Market Environment Analysis of Fresh Thyme Farmers Market Grocery Retail Industry

Executive summary

The purpose of the report is to analyse market environment for grocery retail industry using various strategic tools, for which the organisational case consider will be fresh thyme farmers market. Headquartered in United State the company initiated in 2014 the company has various stores and expanding the store in western region of the country.  With the vision to combine farmer market and the convenience of the organic and fresh products for the neighbourhood store which determine nutritious offering to the customers along with natural food availability and healthy shopping experience. After analysing the internal and external environment of the company using strategic tools like porters five forces model, pestle analysis, VRIO analysis The key strategic recommendation for leadership Of fresh thyme included technological innovation to be considered by the company in order to reduce the labour use and better use of available technology in the country. Moreover the recommendation also included to use Omni channel distribution so as to improve the supply chain and approachability of the company to the customers.      

For internal auditing, one of the strategic tools that will be used includes VRIO analysis. According to this to the resources of the company might act as competitive advantage temporarily, sustainably or may act as competitive disadvantage for the company. Some of the key resources that are considered to be analysed for this tool include

The company has been working with 5000 employees as per the statistics of 2018. Moreover the staffs have been trained by the company so as to create personal relations and increase the shopping experience for the customers. Therefore, it can be said that this resource of the company is valuable, rare, non-imitable for the company. This will act as a sustained competitive advantage for the company (freshthyme, 2020).

The company has found to be expanding their stores at 35 locations, which reflect approachable locations for the company. Moreover the stores are designed in an innovative way with large space and different departments so as to increase the shopping experience of customers. This capital resource of the company act as sustained competitive advantage due to valuable, rare, non-imitable and reflect maximum organisational capability (supermarketnews, fresh-thyme-fine-tunes-operations-2018, 2018).

The company has invested huge amount in warehouses so as to improve and enhance supply chain of the company. This resource for fresh thyme may consider being valuable, but not rare and could be imitable by the competitors which reflect temporary competitive advantage for the company (grocerydive, 2018).

VRIO analysis

For external environment analysis it is important to understand the constant which might affect the business and impact the strategic decision of leadership by fresh thyme. Pestle Analysis is one of the strategic tool that could be helpful in analysing various factors across the nation in which company has been conducting business that is USA with headquartered at Chicago.

Considering the political environment of USA it can be said that it is one of the politically stable nation with democracy being adopted by the country very long before. Other than politically stable, the company has also good political relations with various other nations which may also act as a part unity for company to deal in free trading environment in international market. Therefore political environment of US reflect opportunity for fresh thyme to expand business in near future (theglobaleconomy, USA/wb_political_stability, 2019).

The factors which reflect economic environment of the country is GDP which reflect the purchasing power of the individual in the nation. The GDP of company has been increasing since years and the research reflect That US will be at third rank globally by 2050 considering purchasing power. However one of the drawbacks is that labour is not easily available in cheap rates in this country. Moreover 2009 recession has also badly impact the nation economy where unemployment Rate also increased. Overall, it can be said that economic environment provide opportunity for the company to expand their business and increase the revenue of the company due to increasing purchasing power of the consumers (theglobaleconomy, USA/GDP_per_capita_PPP, 2019).

USA is found to be the third most populated nation and a diverse country with diverse cultures. One of the challenge through social factor that could act for fresh thyme include that the customers are looking for ready to go options, and are more fond of supermarkets with the packed food so as to decrease the consumption of thyme. However with the increasing awareness regarding health and organic products, the consumer behaviour may act positively two words purchase of fresh products from fresh thyme an actress opportunity for the company.

US are found to be global leader when it comes to technology, infrastructure and science. This provides opportunity and adapting facilities or the company to consider changing technologies and improve the business with the use of technological innovation. This factor is opportunity for Fresh Thyme to grow and consider innovation and change in operating business model.

PESTLE Analysis

This is one of the factor in macro environment which may act as threat or challenge for fresh thyme. The reason being the company has various visitors and various weather change And research reflect that toughest weather condition has been faced by this nation. This reflect damage to the fresh fruits and vegetables an impact agricultural business. Therefore this can be challenging for fresh thyme.

This element of the tool reflect legal environment which include business regulatory environment that needs to be a bright as per the loss. This may not act as a major challenge for the company, as if the company is up I think appropriate laws and regulations like labour law, food and safety act, employment act, the company may work with ease and smooth in this nation.

For industry analysis, which also reflect the external environment analysis for the company, one of the strategic tool is porters five forces model. This model represents five forces that may impact leader’s strategic decision of the company while sustaining in the industry. Fresh thyme is part of grocery retail industry

Threat of new entrant for fresh thyme is high. There is no major entry barrier for the company in grocery retail industry, moreover large number of companies has been working in this industry which reflects that the threat of new entrants is high for the company. The new company may come with new technology, better innovation and idea and with better partnership which may act as challenge. However The Company is planning to expand up to hundred plus stores by end of 2020 as per the claim by CEO. This reflects that the company will have major market share within the domestic market, which may act as major competition to new company entering into the industry (Greg, 2014).

The bargaining power of suppliers are low, the reason being the company has been working with agile supply chain which large number of farmers and in partnership with farmers to produce best of fresh goods and maintaining the quality Standard before offering to customers.

Buyers play a major role in the industry, however the bargaining power of buyers are moderate for fresh thyme. The reason being there are large number of suppliers and competition in the industry, and there are various grocery and retailing stores in USA which act as increase in availability for the customers. This reflects increase in bargaining power for the buyers (Ottman, 2017).

Porter's Five Forces Model

Also discuss in social factors previously, the consumer behaviour towards the packed food and ready to eat food is always been the preference. Therefore threat of substitute goods would be higher for fresh thyme (foodnavigator-usa, 2016).

The competition in grocery retail industry is quite high. There is various retailing chain that are working for the substitute goods and also for the Fresh fruits while also considering technology as the key factor. For example the top competitor As per the research include sprouts farmers market, earth fare, and nugget market. Therefore it can be said that the company needs to consider various competitive advantage and work towards growth opportunity, innovation and enhance business model so as to sustain leading position in this industry (globenewswire, 2020).

In order to sustain and gain competitive advantage leadership of fresh thyme must consider some of the actions in near future

The company has been working towards customer experience at the stores and concentrate on the store designing. The recommendation includes technological innovation for the company. The research data mines that the company has a working towards good partnership with Amazon prime, which acts as a better step to use digital platform. However the company must work towards technological innovation so as to decrease the use of labour within the store and for digital platform. It has been analysed that labour is not cheap in USA, however technologically advanced nation could be the opportunity for the company (supermarketnews, fresh-thyme-slows-expansion-2018, 2018).

Another recommendation for leadership of fresh thyme includes use of additional distribution channel so as to capture large number of consumers. The company could have integrate off-line as well as online distribution more so as to make the convenience and save thyme for the consumers to purchase, pay and collect the products (Chung, 2015).

The SWOT Framework activity in Unit 9 will be very useful in completing this assignment. Develop a PowerPoint presentation of 8–12 slides that synthesize the work you did on Assignments 2 and 3.

 

Use the speaker's notes sections of each slide to expand your talking points. Be sure your presentation includes: A summary of the AFI framework. Results from your internal analysis (VRIO or Value Chain) Results from your external analysis (PESTEL and Five Forces) A SWOT matrix for the company. Recommendations: Do the current strategies need to be changed? What strategies will move the organization forward?

 

How do your recommendations align with organizational structure and governance? Do your recommendations reflect ethical responsibility? Deliverable Format PowerPoint presentation 8–12 slides (in addition to the title and references slides) Include additional details on each slide in the speaker’s notes section. Additional requirements Title slide. References slide. APA formatted references from at least five sources.

 

Be sure you consider the audience. Evaluation By successfully completing this assignment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies through corresponding scoring guide criteria:

Competency 1: Assess the importance of strategic management for supporting long term success and sustained competitive advantage. Summarize the strategic framework for a company.

Competency 2: Apply strategic thinking approaches to resolve business-related challenges. Develop a SWOT matrix for a company.

Competency 3: Analyze the internal and external environments of an organization in order to formulate and implement successful strategies. Summarize the findings of an internal environmental analysis. Summarize the findings of an external environmental analysis.

Competency 4: Apply strategic concepts and models to ensure the fit between strategy, organizational structure, capabilities, and goals; and the external environment. Recommend strategic actions for a company that align with organizational structure and governance, and reflect ethical responsibility.

Competency 5: Communicate business needs, opportunities, and strategies with multiple stakeholders. Correctly format citations and references using current APA style.

 

Write content clearly and logically with correct use of grammar, punctuation, and mechanics.