Company Description and SWOT Analysis

Company Description and SWOT Analysis

Company Description and SWOT Analysis

Assignment # 1

BUS 599

Create your revised NAB company name and explain its significance.

Smoothie Surprise is a NAB company that offers frozen drinks, both smoothies and milk shakes, made from fresh ingredients straight from local farmers. Other products offered are take home smoothie ingredients as well as frozen yogurt. The entire meaning behind the name is that the frozen beverage options available are “jazzed up” by the consumer. They are able to mix in a variety of flavors from lavender to mint into whatever frozen creation they purchase.

Develop your revised company’s Mission Statement and provide a rationale for its components.

Smoothie Surprise is an imaginative frozen food company encouraging and supporting healthy lifestyles with delicious healthy concoctions created from farm fresh ingredients. Our mission is to improve diets by creating flavorsome beverages that are comprised of healthy ingredients to include fresh fruits, vegetables, juices and a variety of milks. By creating frozen beverages that are packed full of nutrients it’s an avenue of ensuring that your diet is balanced and nourishing. We aim to use ingredients from local farmers to sow back into the community as well as support local growers. We view our company as a partner to our community, employees and a product of our environment. Our product is simply a concoction of local ingredients blended together to make beautiful creations. We strive to become a regionally known business, capitalizing on the interest of individuals and families choosing healthy dessert beverage options. Our goal is moderate growth, annual profitability while clinging onto our jazziness!

Our business is a startup, as we are not in operation. We currently operate at various local farmers markets in the tristate area. In relation to the rest of the industry, our goal is to have moderate growth in the tristate area and expand throughout the eastern seaboard. The goal is to have franchises where individuals purchase our business model. Given there is not a mass production of the product as everything is made in the store, it’s more of the concept that individuals will be buying into.

Describe the trends in the non-alcoholic beverage industry, especially the specific type of beverage category you have chosen. Justify at least three (3) reasons why you have chosen this type of non-alcoholic beverage.

The three reasons of choosing the smoothie industry is simple, first mostly because they are healthy, secondly they can substituted as a meal or snack and thirdly the most important because they are quick, portable and easy to make. Smoothies can be made anywhere with the right tool and ingredients, and the recipes are endless. With everyone on the go to work, school, and other extra-curricular activities it’s hard to eat balanced meals. Since smoothies offer healthier treat than other snack options, tastes good and also offer convenience and portability, the market is expected to grow at a rate of 10-13% in the next five years (US Smoothies, 2007). The smoothie market has lower barriers to entry because of lower capital investment (US Smoothies, 2007). But in order to grow, what is required is the quality of the product and brand awareness (US Smoothies, 2007). Servings of smoothies in the US last year numbered in the millions: 577,000,000 to be exact, according to data from Mintel’s recent report, Made to Order Smoothies US (Fitzpatrick, 2015). Among other things, they’re looking for a cup full of fresh ingredients, an interactive, customizable experience and a splash of well-being (health related reasons are high on the list of why customers choose smoothies, according to the Mintel report) (Fitzpatrick, 2015). “Smoothies are convenient and they meet two meal components (protein/ grain and fruit) for around 40 cents” (Fitzpatrick, 2015).

The US smoothie market has grown rapidly over the last five years, driven mostly by the consumption habits of Americans who skip meals and often depend on snack foods as a substitute (US Smoothies). As for the number of consumers who drink smoothies for any reason, Mintel surveyed Americans between April 2013 and June 2014: overall, 56% of consumers said they drink smoothies. Consumers aged 25-34 accounted for 63% of smoothie sales, followed closely by younger Millennials (Freeing Up, 2015). According to the same Mintel report, “the smoothie segment saw strong gains over the measurement period due largely to a growth in product options and a growing interest in convenience, on-the-go meal and snack offerings”(Freeing Up, 2015). A Mintel segment performance report said smoothies have proven to be solid performers when it comes to category growth; though the smallest of category segments, it posted sales gains of 166%, growing from $297 million in 2009 to an estimated $790 million in 2014 (Freeing Up, 2015). In addition, 22% of respondents prefer smoothies to satisfy their hunger (Freeing Up, 2015). As the market has evolved, smoothies have developed a split positioning: On one side, fruity frozen drinks are infiltrating quick-service restaurants (QSRs) and c-stores to satisfy frozen beverage preferences (Freeing Up, 2015). On the other hand, smoothies offer options to patrons searching for functional, vitamin-boosted meal and snack replacements, riding a wave of interest in BFY options like energy drinks, yogurt and juices (Freeing Up, 2015). Smoothies constitute the high-end premium product range in NCSD (Non-Carbonated Soft Drinks) sector. Smoothie drinks are prepared with juice, fresh fruit as well as other ingredients including milk, sherbet or yogurt (Global, 2010). The smoothie market segment is flourishing in developed as well as emerging markets (Global, 2010). In recent years, fruit-based smoothies gained phenomenal popularity across the US and the UK, and are currently one of the major segments of the soft drinks market (Global, 2010).

Choose one (1) strategic position from the course text (pp. 142–143) that you believe is the best strategic position for your company. Explain the approach you will use to implement this strategic position in order to distinguish your beverage from other non-alcoholic beverages.

Smoothie Surprise objective is to be the leading smoothie and frozen beverage company in the D.C., Maryland and Virginia (DMV) area. To achieve that goal, we have developed a strategic position that emphasizes:

Smoothie Surprise strategic position of convenience is based on evaluating the following factors:

• Products made with locally grown ingredients
• Individual, specialized options and selections
• Chef inspired, Dietician directed and created menu selections

Our target is the consumer looking for healthy drink and meal options. This market is strong and growing and looking for fast and creative meal and snack alternatives. Our target customers often try the latest weight-loss or meal supplement craze and at times may create their own smoothie concoction at home.

• Industry Trends
• Our Target Market
• The Product Environment
  • Our Strengths

There are several competitors in the DMV area on the larger scale. While none of the competitors provide smoothie to-go kits or a drive thru option this affords opportunity to fulfill a need in our market. Given that there are several large smoothie companies we anticipate competitive pressure, it will be difficult for them to quickly change their building mobility.

Provide an overview of your company’s distribution channels. Explain the manner in which your product will reach end users. Provide a rationale for your chosen method.

The distribution channel used by Smoothie Surprise will be direct to consumers. The products are made directly in the store so there is nothing to ship or store anywhere. The products that are distributed are the smoothie to-go kits and the ice cream. These are direct-to-consumer products via online ordering. Our website and online order management is all managed through our product development facility. The fulfillment will be out of our facility in Chantilly, VA where all items are shipped via Fed Ex using their Temperature-controlled packaging system to ensure that the products are delivered intact and ready to be blended or tossed into the freezer until ready to be consumed.

Outline at least three (3) types of risks (including any regulatory risks) that your business faces. Describe your company’s plan to mitigate such risk.

The three types of risk that our business faces are product, regulatory and competitive risk. The products that are at risk are that being supplied from the local farmers. Produce, vegetables, honey and milk are all dependent upon the climate being stable and the bees being in a productive environment. Even the additional products to be provided can be affected by the climates in which they are grown essentially affecting the menu and costs that the company is able to offer. Regulatory risk are huge and if the ingredients are somehow infected or tainted and not satisfactory to the FDA this can be detrimental to the company. Competitive risk, while they do have a presence in the area, there’s not saturation in the city or the suburbs of the DMV. There is definitely a market for additional competition for the untapped consumer target market.

Develop a SWOT analysis for your NAB company using the SWOT matrix worksheet in the course text (p. 153 | SWOT: Strengths / Weaknesses / Opportunities / Threats)

The United States had the largest appetite for organic food that year, with retail sales amounting to $26.7 billion (McCarthy, 2015). Juice and smoothies are a strong part of the beverage category (Statistics, 2015). The market was valued at about 23 billion U.S. dollars as of 2013, based on generated revenue (Statistics, 2015). The latest price forecasts predicted an increasing price trend to about 12 U.S. dollars per box of oranges by 2022 (Statistics, 2015). There was a 16% rise in away from home smoothie purchases in 2014, when 3.7 billion smoothies were slurped on the go (Rush, 2015). Sales of staple refrigerated juices like orange and grape are dropping, while those of refrigerated vegetable juice/cocktail and juice smoothies are increasing (Kennedy, 2015). The juice and drink smoothies segment’s dollar sales improved 6.4% to $827.9 million, while units increased 6.2% to 234.4 million (Kennedy, 2015).

References

Freeing Up Frozen Beverages. (2015). Convenience Store Decisions, 26(9), 46-50.

Global Smoothies Market to Reach $9.0 Billion by 2015, According to New Report by Global Industry Analysts, Inc. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.prweb.com/releases/smoothies_market/frozen_mix_smoothie/prweb3808804.htm

Kennedy, S. (2015). Sales rise for veggie juices, juice smoothies. Dairy Foods, 116(6), 20.

McCarthy, N. (2015). The World’s largest markets for organic products. Retrieved from http://www.statista.com/chart/3681/organic-retail-sales-value-by-country/

Rush, S. (2015). Smoothies on the Rise. Restaurant Business, 80.

Statistics and facts on the juice and smoothie market in the U.S. (2015) Retrieved from http://www.statista.com/topics/1896/juice-and-smoothie-market/

US Smoothies Market: Trends and Opportunities. (2007). Retrieved from http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/564552/us_smoothies_market_trends_and_opportunities