Objective National Bank of Canada ("NBC" or "the Bank") is tasked with the decision to review Dawson Lumber Company Limited's ("Dawson") request for an increase in its line of credit up to the amount of $10.8mm. Dawson intends to finance inventory and receivables with the line of credit. NBC must remain cognizant of the competitive landscape of the lumber industry and assess whether a focus on the retail segment is beneficial to Dawson's strategic plan. Given that Dawson is one of the region's largest borrowers, NBC must be careful in how it manages this relationship. The Bank cannot afford to turn away NBC's business. However, extending Dawson additional credit may increase Dawson's default risk and jeopardize the potential for NBC …show more content…
Canadian Retail Hardware and Home Improvement Industry Analysis This industry, although more attractive than the lumber industry, has its own inherent flaws . The Canadian retail hardware and home improvement industry can be characterized by high degree of rivalry, mainly due to a large number of players competing over products of low differentiation and incurring high fixed costs. Furthermore, due to low switching costs, high information, and price sensitivity, buyers are not loyal and have high bargaining power relative to retailers. Additionally, the medium threat and power of large new entrants and suppliers adds to the industry's unattractiveness.
Company Overview Dawson was founded in the 1870's and has remained a private business since inception. Located in Ontario, Canada, its operations have been focused on three regions: Ottawa, primarily an urban market, Cornwall, a rural market, and Kingston, partially a resort and partially an urban market. During the last 3 years Dawson's net sales have increased considerably (21% in 1997; and 38% in 1998) putting great pressure on the way the company finances its working capital ("WK"). This situation is intensified by seasonal sales, typical of the construction industry. In September of 1998, Dawson pursued a strategy of forward integrating into the
The company has been functioning well in terms of generating profit and demand so far. However, there will be a 20% increase in demand for the next month of operations as predicted by management, and the production and supply management's problems may come as a problem they can no longer afford.
Retailing building supply stores have become a popular retail industry sector due to increased public awareness and the need of many homeowners for the home improvement products. Back in the 1970s, long before warehouse stores ruled home improvement land, do-it-yourselfers shopped at “home centers.” These 30,000 square foot stores offered cheaper prices and wider selection of products, about 25,000 more than local hardware stores and eliminated the extra trip to the lumberyard. The dependence of many of these retailers upon the homebuilding industry for much of their business has also been reduced and the warehouse superstores, such as Home Depot, have become more important. The smaller companies in the
The retail market for home décor is very competitive. There are a variety of stores and catalog retailers that offer similar merchandise. Major players in the industry include Bed, Bath & Beyond, Cost Plus, World Market, and Williams-Sonoma. Specialty sections of large department stores also provide competition. Opportunities in retail home décor include attracting viewers from television networks, specializing in home décor. Home & Garden (HGTV) and the Do it Yourself (DIY) network are two examples of networks that encourage interior home design by the novice. Retail home décor products are often featured on television networks which provide a way to market their merchandise to consumers. Threats to the industry include an increasing number of home décor retailers that provide competition. In addition, wholesale clubs contain home décor departments which have a tendency towards lower prices. The current energy crisis, sub-prime mortgage debacle, and increasing unemployment rates also pose a threat to the industry.
The first of Porter’s Five Forces is the threat of new entrants. According to the case study, there has been a wave of new entrants to the retail industry. These include Best Buy, Costco, Wal-Mart, Old Navy and the recently irrelevant, Target Canada. The second force, the threat of substitute products or services, is also prevalent in the retail market. Inevitably, the target audience that the Hudson’s Bay Company is trying to cater to, will shop at other retail stores for the same goods due to consumers behaviours and preferences. Another impacting force is the bargaining power of suppliers. However, this force does not play as large of an impact to HBC as one might initially assume. Traditionally, HBC among other large retail stores makes a large percentage of their
Companies in the retail industry operate in a high price elasticity environment as there is not much product differentiation to leverage. Buyers face almost no switching cost if they chose a substitute offering better value. On the contrary, large and diverse population making small purchases works in favor of the industry. No one individual or a small group has the power to significantly impact the industry, but overall buyers enjoy have a high bargaining power in the industry.
1. Productivity of the crew would be below standard. I believe for the productivity to be below standard because they were sent to this crew because of their lack of work. Just because they have been assigned to another crew, does not mean that they will begin to work well right away. When compared to the Equity Theory, I believe there to be positive inequity for the three men assigned to the new group. For being assigned to the group due to lack of work, it is unfair to have a higher pay grade than those who have been in the company for a longer period of time and who are doing their job correctly. This may cause issues with subprofessionals being motivated to work to their full
Over the last few years, it has been predominantly evident that Sears Canada has been not performing relevant to the standards present within the competitive industry. The market of retail department stores has dramatically changed since the time the corporate entity first began. To stay relevant within today’s retail industry, Sears Canada has to change their current operations. In today's market, the power of value-driven consumer products has been dominating the industry due to their affordable prices and emphasized popularity. Sears Canada has failed to distinguish themselves within the industry as either an affordable or a high quality department store. With emerging high-end retailers like Nordstrom, Holt Renfrew, the Hudson's Bay Company, and the rise of online discount retailers like Amazon and eBay, Sears can not afford to flood both market segments. This has become a major issue that Sears Canada is facing, as the company will need to differentiate themselves from their competitors by focusing their resources in the home improvement industry.
To analyze the home improvement warehouse store competitive environment, we use the Five Forces model to evaluate five crucial competitive aspects: selling rivalry, supplier resources, buyer power, outside industry substitutes, and the threat of new entrants to the marketplace.
Minnesota’s lumber industry helped Minnesota grow to the state it is today. How the industry started. Frederick Weyerhaeuser was a rich businessman who owned a lumber industry in Wisconsin and when all the trees were harvested he moved his operations to Minnesota. The lumber industry was soon to be at its peak because of Frederick Weyerhaeuser.
When viewing Porter’s generic strategy Home Depot maintains low-cost with differentiation, and as we covered in our discussion posts this week with this tactic comes the challenge of doing both well and not remaining stuck in the middle (Parnell, 2014). Home Depot offers a low price guarantee that pledges to not only match, but beat competitors advertised pricing by ten percent on all products that they also stock. This is a long standing policy that demonstrates their commitment to a low-cost strategy. Supporting this effort, management actively works with suppliers to achieve cost objectives. Relationships with suppliers additionally support their strategy of differentiation, in working to provide a varied breadth of products and exclusive
The retailer will continue to see aggressive competition from Target, Wal-Mart, JCPenney, Kohl’s, Macy’s, Home Depot and Lowes. These companies are some of the national retailers that Sears will have to contend with in order to survive. According to Sears Holding 2011, annual 10K Report with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Home Depot and Lowes are the company’s most fierce rivals of the major appliance category in which Sears accounts for nearly “16% of its entire revenue” (p.5). This fierce market positioning battle between its competitors will be a major obstacle for Sears to overcome. Sears continues to try to move forward as the company’s efficiencies in fixed assets continued
The industry has a high degree of competition as there are a large number of companies competing with little market power. The majority of companies operate on a local basis and have just one establishment. The emergence of big-box retailers such as Costco, Wal-Mart and Home Depot is likely to increase competition within the industry over the next five years.
Noland Company was founded in 1915 by Lloyd Noland as a major distributor of plumbing and plumbing fixtures including heating, air conditioning and refrigeration. Headquartered in Newport News, Virginia, it was incorporated in 1919 as Newport Plumbing & Mill Supply Company. It all begins with an idea and a vision (WinWholesale Inc, 2014).
This case study is about B.R.Richardson Timber Products Corporation a lamination plant located in Papoose, Oregon. Part of the management team determined that there was a need for change in the organization and decided to reach out to Jack Lawler a management trainer and consultant for help. The issues which needed to be addressed were the low morale in the plant, the authoritative plant manager, and the fact that there was a resent fatality in the plant. Bowman was in charge of industrial relations at the plant and felt that a motivation course was needed.
Markets; Market of fletcher changed according to the countries. Their market mostly belongs to the contractors which gave big contracts to the fletchers. Fletcher big contract till now is sky tower that take 2 years to build up.