Introduction
Social Super Market will be a business enterprise with far reaching benefits for the society. The purpose of the business to snatch away the business share from the large superstores and the hypermarkets that are taking hard earned income from the customers to fill the pockets of the shareholders. The social supermarket will focus on providing the grocery items, organic vegetables and fruits to the customers at discounted rates. The social supermarket aims to mobilize the local resources in its operations. The organic vegetables and fruits will be grown locally in Glasgow and carried to the supermarket for selling. The local workforce will be employed. In this way, the money will remain within the society. The products and services offered by the Social Supermarket will be
Organic Vegetables
Organic Fruits
Home Cleaning Products
Refills of the products at discounted rates
Meat and Butcher Items
Bakery
Health and Beauty Products
Current Position
We are working on the idea of the social supermarket for quite some time now. The business has not started yet. It is in idea generation phase. The number of superstores working on the similar concept is scarce. People mostly turn to the hyper stores and the large retail businesses for their needs. These retailers are selling local and international products. The objectives of these retail stores are the profit maximization of the shareholders who have invested in the business. These stores on average pay 5% back to the society in the form of the wages that are given to the employees. Our business will be returning 62% back to the society in the form of the supplies sourced from local partners, wages and the economic benefits are given to the society. The concept of the social supermarket is in the introductory phase of the lifecycle. However, the retail industry sits in the growth stage of the business lifecycle (Bolton and Foxon, 2013).
Competitive Advantage
The strength of the large retail stores operating in the industry is the financing at their back. These are backed by the powerful venture capitalist and the investors. However, their weakness is that they are only involved in competitive selling, and their prices are market determined. These prices are higher than the prices of the products of the social supermarket. It is the competitive advantage of our business. It will be providing products at lower prices to the customers. The target market is the lower income class of Glasgow. Those people who are on the social support or unemployed including the local and foreign students. The presented business model is sustainable as it mobilizes the local resources. It will create employment benefits as well as offering products of daily needs at lowered prices (Reisch, Eberle and Lorek, 2013).
Business Strategy
Vision
The vision of the Social Supermarket is given below:
“Our vision is to create a social enterprise that offers alternative buying network to the consumers for their needs. The enterprise will be a sustainable entity operating on the values of community building and societal cohesion.”
Mission
The mission of the Social Supermarket is elaborated below:
The mission of the business is to provide the grocery and food products at lowered prices by sourcing the supplies ethically taking into consideration the environmental impact of the products sold. The business will challenge the large retail businesses that are stealing the people’s income. We are committed to promoting the local producers to offer the highest quality and fresh products
Social Mission
The Social Supermarket has a social mission of challenging the status quo of the industry for the greater good of the masses. The business will source from the local producers growing the organic foods. The sourcing will be entirely from local producers promoting the local food industry. The ethical and conscious sourcing of the products will enable the firm to offer the products at discounted prices to the people deserving. The business will operate on the membership basis, and only those people will be given memberships who are on income support and unemployed (Hill, Jones and Schilling, 2014).
Aims
The aims of the Social Supermarket are listed below:
Bringing closer the suppliers and the buyers from the local community
Operating on the values of the social payback
Carefully selecting the suppliers
Promoting the health awareness and the use of the organic foods
Offering daily use products to the customers at discounted rates
Objectives
The SMART objectives of the firm are listed below
Values
The core values of the business are protecting the environment and protecting the society. The retailers waste a lot of food and grocery items on a daily basis due to the excess orders. These items fill the landfills and are increasing the pollution. The retailers are wasting the food that can be utilized to fight the food poverty. On the other hand, they are charging in excess to the customers are bagging profits for their shareholders. In this way, both society and the environment are paying the price. The values of the Social Supermarket will enable us to save the surplus food by partnering with the retailers. It will be sourced at lower prices and then sold to the low earning income groups. It will save the society from the food poverty and the environment from the waste pollution (Hill, Jones and Schilling, 2014)
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
The strengths of the Social Supermarket are listed below:
The lower prices than the competition are the major strength of the business
The social support will strengthen the brand image as the firm aims to pay back to the society
The environmental protection will enable the business to get support from the local and international NGOs
Weaknesses
The weaknesses of the business are given below:
The concept of the organic food is new to the people, and it will require a lot of effort for creating the awareness. The awareness will be created through the advertising campaigns run on the social media
The local suppliers of the organic food aim to maximize their profits. There will be hurdles in negotiating with the suppliers over the prices. One solution is to fund the local growers to attract towards the organic farming. A contractual arrangement with the farmers can decrease the supplier power.
The surplus food sold at the social supermarket may lead to the misconception that the products are of lower quality. The advertisements will be aimed at increasing awareness that the surplus is sold in the store to protect the environment
The investment required for the operations is huge. The business idea will be pitched to the social enterprise business competitions. The community support will also be seek
Opportunities
The opportunities for the Social Supermarket are given below:
The growing size of the retail industry
The increasing unemployment is an opportunity as it increases the potential customers.
The legislation regarding the environmental protection will decrease the power of the retailers
Threats
Changes in the policy framework and legislation regarding organic food will be threat
The increasing competition from the local retailers
The increasing tax rates may prove a threat to the profitability of the store.
Marketing
Markets
The target market is the low-income households and individuals living in Glasgow. The aptitude of the people is to save money as they are already on the income support program, struggling with the careers or are either student. The saving aptitude of the people will be served by our business (Hair and Lukas, 2014).
Brand
The values of the brand are protecting the environment and the society. The tagline of the Social Supermarket will be “FOR THE SOCIETY, ENVIRONEMT AND PEOPLE.” The tagline says it all and clearly gives the message that business is committed to serving the society by offering discounted products and protects the environment by reducing the waste pollution
Market Research
The secondary data from the governmental sources and census data has been utilized in the market research. The market study suggests that there are nearly 250000 households in the Glasgow area with their income lower than 40,000 pounds on an annual basis. These households have on average 2-3 members. Moreover, there are around 500,000 students in the area studying at various institutions. 15 percent of these people are international students living on their own. These are the potential customers of the firm (Taulbut and Walsh, 2013).
Reaching Market
The potential customers will be reached through the extensive marketing efforts. The gorilla marketing strategy will be employed in the market penetration. It will involve following initiatives
Running TV ads on local television
The promotional memberships in the first quarter of the operations
Maintaining a website of the company
Increasing community involvement through various social events
Social media marketing of the company
The budget dedicated to the marketing activities is 10000 pounds in the first year. The evaluation of the ROI will be made on a yearly basis by measuring the captured customers against the listed objectives (Hair and Lukas, 2014).
The Team
The People
The core team members will be four monitoring the core functions of the business. Mr. John will handle the Sourcing and the Marketing efforts and will manage the marketing department. Ms. Andrea will manage the finances of the business and will be responsible for the financial planning. Mr. Kaleem is a lawyer and will handle the legislative and taxation matters. Mr. Arura is the CEO and the guru behind the idea. He will control the entire business operations, and all other members will be reporting to him
Management Structure
The horizontal management hierarchy will be employed in the company. The individuals mentioned above will undertake the vital operations of the business and will make the decisions in their capacities. These will be the head of the departments reporting to the CEO. The strategic decisions will be made through the mutual votes of the team members (Hill, Jones and Schilling, 2014).
Legal Issues
The legal issues encompass the tax and VAT regulations and the human resource laws. The tax filings will be dealt by the in-house lawyer and accountants mutually. The hiring process is outsourced, and the human resource activities will be performed by the third party. Therefore, the liability will ultimately be transferred to the third party. The legislative matters will be dealt by Mr. Kaleem.
Finances
The projected financial outlook is given below
Balance Sheet
Income and Expenditure Account
Break Even Analysis
The initial investment required for the social supermarket is 10000 £. The profit for the first two years is calculated above. The contribution margin is assumed to be 10 %. Based on the above assumptions the breakeven is calculated below
Breakeven Point in Sales (£) = Total Fixed Expenses/ Contribution Margin
= 15000/10
= 1500 £
References
Bolton, R. and Foxon, T.J., 2013. Urban infrastructure dynamics: market regulation and the shaping of district energy in UK cities. Environment and Planning A, 45(9), pp.2194-2211.
Hair Jr, J.F. and Lukas, B., 2014. Marketing research. McGraw-Hill Education Australia.
Hill, C., Jones, G. and Schilling, M., 2014. Strategic management: theory: an integrated approach. Cengage Learning.
Reisch, L., Eberle, U. and Lorek, S., 2013. Sustainable food consumption: an overview of contemporary issues and policies. Sustainability: Science, Practice, & Policy, 9(2).
Taulbut, M. and Walsh, D., 2013. Poverty, parenting and poor health: comparing early years’ experiences in Scotland, England and three city regions. Glasgow: Glasgow Centre for Population Health.
