Loblaw Companies Limited Case Study Essay

Loblaw’s is one of the most successful companies in the grocery retail industry in Canada, in order for Loblaw’s to penetrate a global market they must identify, plan and execute a strategy. Loblaw’s needs to identify new market potential internationally which in turn increase profit and gross margins, in order to continue expanding. Such starting locations for expansion that seem feasible are developing cities in the United States that are relatively close to the Canadian boarder. This will make it easier to control and monitor this project closely, because since this is the first global expansion, Loblaw’s should keep a close eye on their productivity to determine if they can compete globally. Their financial records indicate that they can expand. Their gross margins and profits are in relatively good standing indicating that they have more money to payoff expenses and potentially expand. The Loblaw’s philosophy of not acquiring debt and using cash flow to purchase new real estate

To satisfy consumers’ needs, Loblaw established strong regional brands such as Provigo in Quebec, and also built superstores that focus on particular product categories. By adopting a multi-format approach, Loblaw is able to cover a wide range of prices to further appeal to consumers. By the same token, responding to the demand of one-stop shopping and the tendency of growing convenience store, Loblaws also offer non-food items to meet the daily needs of every household.

1) Should Wal-Mart be expected to protect small businesses in the communities within which it operates?

5. Lederer's plan to combat the threat of Wal-Mart Supercentre grocery stores turned bad on the company Consolidating its distribution centres, which supposedly made the supply chain more efficient, resulted in the departure of many of the chain's general merchandise buyers who were unwilling to move. There were numerous delays and coordination problems as suppliers had trouble shipping their goods to stores on time, and Loblaws was forced to mark it down in order to liquidate excess inventory. Expanding its inventory to general merchandise, supposedly to make a one-stop location like Wal-Mart Supercentres, was considered by many

The threat of entry of the supermarket industry in US is low, which base on the analysis of the three major sources that related to the entry barriers. The first barrier is the economies of scale of the existing large supermarkets. When these incumbents achieved larger volume sales, they can have lower unit costs than new entrants, and it will very difficult for those new entrants to compete with them (Johnson, Whittington, &Scholes 2011). For example, Wal-Mart had invested in innovative procurement, automated distribution centre and bar coding to increase its economies of scale, and these investments created a great barriers for new small retailers to enter into the supermarket industry (Porter 2008). The second barrier is the incumbency advantages, which mean the incumbents established their own strengths that cannot be used by competitors (Porter 2008). For example, the top ten supermarkets in US have accumulated extensive experiences on how to run their businesses more efficiently than new entrants (Johnson, Whittington, &Scholes 2011). The subtle differentiation between the products that sold in supermarkets is the third barrier for new entrants. Because most of the product assortment is same or similar between each supermarket,

In the United States, the food retail industry is absolutely massive. According to Statista, this industry brings in nearly 5.27 trillion dollars annually and 594.4 billion of that is from grocery store sales. In this market, the 20-ton gorilla in the room is Walmart, racking in nearly 20% of the entire market at around 118 billion dollars in 2013 according to the Harvard Business School case study. Following Walmart, Kroger and Costco own the biggest next largest slices bringing in 76 billion and 71 billion respectively. In this highly competitive market that has some of the smallest margins of any industry it can be tough to get ahead and even tougher to grow. However, Trader Joe’s has managed to pierce what was once a very small world

Target Corporation’s (NYSE:TGT) share price declined nearly 7.5% in the last month alone, amid the potential threat of higher taxes from Donald Trump’s new administration. Aside from higher taxes, the company looks in a very solid position to expand its profitability and dividends.

Trader Joe's faces several threats to its business, as competitors try to invade the company’s niche and attempt to imitate the company’s core strategies. The supermarket industry itself faces a major threat, as larger chains such as grocery retailers Wal-Mart and Tesco have begun to open small-format stores that mimic the Trader Joe's approach. This invasion results in additional cost pressure for incumbents like Trader Joe’s, which had to let go employees in order to become more cost competitive.

The threat of substitutes in the food retail industry can be high among the ‘Big Four’ as switching costs are relatively low and products can be similar. However, most have their own private labels and also target slightly different markets, such as Sainsbury’s having more upmarket positioning and Tesco’s cost leadership. Waitrose offers unique and differentiated products, which are, in the eyes of the consumer, significantly superior. No other supermarket offers such premium quality products with great service and such a large range of organic products as Waitrose, so this makes them extremely difficult to substitute. (Euromonitor, 2008).

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.

Loblaw Companies is one of the largest food retailers in Canada, owning well maintained brands such as NoFrills, Real Canadian Superstore, and Shoppers Drug Mart. With its focus of fresh produce, real Canadian pork, and low prices on other instore food products, Loblaw’s had created well-established branding for themselves in the local communities. However, in the past few years, Loblaw’s Companies have faced an ever-growing competitive market, with other retail competitors such as Walmart, Costco, and Drugstores expanding in the food retail industry. It is sourced

This paper will discuss the kroger company’s strategy and competitive advantage. It will also discuss competition and strategy from rival company Walmart. Research will show whether Kroger uses an offensive or defensive strategic approach to business practices. It will discuss mergers and acquisitions of The Kroger Company (Bethel University, 2017).

Loblaw Companies Limited is the leader of Canada’s food and pharmacy, their independently-operated stores, food and household products as well as pharmacies can be found in every Canadian’s neighborhoods.

Canadian based company, Saralyn Mills, is in need of a new marketing strategy to repair the current shortage of sales in Quebec, Canada. According to the case study, the Quebec and Ontario markets account for 69 percent of the company’s sales in Canada. Currently, Saralyn Mills does not have an effective strategy in place for the market of Quebec. The company’s current goal is to implement a global standardization strategy, which is focused on keeping a set marketing strategy the same for every location. It is up to the marketing manager, Nicole Vichon, to come up with a new and separate marketing plan for Quebec. Even though this would be a major policy change from the current global strategy of Saralyn Mills, case facts prove it could be very effective.

Wal-Mart is the world's largest retail and departmental store chain. Having business operations in 27 countries with 69 different brand names, Wal-Mart is able to serve a huge number of customers per day. Wal-Mart is the fastest growing and the most successful retail brand in the world. The factors which make it the strongest brand in its industry include large customer base, sound financial strength, strong brand image, and huge supply chain network. Wal-Mart has certain weaknesses in its operations and business setup like low acceptability of certain products, high employee turnover, and less recognition of newly introduced brands. These weaknesses can be overcome by availing attractive opportunities from the market and investing more in the most profitable areas. Wal-Mart faces the biggest threat from its competitors and ever-changing customer preferences.