Executive Summary
Health First Delicatessen (HFD) is a small eating establishment focusing on selling delicacies made from organic ingredients that are nutritious, healthy, and affordable to the busy customers in Astoria, New York. The deli shop will be a small scale eating and to-go food establishment that offers a combination of processed foods, sandwiches, salads, lunch packs, and other unique food choices for the patrons of organic foods. The key to success of HFD will be repeat customers, convenience, product healthiness, great quality, and taste. Entering into the food industry is not easy considering the number of other food establishments located within the Astoria area. In addition, there are a large number of substitutes that offers the same products for equal price range, but with a more powerful brand. In order to overcome the challenge, HFD will acquire the most strategic location within the Astoria area that has the highest concentration of foot traffic day and night. In addition, the price of the products was made more competitive as compared to the usual organic substitutes. The location is an upscale area comprised of offices and high-end residential areas with high concentration of health conscious market. It was estimated that HFD would have an annual sales of $250,000 and targets an average of 5% increase in sales in the next three years including a healthy cash flow.
Mission
Based on the product niche, Health First Delicatessen’s menu follows a differentiation strategy where unique organic delicacies are being served to health conscious customers.
Objectives
The Health First Delicatessen seeks to achieve success based on the following:
- Self-sufficiency and steady cash flow by the end of its first fiscal year
- Achieve return of investment including full repayment of financing obligations by the end of the second year.
- Total sales of at least $250,000 by the end of its first year
- Achieve total sales of at least $262,500 by the end of its third year
Business Summary
The HFD is the brainchild of its founder’s mission of serving healthy food and having his own business.
Start-up Summary
The cost of start up was drawn primarily from financing resources indicated in Table.1. The initial investment will come from borrowed capital from friends and family with no interest and payable within two years at an amount of $20,000. In addition, a personal savings of $10,000 will be added to the capital together with a bank loan of $30,000 guaranteed with personal assets.
The Health First Delicatessen will be located at the corner of Broadway and Steinway St. in Astoria, New York. The facilities will include a 25-seatign capacity dining area, a counter front, outdoor tables with umbrella, and a backroom to store stocks, refrigerators, ovens, and stove.
Company Ownership
At its starting stage, HFD will be under a sole proprietorship registered under a fictitious name of Health First Delicatessen. The business will move up to the next stage of ownership as an incorporated business within the next three years depending on the business performance and conditions as they occur.
Products and Services
Health First Delicatessen offers a wide range of menu items from breakfast, lunch, snacks, fresh, cold cuts, processed foods, drinks, take-out dishes, and other fresh organic food items. The breakfast menu is consists of various sandwiches made from whole wheat bread, cold cuts, organically grown veggies, and home made dressings. There will be also wide variety of salad dishes such as Greek, Italian, Caesar, Maury Island, and Watercress salads with ingredients entirely from organic farms. The processed foods is consists of sun dried organic tomatoes, sandwich spreads made from fruits with no added preservatives, fruit cocktails, yogurt, cheeses, whole wheat breads from a partner bakery, organic fruits, vegetables, and vegetarian cold cuts.
Competitive Comparison
The competition is vast for HFD considering that in the aspect of selling organic foods, there are about four main competitors in the Astoria area namely Broadway Natural, Sai Organics, Vitality and Health Market, and Queen’s Health Emporium. In addition, a Whole Foods supermarket is also competing for organic food products within a close proximity of Astoria. Furthermore, there are several other food shops, cafes, restaurants, and fast food joints are operating in the area making difficult to attract new customers to try organic and healthier choice meals.
Sales Literature
Primarily, HFD will focus on distributing flyers through mail and promotional advertisements will be broadcasted through the HFD Facebook page, Pinterst, and Twitter account. The information included in the advertisement is comprised of menu items, price and phone number for order pick-up.
Market Analysis
HFD targets three specific markets:
- The working class or the people working during the day within the trading area considering that the business location is within a downtown area
- Walk-in customers looking for convenient, yet fresh late lunch or snack meal, and or people shopping for organic ingredients for cooking
- Families looking for a quick take-out meal to take home at the end of the work hours
The aforementioned market segments are mostly the working class with the Astoria area who are looking for a quick and healthy snack, lunch, or breakfast. In addition, the growing health conscious population is looking for the healthiest choice foods that are both convenient and affordable.
Marketing and Promotion Strategy
The marketing strategy for HFD is mostly social media based. The immense popularity of the social media platforms will be used to communicate the existence of the business. Furthermore, the scope of advertising possibilities through social media is vast, that the delivery of the promotional messages is instantaneous. HFD is leveraging on the market segment that is considered as the population within the age range of active social media users. In terms of promotion, HFD will have a grand opening party with invites sent personally through private message using Facebook and Twitter. Discount cards of up to 50% off will be posted through the Pinterest account. Monthly contests through Facebook will be also launched to drive awareness and interest about the products that HFD offers.
Milestones
The table below provides the important milestones indicating the implementation and planning stage before the opening of the Health First Delicatessen.
Sales Strategy
Fast and friendly service is among the important focus of HFD because with efficient service that the brand would be able to establish its position in the market as the best provider of not only quality products, but also quality service. Secondly, HFD emphasizes the importance of repeat business and in order to achieve a consistent customer traffic, customer loyalty will established through the first strategy, which is excellent and friendly customer service. Lastly, product quality is equally important. Therefore, HFD will make sure that all its products uses only true organic products that are fresh and of excellent condition.
Conclusion
Health First Delicatessen aims to provide a sales forecast, but early expectations without the essential start-up activities taking place will only render the projection incompatible with the realistic sales data. Therefore, the sales forecast will be made upon experiencing the first month after the formal opening of the store. HFD is aiming to introduce a new way of eating healthy by choosing only the organic ingredients. Furthermore, the business will rely on the current trends on eating habits based on the rising health-conscious consumers.
