BACKGROUND AND STATUS
The Loblaw’s company Limited is the largest food retail and wholesale in Canada with approximately 1000 operations in the country. The company was founded in the year 1956 with a focus on the retailing of food with an aim of providing an efficient and effective one stop-shopping. This company is under the bigger umbrella of George Weston limited which is a multinational company which deals in food processing and retail across the world. The company operate under quite a number of banners which include; Maxi, No Frills and the Zehr`s markets. In addition to this, the company nearly serves 12000 independent stores in Canada.
In addition to the food and retail, the company through other subsidiary companies also offers financial products and services, general merchandise, health and beauty pharmaceuticals and grocery. The financial services offered by the company provides the following; insurance brokerage services , credit card services, loyalty programs , the deposit taking services and telecommunication services. Besides, the subsidiaries of the company include; president`s choice bank, shoppers Drug Mart corporation, The choice properties Limited trust and Choice properties real Estate Investment.
The current statues of the Loblaw’s company limited as revealed from the income statement as is that the company collects annual revenue of over $11,413million annually. The company in the recent past have experience an incredible increase in sales of the products. In addition, the Loblaw’s companies now have an economy of scale thus allowing them to have liquidity and a huge market control.
SWOT ANALYSIS
Loblaw’s strengths
It has a very strong brand identity or name and the number of sales is on a growing trend, this explains its strong position of the market share. Strength is that it has a very low amount of the debt and a very big amount of its fixed assets; it also experiences the economies of scale and a wider experience in the Canadian market. It also covers a large geographical area since it is present in all the Canadian provinces.
Weakness
The customers of the Loblaw have trouble in navigating the superstores; this makes the stores to perform poorly. It also experiences problems in the distribution systems, there is poor supplier-buyer relationship, delay in the delivery of goods and week management.
Opportunities
The opportunities of Loblaw include the openings that aim to exploit the emerging trends in the technology. It also has the opportunity to improve the discount segment, thereby becoming a leader in low price.
Threats
It experiences intense competition from its rivals since the Canadian market attracts more of the foreign investors. The sales in the grocery have a slower growth rate than the previous averages, this has led to a decrease in the market to book ratio. It also experiences some serious union problems.
CONCLUSION
Although it faces many challenges, it has some good resources and attractive strengths that can help it bring back its growth and profitability. It has a major challenge that its rivals are growing at a higher rate and its satisfaction to the consumer is on the decreasing trend because of its weak performance. The current statues of the Loblaw’s company limited as revealed from the income statement as is that the company collects annual revenue of over $11,413million annually. The company in the recent past have experience an incredible increase in sales of the products. In addition, the Loblaw’s companies now have an economy of scale thus allowing them to have liquidity and a huge market control. The company has also gained a huge reputation and a consumer trust in brand thus it is strategically placed to control the market situations.
In addition, the alternative solutions is that the company should look into more markets especially in the African market. This would allow them to expand the market muscle and increase the chain of production. The firm also have to invest in research and innovations in technology to counter the changing trends in business and to increase on the productivity and quality. Therefore, to improve on its weaknesses, it must make good use of the experience it has on the food market to its advantage; this could be its alternative solution to the current issues facing it. The best opportunity it has over its competitors is its commitments to innovate grow and simplify under its latest business plan.
