Tesco

In order to set up my business I looked at the 4ps of my competitors and to be aware of my competitors I look at the methods of 4ps (refer to appendices 3).

From my market research on my local area about my competitors I know that customers usually purchase from Sainsbury in high street north and they used to sell different kinds of product at different kinds of prices such as they sell 2 litres of milk for 1 and Cigarettes such as Benson and hedges, Marlboro red and white, Rothmans and silk cut ultra and silk cut at 2. 35 while some other Cigarettes cheaper than that and some Cigarettes are price marked and supermarkets like sainsburys used to sell chips in 6,12 and 24 packs with their own packing but they are not providing services such as buss pass, electricity and gas charging but they providing various kind that I did not provide such as poultry ,meat and flower shop and lotteries etc.

Sainsburys used to advertise their products thorough leaflets and introduce new offer all the items and sainsburys is the main competitor for my business because it is the nearest supermarket with an radius of 0. 2 miles where I want to open a shop but I have the advantage that they are not providing services that I provide such as imported drinks, spice, dhal, etc from Sri Lanka. Sainsburys used to promote their products by distributing leaflets directly to their customers home.

They used to I thought to provide New offers every week in order to attract customers. Tesco I have competition from tesco which provide same kinds of product that sainsburys sell but tesco is located nearly 1 mile from my stores and the 50 questionnaire I had given to the general public that they are not using the tesco when compare to sainsbury tesco both provide extra activities other than sainsbury such as clothes and electric items etc. tesco use to sell milk at  1 pound and Cigarettes such as Benson and hedges, Marlboro red and white, Rothmans and silk cut ultra and silk cut at  2. 35 while some other Cigarettes cheaper than that and some Cigarettes are price marked and they used to sell chips in 6,12 and 24 with their own packing and they used to advertise their product thorough leaflets, Tele adverts and introduce new offers every week.

Tesco is located nearly 1 mile from my shop. Asda I have competitions from Asda, which is a part of Wal-mart Company, and they used to sell same kind of services as tesco and they locate nearly 0. 8 from the area I want to set up my shop. Supermarkets like Tesco, Sainsburys and Asda has the high purchasing to sell their product at cheaper rates and I cannot compete but I can sell the product with the low profit without affecting my business.

The main competitors for my business is Seelan enterprises and KSP Super Foods, Judiya enterprises in high street north because they are specialist in Srilankan foods and they have customers all over the Newham and even in Woolwich according to the questionnaire the public and the business and they are well set in business and they used to sell their product same as sainsburys but they do not label their product for chips like Tesco, Asda and Sainsburys. They sell Srilankan drinks such as Necto.

Portello and orange crush etc at 1.2 litres and 2 litres and crisps like walkers, red mills etc and Asians special foods like mixtures, cashew nuts and pista and srilankan foods like samosa, stringhoopers, pittu and Indian foods such as dhosai, idly and parota from a restaurant and selling to customers and foods items like tea powder, coffee powder, sugar, flours, ketchup, sauce, and vegetables like bringal and carrots etc and house holds items like shampoo, pampers, tissues and selling Cigarettes and alcohol especially imported srilankan alcohols like lion beer, lion stout and mendis etc.

I think to do charge electricity gas and swapping mobile phones cards and selling bus pass and travel cards. I am going to sell all kinds of things that going to attract Asians and to sell international telephone cards and they are fresh and they are halal products I think to purchase my product from cash and carry for drinks chips and Cigaratees etc and from whole distributors like yaalini for fish and vegetable etc, sindhu mahal restaurant for fresh foods and kP distributors for house hold items. Prices Influences of Pricing

When I set up a business before pricing a product I need to look at the factors influences pricing such as average cost of the product, competitors, customers and business objectives. Cost of the Product If my business want to make profit I need to ensure that I sell the product above their total averages cost Competitors If my business operates under conditions of perfect competition I have no choice and must accept market prices and I need to be very carefully considered relative to those of close competitors prices.

Customers I should price the product according to my customer’s expectation and my business should attempt to quantify its demand curve to estimate what volume of sales will be achieved at given prices to the customers. Full cost pricing is a pricing which include all kinds of relevant cost of production such as Total budgeted factory cost + selling / distribution costs + other overheads + mark up on cost The advantages of using cost plus pricing are it is easy to calculate; Price increases can be justified when costs rise and Pricing decisions can be made at a relatively junior level in a business based on formulas

Skimming The practice of ‘price skimming’ involves charging a relatively high price for a short time where a new, innovative, or much-improved product is launched onto a market. The objectives with skimming is to ‘skim’ off customers who will pay more to have the products sooner, prices are lowered later when demand fall. Price tactics It is good to use price tactics to price the products. Many firms used to price the products by using pricing tactics it attracts customers when you are charging 99p or i?? 1. 49 instead of rounding 50.

My stores is located an average of 1 miles far away from competitors like Tesco and Asda but Sainsbury which is my main competitors is located nearly 0. 2 miles to my stores while Seelan Enterprises, KSP Super Foods and Judiya Enterprises are located more than a miles from my stores. My stores will be well furnished with tiles and the shelves organised by the products such as different shelves for different products so it will be easier for the customers to get along the shop to find the right products for them and some photographs of Srilanka and British Natural Sceneries.

Promotion I think to promote my products by delivering leaflets to the customer once a month and make them to know about my products and introduce offers to satisfy and keep the customers.

For higher grade I had design my own leaflets (refer to appendices 5) and I think to print 1000 copies and I had arranged a boy to distribute directly to the potential customers and 1 need to pay him 10 for delivering 500 leaflets and I think to print 1000 copies which will cost me another 90 and I need to pay a person 20 to distribute to their home over all I need  110 to advertise my product. Advantage There is an advantage in preparing leaflets it will clearly describe what type of products that I am going to sell and will make my customers to know it and it will help me to increase the sales of the shop and it is cheaper than any other promotion method to advertise our product because if you advertise the products thorough radio or television it going to cost more than leaflets.

Disadvantage There is a disadvantage in using leaflets as a promotion method it takes time to design it and to find the house of my potential customers. I need to find a person to deliver the newspaper or I need to deliver the leaflet in my spare time. I also need to design leaflet every weak explaining about the price and offers of the products for the week. I will not be certain that when I deliver the leaflets to my potential customers houses that they will receive and know about my shop.

I believe Tesco: “Fresh & Easy” Supermarkets will be successful. The Fresh & Easy name signals the two things it wants shoppers to think of it for: freshness and convenience (Horovitz, 2007). Tesco constantly re-enforces this message on the Fresh & Easy Homepage; people want fresh and healthy food choices; they want things to be easy, Tesco provided just that with its line of supermarkets. Tesco supermarkets found a niche that United States retailers had not focused on, convenient fast access to fresh, healthy cost affordable natural foods.

It is something many Americans have waited years for. As well as being marketed as a Fresh & Easy supermarket, it is also marketed as an energy efficient organization which in this age of energy and resource conservation adds to its appeal. The supermarkets utilize efficient equipment in their stores and operations (Recruiting, 2007). Stores are designed to use 30% less energy than typical grocery stores its size, and recycling is a priority. Fresh & Easy has been a savior tenant for many developers, eating up 14,000 square foot chunks of old space and dark drug stores (Retail, 2009).

Its entrance into the United States was the first time Tesco entered a country without a supercenter format. Tesco did not want to become like Wal-Mart. Tesco launched its United States Operations with a small format neighborhood grocery store under the Fresh & Easy name to differentiate its brand from its competitors. The supermarkets are relatively small, at about 10,000 square foot. Fresh & Easy stores target customers in low to middle income locations. Tesco is betting that there is a demand for smaller stores closer to home with fewer products, making it easier to find things.

The stores are placed near public transportation. Many of them are near or inside underground and railway stations, making it easy for commuters to pop into a store and grab a meal on their way home. Their advertising campaign includes references to environmentally friendly packaging and food free of artificial colors, flavors, and trans fats. The chains buy no TV or newspaper ads. When it enters a market, it mails $5 coupons to area residents. The stores are stocked with big names and in-house brands and offer more prepared entrees and side dishes than typical supermarkets (Semeuls, 2007).

Their specialty is in prepared but not frozen foods, everything looks fresh. Everything is nicely repackaged in friendly pastel colors, simple graphics, and lowercase fonts. The stores are not over whelming. They look more modern and sophisticated than most supermarkets. The isles are wide and signs are clearly written. There is bright lighting and an uncluttered feel. Fruits and vegetables are neatly presented. There is an unexpectedly low price on items. Focusing primarily on California at this point, Fresh & Easy is approaching the market as a “critical mass” store strategy in California, Arizona and Nevada.

This strategy is to locate a “critical mass” of stores in a given region, similar to the Starbucks’ Walgreens’ strategy (Fresh, 2008). In doing this, consumer awareness is increased and marketing and advertising costs leveraged. From a positioning standpoint, it attempts to become the logical or defacto neighborhood grocer in the region, in part by virtue of having so many stores in the area (Fresh, 2008). The advancement of web based information technology has been an important catalyst for the recent proliferation of distribution sales channels in food retailing.

Although multiple channels enable companies to reach consumers faster and in different market segments, they pose challenges to include channel conflict and pricing policy for the different channels. This could benefit consumers by companies having to reduce prices to stay competitive. American supermarkets have concentrated mainly on trying to make cost out of their supply chains. Goods are moved hundreds of miles to keep them cheap. This has encouraged supermarkets to make two sorts of foods: long lasting i. e. ried, canned, frozen, or otherwise preserved and that which is prepared from raw ingredients on site. British food retailers because stores can be so small that they have to switch from selling sandwiches at lunchtime to selling readymade suppers in the afternoon specialize in regular frequent deliveries to city stores. Their supply chains are more sophisticated. Tesco is an innovator with its supply chain. Tesco built a distribution center. Coupled with partner Wild Rocket Foods, Tesco selected U. S. produce vendors as suppliers.

Tesco utilizes trucks with hybrid refrigeration vector units with internal partitions for frozen, chilled and ordinary goods. All Fresh & Easy trailers include automatic refrigeration shut-off when optimum temperature is reached inside the cooling chamber as well as a complete engine shut-off once parked at the stores. Electrical stand-by technology minimizes the impact on the environment by using no fuel to run refrigeration units on the trailers while parked at the distribution center. Tesco could replace three deliveries with one.

This makes it possible to sell groceries profitably in small stores at supermarket prices. Tesco makes fresh and easy available to the customers, but they also made the customers part of the solution to success. The Tesco scheme mails discount vouchers to customers encouraging them to return. It tracks every purchase to build one of the world’s largest databases. This finds correlations between purchases allowing Tesco to finely tune the product range in each store. I would venture to say that Tesco is on the right track to success with its wide mix of fresh food that is highly customer oriented and very accessible.

With the stores in local neighborhoods and at very user friendly cost, these neighborhood targeted stores will succeed. . References Freshandeasy. com (2008). Freshandeasy. com. Viewed at freshandeasy. com February 19, 2009. Fresh & Easy Buzz. (2008, March 8). Retrieved February 19, 2009, from http://www. freashneasybuzz. blogspot. com. Horovitz, Bruce (2007 November 08). British grocery chain hits America with fresh ideas. Retrieved February 19, 2009 from https://www. usatoday. com. Recruiting trail at Fresh & Easy. 2007, July 22). Retrieved February 19, 2009, from http://www. freshandeasy. com/blog/2007/07/recruiting-trail-at-fresh-easy. html Semuels, Alana. ( November 9, 2007). British food it’s not shoppers find fresh & easy a blend of trader joe’s and Ralphs. Retrieved February 17, 2009 from http://articles. latimes. com/2007/nov/09/business/fi-tesco9 RetailChatr; Fresh & Easy changing strategy. (2009, February 04). Retrieved February 17, 2009, from http://www. retailchatr. com/2009/02/04/fresh-easy-changing-strategy

Tesco is a retailing industry, its headquarters are in Cheshunt, Brouxbourne, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. It has 5,380 stores, located in USA, UK, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Turkey, India, Thailand, Malaysia, China, Japan, South Korea, Ireland, and Czech Republic. They sell groceries, consumer goods, financial services and telecoms.

Customer service is a service that Tesco provides so if their customers are having any problems, complains, complaints or need help they can go to the customer service and someone will help them. This also helps Tesco to know what they have to improve, and increases their sales as well, because if a customer is happy with their service the customer will come back, and recommend to friends or family too. They also get more motivated staff, because without complains and working in a calm place no one gets angry and stressed.

I have chosen 3 different types of customers, and each of them has different needs and expectations. A family with little kids shopping for the week would need big trolleys with baby/little kid seat, someone to scan the things and someone to help them packing up. They also expect the staff to be friendly and polite. A businessman would want a quick service, maybe he is looking for something quick and easy to eat, or stationary of good quality. A member of staff, like a check out assistant, would expect their manager to be polite and helpful, and if they are having any problems they expect the manager to help them quickly with it.

There are 2 different types of customers in Tesco, internal and external. Internal customers are people that work in Tesco, but have the same needs and expectations as an external. A internal customer expects their managers, team leaders or supervisors to treat them with respect and also give them advice if they need. External customers are people that are visiting the business, e.g.: family. They expect the staff to be respectful, friendly, quick service, and helpful.

Tesco needs to be reliable and accurate. They need to give accurate information e.g.: labelled aisles, so the customers know where everything is, information of their opening times. And they need to be reliable e.g.: give the right change to the customer, and as they work with baking services as well, they need to make sure that the money is secure so people can trust them.

Tesco provides information and advice on their website, staff, helpline and leaflets.

Tesco staff provides good help and assistance to their customers depending on their needs. If they have a disabled costumer, they will need disabled parking, maybe a ramp, different types of trolleys, bigger toilets and someone to help them packing. Tesco staff is trained to respond positively to this special needs.

If there are any problems a member of staff will give advice to the customer, e.g.: a customer is not finding an item. There are other situations that the staffs is not able to help the customer so the help of a supervisor or manager will be needed. E.g.: someone is trying to steal, wrong change or refund.

Tesco targets to meet so they can see how well they are doing. Some of these targets are to sell a certain amount of things, the checkout assistants have a target of how quick they need to scan things or how many things they scan per minute, their queues can’t be too big, and also keep the amount of complains low. By these they can see what needs to be improved and they are doing well.

Health and safety is a really important thing, because internal and external customers have their expectations about it. Internal customers expect their work space to be clean, and the shop to be safe. External customers expect the shop to be clean; the staff looks tidy and hygienic, and be safe while they are shopping. Both internal and external customers can have the same needs and expectation about security, like if the fire alarm goes on, the staff should have been trained to guide their customers outside to a safe place. This helps Tesco to be more reliable and their customers will go back there.

Providing an excellent customer service is good for Tesco, their staff and their customers. It benefits Tesco because their reputation and image is continually enhanced, more customers are attracted by word-of-mouth and Tesco doesn’t need to advertise, and feedback from regular customers provides information of what to improve.

It benefits the customers because the whole experience of shopping in Tesco is pleasant and enjoyable, the customer feels valued and important because the staff is helpful, customer can rely on Tesco every time because they provide good service, customer is confident about the purchase and the items bought, they can have a refund if there’s something wrong and there is less need to “shop around” in the future.

It benefits the staff because there won’t be any complaints because the staff is motivated and friendly with the customers, and meeting their targets they will be praised for it and will work happier, and also there is no stress. Read about Tesco Legal Structure

Overall I think that Tesco provides a good customer service, because they know how to meet all the different types of customers’ needs and expectations. Tesco staff are informed about their products and services so they know what to do if a customer’s asks them about it or they need help. Tesco makes sure that they are meeting all their targets so, for example, their customer’s don’t have to wait a long time in queues and get angry. Doing these both, internal and external customers are happy and this benefits the organisation, because they will have no complains, they will have more customers coming in and will make higher profits.

All this has been very successful investment and increased Tesco’s profits to �2.2 billion. As you can see it suits Tesco to be a public limited company because they have managed to raise millions of pounds through the stock exchange and have given shareholders a good return on investment. They have also managed to invest in successful areas which they could not have done if they had a different type of ownership. They need to remain as a Plc and perhaps have smaller companies looking after different areas e.g. Non-food and financial services.

Why did Tesco locate near the town centre? Tesco located near the town centre because they knew the high street attracts thousands of people everyday every hour. Being nears the high street means shoppers needn’t go anywhere else apart from Tesco, for convenience they can shop at Tesco and get everything all under one roof. High street shoppers who need to buy there groceries will almost certainly go to Tesco because it is so close by, they do not need to go 20 to 30 minutes away by car and shop at Asda or Safeway they can go 1 minute away to Tesco.

Tesco were very lucky to find the piece of land that they did in slough, especially the fact that it was so near to the high street. Tesco is also surrounded by 02, a university, Yell, bus station and train station that attracts customers. The nearby companies employ hundreds of workers who can easily visit Tesco at lunchtimes and after work in order to complete their shopping. All this has helped Tesco to increase their sales and profit.

When Tesco wanted to buy that piece of land near the high street the price did not matter to them because Tesco knew that even if they pay a high price to be near the high street because it would become convenient for the shoppers to come into Tesco to complete their shopping. Another reason why near the high street was a good location is because there is no real competition, and this has been a major advantage. Overall I think Tesco made the right decision to locate in the high street as it has helped their business and now they have built a superstore to cater for their customers needs.

However there were some problems with Tesco being in the town centre as it already attracts a lot of traffic and this meant it would cause problems and therefore create more accidents. The local council solved the problem by creating another lane for the drivers which would lead straight into the store and therefore avoid congestion and delays for drivers. Another issue which was addressed by the company was to avoid delivery vans coming into the store during daytime as it would cause congestion in the area. The delivery vans come late at night and therefore do not cause any problems for anyone and there are no housing estates nearby to disturb the community.

Another advantage of this location is that rubbish tips are very close to the store and it does not cause too much pollution and traffic on the roads by the company Food and Drink Tesco’s core product is food and drink. Most of these products are imported from other countries, but not all of the products are imported, as some are home-grown.

For example, sugar, tea, coffee and exotic fruits would all have to be imported, as they cannot be produced in the UK. Tesco sells a wide variety of foods and drinks, in all kinds of sizes, such as small size, medium size, family size and etc. The reason Tesco sells such a large variety of foods is to satisfy the customer needs, making it convenient for everyone. They also sell a variety of different company brands. They have even got their own brand of products known as Tesco Value’, which helps Tesco to compete and overcome its command Tesco Finest’ competitors as it provides for all three different types of classes, the rich, the middle and the poor.

By doing this Tesco gets repeat business, and turns potential customers into loyal customers. Which means that they will accomplish their mission statement so will also achieve their aims and objectives. Tesco’s sales have risen steadily to success, as the firm is the UK’s largest food retailer. The food industry is a massive industry in the UK and is a highly competitive market with very low profit margins.

To be precise this profit made by Tesco was more then Next, WH Smith, Mark ; Spencer and Sainsbury. This all goes to show how good Tesco really did in achieving their aims and objectives of overcoming competition. One of Tesco’s aim changed as organic food became the latest fashion and trend, Tesco realised this and wanted to capitalise on it. The way in which they did this was by increasing their range of organic foods by increasing the number of aisles with organic products on them. Along with organic food the trend changed into Asian food products. Tesco responded to the desires of the customers and have began stocking a wide range of Asian products allowing customers to buy everything under one roof, and not needing to go to small corner shops.

Tesco’s main business activities are buying and selling in the food and non-foods sector. They have 1800 stores worldwide which sell thousands of goods. Tesco is in the tertiary sector and they buy from manufacturers and sell these in over 1700 branches. They also get the manufacturers to produce products under their own label. Tesco Value and Finest are sole in their branches and these products are very popular with the consumers. This has helped to increase their market share and satisfy every socio-economic group.

Tesco also sell the latest trends in food e.g. organic and Asian foods which have become very popular in the UK. Tesco responded to these trends and have begun to stock the products so that they can cater for the needs of the local population. Non-Food Tesco diversified into retailing things such as clothes, furniture, electrical goods, DVD etc. this diversification procedure that Tesco underwent attracted new customers as well as helped to retain old ones, which is Tesco central aim. They were so successful in this field that 30% of last year profit came from non-food. Tesco also sells more baby clothes than Mother Care; DVD sales also went up by 60% in 2004. Tesco also happened to sell more Harry Potter books than WHS in 2004. This all shows that customers are coming to Tesco and Tesco business strategy is working.

You are employed as a financial analyst and your company has over the few years recovered from adverse trading conditions and has now geared itself towards expansion. As a member of an executive team, your objective is to evaluate investment opportunities in other UK plcs whose recent published reports are available. This essay will financially analyze and discuss Tesco supermarket’s performance over the last two accounting periods using appropriate accounting ratios including profitability, liquidity, gearing, and investment potential. Also a comparative analysis of the financial performance, position, and investment potential of J. Sainsbury’s organization with J. Sainsbury’s supermarkets. Tesco plc today owns Tesco supermarkets across Europe and Asia. These stores are located in the UK, Republic of Ireland, France, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, South Korea, and Thailand. Today Tesco plc is specialized in retailing, property investment, insurance, distribution, property development, and purchasing. Also, the group’s joint ventures are property investment, personal finance, and mail-order retail.

Tesco supermarkets have 15. 5% market share in retailing in the UK. “It is fifty years since Jack Cohen opened his first self-service shop, and we expect Tesco stores in fifty years’ time to be as different from those we know today as our current stores are to the stores of fifty years ago”. Says Terry Leahy the chief executive of Tesco plc. And Tesco supermarkets have 659 stores including 38 newly opened stores in the UK. Retail sales of Tesco supermarkets were up by 7. 4% to 17,070 million to  18,331 million and operating profit was up 8. 1% from  919 million. 993 million. Tesco supermarkets in the rest of Europe have 167 stores including 11 newly opened stores and the sales of the supermarkets rose by 18. 8% to  1,527 million from 1,285 million and operating profits were up 6. 3% to  51 million from  48 million. Tesco supermarkets have 19 stores in Asia these are located in Thailand and South Korea the sales of these stores rose by 192% to  497 million from  170 million and the operating profit was also up by 50% to (1) from (2) last year. And the company is considering opening new stores in Taiwan, Malaysia, China, and Japan.

Tesco plc’s group sales (inclusive of VAT) was  20,358 million with a 9. 8% increase in sales compared to 1999 of  18. 546 million of sales. Tesco plc’s operating profit was also increased to  1,043 million with an increase of 8. 1% compared to the year before  965million. Tesco plc’s per-share price was 169 pence in February 2000 since then it has increased to 276 pence this is an increase of 63. 3% per share also at the last fiscal year earnings per share was paid as 10. 18 pence per share and the dividend is 4. 48 pence. The reason why J. Sainsbury’s plc was chosen for the comparison is because J.Sainsbury’s are the second-largest supermarket in the UK behind Tesco supermarkets and has 11. 9% market share. J. Sainsbury’s today owns Shaw’s Supermarkets Inc. has been owned by J. Sainsbury’s plc since 1983 Shaw’s supermarkets have 168 in the six New England states of the USA and serve over 4 million customers a week. Homebase DIY stores, Homebase was founded in 1979 and opened its first store in 1981, since then the company bought Texas Homecare and converted to Homebase store format and acquired with Hampden Group plc. Homebase now serves over 1. 5 million customers a week at 297 stores throughout the UK.

The company also opened Sainsbury’s bank in February 1997, it was the first bank to be opened by a British supermarket. It is a joint venture and owned 55 percent by J. Sainsbury’s plc and 45 percent by Bank of Scotland PLC, offering telephone banking 24 hours a day to date it has attracted over 1. 25 million customers. And offer instant access savings accounts; bonds; ISAs; investment products; loans; mortgages; credit cards; a car purchase plan and a number of insurance plans, including travel cover; pet insurance; and home and contents insurance. Sainsbury’s supermarkets were established in 1869 by John James and Mary Ann Sainsbury and are Britain’s longest-standing major food retailing chain. As well as the world’s first supermarket, it is said that their aim is to be the customers’ first choice for food shopping by providing high quality, value for money, excellent service to detail. Today Sainsbury employs over 138,000 people 70 percent of those are part-time and 30 percent are full-time employees 58 percent are also women employees. J. Sainsbury’s supermarkets serve nearly 10 million customers at 432 stores throughout the UK each week.

In 1999-2000 the company opened 24 stores including Sainsbury’s locals and in the same year the company extended and refurbished 38 stores. In the years 2000-2001, the company plans to open 38 new stores 25 of them to be Sainsbury’s locals and planning to refurbish and extend 50 stores in the same year. J. Sainsbury’s supermarkets have increased their sales by 1. 8% to  13,266. 7 million from 5 million however operating profit has dropped by over a quarter of 27. 2% to  541. 5 million from  743. 8 million. The last four years’ percentage change figures can be also seen in the diagram below. The ratio analysis of Tesco supermarkets will be in four parts these are profitability, liquidity, gearing, and investment potential of the company. For Tesco supermarkets rate of return to net profit on capital, employed is 79% (net profit/capital employed * 100) the rate of return to net profit on capital employment ratio illustrating that how much profit has Tesco supermarkets made but also how well the capital has been employed. It is obvious that Tesco supermarkets have used their capital very well, achieving a return of 79% net profit for every  100 invested. In addition, in a comparison with J. Sainsbury’s rate of return to net profit on capital employed is much lower at a rate of 23. 5% so these figures are showing how well every capital  100 invested has been employed. Tesco supermarkets have made far better use of its capital, achieving a return of  79 net profit for every  100 invested whereas J. Sainsbury’s has received only a net profit of  23. 50 per  100. Moreover, The gross profit as a percentage of sales for Tesco supermarkets is 5. 42% compared to J. Sainsbury’s gross profit of sales is lower at a rate of 4. 08%, this is showing that Tesco supermarkets are receiving greater gross profit than J.

Sainsbury’s supermarkets. Also J. Sainsbury plc’s; in chairman’s statement Sir George Bull insists that “last year was a difficult year for the Sainsbury group, in which strong performances at Shaw’s and Homebase were unable to compensate for the significant decline in profit at Sainsbury’s Supermarkets”. It could also be said that even though J. Sainsbury’s supermarket sales have been increasing on an average of 6. 5% for the last four years, the profits of the company has been decreasing in 1997 profits were down by -11% following year it was increased to 10.7, however in 1999 and 2000 the company’s profits has been decreasing in 1999 it was -4. 4% and this year it was dropped dramatically to -28. 7%. On the other hand, Tesco supermarkets have been having both sales and profits figures rising for the last four years, percentage change figures can be also seen in the diagram below. The profits have increased by an average of 6. 5% during the last two years this number is also 8. 6% for the last four years. The sales of Tesco supermarkets have also increased to 6. 4% during the last two years, for the last four years this figure has been increased on an average of 10. 1% of sales.

For this task, I am required to evaluate the effectiveness of the business activities in both Sainsbury’s and GE Lighting. I will then make a link stating how these activities are connected with the aims and objectives of the companies along with their relative significance. Firstly it is important to note that business activities are the services that companies provide whether it is to consumers or to other companies. These activities that Sainsbury’s and GE Lighting provide will steer them one step closer in achieving their aims and objectives. Aims and objectives serve as signposts from which strategic plans are established.

These objectives provide direction for all phases of the company and serve as major standards in evaluating performance. Objectives are targets that need to be need achieved in order for a company to progress onto fulfilling their aims. Companies cannot achieve these unless they are providing good services. I will now evaluate how Sainsbury’s activities are connected with their aims and objectives and analyse whether the activities are raising the performance of the company.

The business activities that Sainsbury’s provide will help them fulfil their desired aims and objectives because they are offering their consumers with a wide range of services and products. Sainsbury’s core service may be to offer groceries but the key element to remember is that Sainsbury’s are always looking to improve and diversify their existing product portfolio. The way in which they ensure that their business activities help them accomplish their aims is through a number of performance associated techniques. For example Sainsbury utilise benchmarking, total quality management and quality control as tools in which to help them achieve their aims.

How Performance Tools used by Sainsbury’s helps them achieve their aims ; objectives Benchmarking at Sainsbury’s Benchmarking is simply a management utensil that assists companies to improve their performance through comparing features of business performance with those of other companies. The principle behind benchmarking is to pinpoint the best attainments for example in terms of delivery reliability. The business once having identified these achievements, will then make an attempt to modify some or all of their customs in order to match their competitors.

Benchmarking can help improve Sainsbury’s quality in a number of ways. For example as emphasised before it is about highlighting the area in which they are not performing as well as they could be and to improve performance they will often monitor and observe the way in which the market leader within the Groceries market is conducting their business. For example, Tesco who are currently the market leaders believe that to improve customer quality they will need to attend to their customers very needs immediately i.e. if a customer is standing in a queue which has an additional two customers in front of them; they will open up a new checkout point.

This in turn will help to increase customer quality as they are providing a more efficient way of doing business in the manner that the queues will have become shorter and so customers will have a quick and easy route to pay for their goods/services they have bought. Once having identified the most suitable company in the same field for Sainsbury’s which may well be Tesco, Sainsbury’s will try to match Tesco as to what is making them better. Sainsbury’s will then make relative comparisons between themselves and Tesco possibly via inter-firm comparisons which is looking at statistical data and by weighing themselves against Tesco, Sainsbury’s will have discovered what modifications could be made to improve their quality and can then start to apply what is needed in order for them to develop quality.

Successful benchmarking will involve commitment from management and elements such as best practice information available to make feature comparisons. Benchmarking can help to strengthen overall quality of a firm as it can stimulate new conceptions about other ways of doing things. This process may help improve quality in other areas too and so if Sainsbury’s identify their weakness and rectify it then the objectives outlined earlier will be achieved. Total Quality Management at Sainsbury’s By the same level of importance, Sainsbury’s employ a total quality management system and quality control.

Where the customer has choice, quality is vital. Sainsbury’s have a system of quality checks in the production department which is beneficial to them because if product faults are identified and corrected before being sold as being a quality end product to customers then it can increase brand loyalty, generate repeat purchases and allow a price minimum because quality adds value and can for that reason help to boost more profit and sales for the firm which are two of their aims.

If faults are detected, corrected and products and processes are continually improved on a regular basis then customers will repeat purchases as Sainsbury’s product’s will be at their height in terms of quality and appearance, thus helping to improve business performance as more sales and profit will be generated, for this reason they will achieve brand recognition and their reputation will become more renowned. The keystone of company-wide quality management is the concept of customer and supplier working together to their mutual advantage. For Sainsbury’s this becomes ‘total’ quality management if the supplier/customer interfaces extend beyond the immediate customers, and beyond the immediate suppliers.

In order to achieve this, Sainsbury’s must organise itself in such a way that the human, administrative and technical factors affecting quality will be under control and produce consistency. This leads to the requirement for the development and implementation of a quality system which enables the objectives such as improve and provide a highly quality assured service set out in the quality policy to be accomplished.

The quality system in use must be appropriate to the type of activity and product or service being offered. Quality food is seen as a main concern for Sainsbury’s customers. Sainsbury’s have in place quality control at numerous stages of the food retailing business; in the enlargement of new food products, the company’s Food Centre operates a three step process of quality assurance: Quality Control; Sensory Appraisal; and Development.

In Quality Control, new and re-developed products are sampled by product managers and buyers; in Sensory Appraisal, focus groups are used to discover what consumers think about existing and new products; and in Development, the Food Centre is concerned in identifying trends in food to make new recipe ideas. I will now assess Sainsbury’s financial performance and use key sections of their five year summaries as a means of a financial indicator to prove whether or not they are achieving the corporate and strategic objectives that they set out to achieve as mentioned in task 2. In addition, bar charts, information from each Sainsbury’s directors, annual reports will be utilised upon too.

Standards accommodation is a 3 bedroom house mostly unfurnished detached souse standing in it’s own plot, often with a swimming pool and full security provisions. Full range of furniture is available from local suppliers and it is also possible to have it made to order from quality Zambia wood at reasonable cost. Furnished properties can be found including opportunity to rent a flat. New arrivals are recommended to contact reputable estate agents, realtors who are listed in yellow pages as well as in a monthly publication called the lowdown or in daily newspapers.

Travel and vehicles Zambia has no national airline but is served by a number of airlines that connect to international routes via Johannesburg, Cape town, Nairobi and dark-sees-salaam. Zambia airways aware is a privately run airline with direct international routes to London as well as regional flights to Johannesburg, Hare and Lumbagos, and local flights to various destinations within the country. Moreover, there is a thrice weekly British airways flight from the Lusaka international airport to London via Cape town, Johannesburg.

Other international airlines operating in Zambia include South African Airways, Kenya Airways, Ethiopians Airlines and Nationwide. The Lusaka International Airport is approximately 20 kilometers from the town centre. All personal effects imported within 6 months of arrival are free of Zambia import duty Air frightening is recommended. On arrival register with your high commissions/ supply of photographs. This next article was last updated in December 2012 but not all parts of the article may be up to date.

Please feel free to further update it if need be. Water supply and sanitation in Zambia is characterized by achievements and challenges. Among the achievements are the creation of regional commercial utilities for urban areas to place fragmented service provision by local governments; the establishment of a devolution trust fund to focus donor support on poor peer urban areas; and an increase in the access to water supply in rural areas.

Among the challenges are a low rate of cost recovery despite tariff increases in urban areas; limited capacity in the sector; insufficient progress in increasing access to sanitation; a high level of non- revenue water in urban areas;a high rate of non-functioning rural water systems; and insufficient investment levels despite substance foreign ad.