and source related information. We will also put to use the test information for validity and reliability. Lastly, we will utilize not only the informal but also the formal networks.

The Analysis Chosen

The problem picked for this analysis is the current expenses that have been on the rise while the sales registered are dropping. We endeavor to identify and then evaluate this problem by reviewing the data performance. We will focus on the number of times the reviewing of data performance is being done and note the intervals at which the reviewing was done. We also look into the process of business formal review. Lastly, on the reviewing of the data performance, we will study the variances to find the major issues in the stores.

Secondly, we will examine the consumers feedback. We will do this with the help of surveys, where more often than not will leave fixed questionnaires on the table for the willing customers to fill in. We will take into account the direct contact with the consumers when the stores offer those services. Lastly, we will monitor their comment on the store's website and their testimonials just gauge their feeling of the stores. We will move to the staff whose feedbacks will be reviewed through; surveys, KPI and Focus groups. Since this problem is the first of its kind to interfere with the business operation of these stores, we should fix the issue one-step at a time.

Assessment 2

Review

Coffeeville is a chain store that was started jointly with Rufus and Emma in 2009. It started as a store in the central business districts of Melbourne and with time, three branches were opened in the CBD. The stores are known for their quality of their beverages and foods, however lately they have been having declining sales that are blamed on the expenses.

External Factors

As aforementioned in the assessment 1, the prices of the raw materials like the meat had skyrocketed in the years 2014 and 2015. The same was also seen in the coffee beans and this has led to the fluctuation in prizes that the store has been registering lately. The rent of the stores also went up due to the hard economic times. These entire external factors led to the losses that the company has been registering. Rufus and Emma should apply the following SMART objectives to help them get back on their feet. Currently, as it is, the expenses of the company supersede the sales; this is an indication that there is a bad business environment.

SMART Objectives

Specifics

The stores should adopt an array of menus that will increase their customers base. The store should focus on giving the market their staple food that will have many people coming over to eat in the different stores. The store should work on its advertisement and promotional activities. Preferably, the should start an advertising plan with a local newspaper and Television station. The store should be active in observing events such as Valentines Day, Christmas and other national holidays with their customers get a discount package from these days.

Measurement

By March of 2017, the company should have hired five people for each store who are equipped in making the local delicacies. This will follow the advertisement in the local newspapers and the Local Television that the stores will be incorporating local delicacies apart from the usual package that they offer. The advertisement will take 6 months a package that will give the stores a discount of 30% for the service. Every year the stores will be having unwavering offers on the holidays where the customers will be getting a 30% off for every meal that they buy.

Achievable

The company has skilled labor that can help in having these dreams to actualization. The company will retain its staff who will keep the previous menu running and employed another bunch who will be recruited to help in the making the local delicacies. Rufus and Emma as the managers of the company have the capacity to negotiate and get the best advertising deals from the media company. They can as well, work on the discounts on sales on the holidays.

Relevant

The store should realize that the one way to make sales is by introducing new products into the market to increase their clientele. It should advertise the new package for the purpose of creation of awareness. This way, the larger population will have interest in the companys new packages.

Time-oriented

The stores will recruit the 5 new employees, who will be working on the local delicacies, by the end Feb 2017. Subsequently, an advertisement will kick off at the beginning of march that will take a 6 month period.