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Business Level 3 Unit 22m3

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Chalk Valley The business that I am investigating is Chalk Valley, a gourmet burger bar at 27 London Road, Southampton (see figure 1.1). They have been running since February 2014 and the business is a private limited company. They attract a wide range of customers but the restaurant is a particular honey-trap for students, being in an easy location for students to reach – note question 1 of my customer survey to see the age ranges of customers. The size of the restaurant is quite small; it seats up to 50-60 maximum and the total seating space per my estimate is ~22m3. The main competitors are Shrimp and Burger, 0.2 miles away (see figure 1.2), 7Bone, 1.1 miles away (see figure 1.3) and The Handmade Burger Co. in West Quay, which is 0.7 miles …show more content…

There are bus stops on the road and 21 car parking spaces. Figure 1.1 is an image of the company’s store front and the most revealing obstruction of the business’s location is a tree that somewhat obscures the view of the store from the road. Figure 1.3 reveals that the business is in a central location of the city, with very strong road links. In terms of the bus stop, only Bluestar and Unilink buses stop at London Road (with the exception of the X5 Solent Ranger, but this stops at 08:08 only and heads only to Bedford Place). This means that many people using the majority of local First buses will have to get off at stops such as Castle Way or Vincent’s Walk, a fourteen-minute or twelve-minute walk to Chalk Valley, respectively. Most importantly, the number 1/2 bus (Bluestar) stops here, providing public transport for Chandler’s Ford, Eastleigh and all the way through to …show more content…

In this case, they need to move far from Southampton, and perhaps even Hampshire/Dorset. The owner agrees with this nevertheless, even it may be difficult to keep the importance of the London Road brand itself to people who do not know Southampton, and they are removing themselves from the local ecosystem for gourmet burger bars which has developed locally. However, there may be a wider pool of locations in a different area, which may be able to counteract the potential risks of moving far. The second is to stay put. This is the safest option; they could start a delivery service, as 7Bone does. This should be particularly helpful to expanding consumer knowledge of the business, but I leave the decision of whether they start it after increasing customer levels or start it at the same of amount of customers that they receive already to them. The third is to move away from their current location, perhaps to the property on East Street. This may benefit customer numbers, but leaves Chalk Valley in an uncertain situation. The only guarantee that can be made here is risk – is the building cost effective in terms of its rent? Can they make effective use of two floors? What role do they have on the street? How many more questions do they have to ask themselves? This decision could the best one they ever make, or the one that results in

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