Introduction:
A) Background/overview of Hubbard Foods Ltd.
Dick Hubbard is the well-know business personality in New Zealand and is the owner at Hubbard Foods Ltd. During his early stage he started the company by the name of Winner Foods in 1998 and 2 years later renamed it to Hubbard’s Food. Before setting up his own company, he started his career by working as a food technologist at tropical fruit factory. He also went on teamwork and confidence building course called Outward Bound, which he feels has made enormous contribution in his life. During early years the company experienced financial crunch but the turnaround came when an oat bran muesli product was launched as an in-house supermarket brand and was very successful leading Hubbards to focus solely on breakfast cereal market. Within no time the business started growing rapidly; Dick hired more employees and outgrew its premises and factory in Mangere, Auckland. Throughout this growth period and drawing from his own experiences, Dick maintained a socially responsible perspective of the business. He believed in the philosophy of creating employment and not replacing people with machinery unless it was absolutely necessary. For him staff members are the vital stakeholders in the business and are treated with respect and dignity. He was also successful in fostering the camaraderie atmosphere among employees and management. Being, a democratic leader he let on his employees to take a more participative role in the decision-making process. Everyone in the company is given the opportunity to participate, ideas are exchanged freely, and discussion is encouraged.
B) Brief overview of the sector in which Hubbard Foods Ltd competes.
Hubbard Foods operate under the ‘breakfast cereal’ category of FMCG sector. FMCG used to be called the grocery industry, now it’s just called FMCG. This is an acronym for Fast Moving Consumer Goods which, translated into English, means 'things you buy on a regular basis at places like your local supermarket.' Things like butter, potato chips, toothpaste, bread, breakfast cereal and other groceries are some examples.
The FMCG industry encompasses many of New Zealand's best known companies, including Goodman Fielder, Sealord, and
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