Farm Boy Vs Trader Joes: Choosing The Best For Your Grocery Needs

You must complete a formal SWOT Analysis for Trader Joes and for Farm Boy to further determine if market entry, competitive advantage and profitability are feasible. Conduct your analysis using factors that are specific to the London market/industry structure (externally) and to Trader Joes organizational resources and capabilities (internally).  You must clearly describe how each SWOT category impacts upon potential market entry, level of competitive advantage and level of profitability to be obtained (or not) by Trader Joes as compared to Farm Boy. 

Background on SWOT Analysis

As opined by Belton (2017), the business world in the recent times has undergone a substantial amount of change because of the emergence of new kinds of innovative technologies and also the use of a plethora of effective business strategies. Saeidi et al. (2015) argue that the lacuna of the major contemporary organizations is attainment of competitive advantage within the ever competitive business market of recent times. More importantly, it is seen that the ever increasing number of business enterprises has opened a whole new window of choices or options to the customers (Baker & Sinkula, 2015). The net result of this is the fact that the organizations are facing a fierce competition within the business market not on a national level but at the same time on the international level as well.

Another important trend which is noticed within the contemporary business world is the fact that the various organizations often conduct regular audits of the business environment in which they are operational. As stated by Schilke (2014), this is important since it not only provides an insight to the organizations regarding the threats and opportunities that galore them but at the same time help them in the formulation of effective strategies for their mitigation. This report will undertake an analysis of the organization Trader Joes to understand whether or not it would be competitive with Farm Boy in the London business market.

Trader Joes, founded in 1958 as Pronto Market, is an American grocery chain which is headquartered in California (Traderjoes.com, 2018). More importantly, the grocery chain within a very short time has emerged as one of the major “fresh format” grocery chains in the USA and through the effective use of this model has been able to gain a substantial amount of success over the years (Traderjoes.com, 2018). Furthermore, the organization currently offers a plethora of products to the American customers like vegetable products, organic food products, frozen food and others along with wine, bread, eggs, coffee, tea and other similar kinds of products (Traderjoes.com, 2018). The organization presently has more than 474 supermarkets in different parts of the concerned nation and is rated as the 2^nd best supermarket in the concerned nation just after Wegmans (Traderjoes.com, 2018). Moreover, there are more than 38,000 employees associated with the organization so as to offer effective services to the customers and the annual revenue of the organization for 2015 was US$13 billion (Traderjoes.com, 2018). Furthermore, the organization is currently operational in more than 25 different nations of the world and is known for the high quality of food products that it offers to the customers (Traderjoes.com, 2018). 

Trader Joe's Overview and SWOT Analysis

Farm Boy, established in 1981 by Jean-Louis and Collette Bellemare, is one of the largest food and grocery chains in Canada (Farmboy.ca, 2018). The organization is reputed for the plethora of fresh and organic food products that it offers to the Canadian customers. More importantly, the organization currently has more than 26 different supermarkets in Ontario (Farmboy.ca, 2018). Furthermore, rather than focusing on the retail business, the focus of Farm Boy is on “Farm-to-table wholesale” business (Farmboy.ca, 2018). One of the best aspects of the concerned organization is the fact that the organization procures the raw food products directly from the various farmers of the concerned nation (Farmboy.ca, 2018). Moreover, the organization for the year 2018 has experienced 12% growth in its revenue and the net revenue earned by the concerned organization as of September 2018 is CAD$500 million (Farmboy.ca, 2018).   

As opined by Darroch, Miles and Jardine (2015), the framework of SWOT analysis has emerged as one of the most important ones within the cannon of contemporary business world since it offers insightful information regarding the key competencies, strengths, opportunities, threats and other aspects of an organization. A SWOT analysis of the organization Trader Joes would reveal the following facts-

The above analysis of the two organizations on the basis of Porter’s Five Forces Model clearly indicates that the organization Trader Joe is more likely to gain competitive advantage. This can be explained on the basis of the fact that the organization Trader Joes has a better product line, brand image and other capabilities which are likely to enable it to gain success in the competitive grocery business market of London (Vorley, Fearne & Ray, 2016). On the other hand, the organization Farm Boy has a limited product line and capabilities and these are one of the main reasons why the organization is likely to face a high level of business competition in London (Hingley, Lindgreen & Grant, 2015). More importantly, it is seen that the organization Trader Joes is already operational in other foreign nations and knows the manner in which international business is to be conducted. In addition to this, the online presence that the concerned organization boasts of in London is likely to help the organization in its expansion in this city. Thus, it can be said that the organization Trader Joes is more likely to gain competitive advantage and a higher profitability in London than Farm Boy.

Farm Boy Overview and SWOT Analysis

The organization Trader Joes for the process of entry into the business market of London can use the process of joint venture or collaboration. As opined by Fosfuri, Giarratana and Roca (2016), the most important part of this process is the fact that this enables the organizations to share not only the profit but losses as well. More importantly, Trader Joes will get the opportunity to utilize the customer base, resources and other entities of the organization with which it would enter in collaboration with in London (Darroch, Miles & Jardine, 2015). In addition to this, the organization at the same time can use the Uppsala model of internationalization to establish its business in the concerned city by beginning to export its products to the city first (Schilke, 2014). Moreover, once the organization has established a stable customer base then it can establish its actual business centers in the concerned city.  

Some of the most important measures that the organization Trader Joes can use in London to attain competitive advantage are as follows-

• Effective use of omni-channel business strategy to cater to the needs of both online and offline customers. In the city of London it is seen that the majority of customers like to take the help of e-commerce services and thus the use of this strategy is likely to help the concerned organization in a substantial manner.
• Use of cost leadership strategy to offer best quality food products to the customers of London and that too at very affordable prices in comparison to other organizations.
• Effective use of corporate social responsibility (CSR) to improve the brand image of the customers since it is seen that the present day customers are very conscious regarding the brand image of the organizations whose services that they are using.  

Conclusion 

To conclude, the notion of competitive advantage is one of the most important constructs which has gained a substantial amount of prominence within the contemporary business world. The attainment of competitive advantage not only helps the organizations to enhance their customer base but at the same time helps to earn a higher revenue as well. Thus, the primary focus of the different organizations in the present times is to attain competitive advantage within the framework of the contemporary business world. However, for the attainment of this stage the organizations need to take the help of different kinds of effective strategies on the basis of the requirements of the business environment in which they are operational. In addition to this, the organizations also need to take into effective consideration the key competencies as well as resources of theirs. 

References 

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Belton, P. (2017). Competitive Strategy: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance. Macat Library. Retrieved from https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781912281060

Darroch, J., Miles, M., & Jardine, A. (2015). Market creation: a path to sustainable competitive advantage. In Proceedings of the 2008 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference (pp. 331-331). Springer, Cham. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-10963-3_200

Farmboy.ca, (2018). Home Page - Farm Boy: fresh produce, butcher quality meats, sustainable seafood, fresh deli meats, dairy, artisanal cheese, fresh prepared meals. [online]. Retrieved from https://www.farmboy.ca/

Fosfuri, A., Giarratana, M. S., & Roca, E. (2016). Social business hybrids: Demand externalities, competitive advantage, and growth through diversification. Organization Science, 27(5), 1275-1289. Retrieved from https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/orsc.2016.1080

Hingley, M., Lindgreen, A., & Grant, D. B. (2015). Intermediaries in power-laden retail supply chains: An opportunity to improve buyer–supplier relationships and collaboration. Industrial Marketing Management, 50, 78-84. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0019850115001947

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Saeidi, S. P., Sofian, S., Saeidi, P., Saeidi, S. P., & Saaeidi, S. A. (2015). How does corporate social responsibility contribute to firm financial performance? The mediating role of competitive advantage, reputation, and customer satisfaction. Journal of business research, 68(2), 341-350. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0148296314002215

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Traderjoes.com, (2018). Homepage: Welcome | Trader Joe's. [online]. Retrieved from https://www.traderjoes.com/

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