MARKETING AND FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF JOHN LEWIS PLC

WAITROSE Ltd was found in 1904 by Wallace Wyndham Waite, Arthur Rose and David Taylor when they opened their shop in Acton (Andidas, 2003). In 1937, it was acquired by the John Lewis Partnership and its Self Service was introduced in 1951. From a small business selling grocery products, it has been built up to a network of over 300 shops known for its own historical and the quality of products. The majority of their customers are those who have stable incomes and above due to their uncompetitive price. Their key aims and objectives are to archive improvement in services and gain more profits by open new store and expand their business into the North-West. In addition, Waitrose also wants to archive more targets in the next period of time such as to motivate their staff to provide better services, which can increase levels of customer service, and develop their organic range as well as their relationships with local community In this project. In this essay, the dominant stakeholders and their main interest will be identified as well as the discussion of Waitrose 's detailed analysis.

The UK supermarket industry is a very competitive and profitable industry. It is made up of four main players with significant share of the market, and then various smaller companies who focus on smaller niches in the market such as the bottom of the market discounters and the top of the line speciality stores. It is an interesting market and this report evaluates the attractiveness of the industry using Porter’s five forces model with an insight into how market nicher Waitrose sustains a competitive advantage. Next this report looks at how major player Sainsbury’s successfully competes against its rivals using differentiation strategies, and analyses current consumer trends and problems can effect this industry.

Brand Position according to Kotler & Keller is “the act of designing the company’s offer and image that will occupy a distinct and valued place in the mind of the target market”. John Lewis is positioned as a brand that has something for everyone to have for the lowest price between them and their competitors. They have lines of products for all ages, gender, sizes and species. They stay on top of their prices and have a price promise to match a product price if found cheaper elsewhere.

Due to the economy downturn period, Macy’s and many other retailers were suffering. Fortunately, Macy’s has chosen the beneficial marketing strategy to fit the objective of business. This paper will analyze the company’s situation from its financial aspect, industry aspect, the competitive part and Macy’s marketing strategies to conclude that Macy’s could have stable profit in the next three to five years.

Macy's is one of the premier retailer franchises within the United States. To begin, Macy's Inc. is one of the nation's largest and well known department store chains. Started over 150 years ago, Macy's has continually generated excellent returns for its shareholders and employees. Currently, in the midst of a global recession, Macy's has generated huge profits with same store sales increasing 5.3% year to date. In 2012 same store sales increased 4.6% in the month of February alone (Macy's Inc., 2012). In fact, throughout the duration of 2012, Macy's is projecting even larger profits for its underlying business operations. Even though Macy's has experienced success with both its assortments and brand, its competitors haven't faired so well. Sears, due in part to part to a lackluster holiday season, has been forced to close nearly 120 locations to generate excess liquidity in an effort to shore up its balance sheet (Isadora, 2011).Other competitors who cater specifically to the middle class consumer have also lost significant amounts of market share as consumers trade down due to the economy. Macy's, with its ride array of assortments and products continues to grow as it attempts to capture market share from failing competitors. Macy's is also unique as it operates in a unique market

The industry we have chosen is the department store-retail industry. Within this industry, we have chosen the department stores of JCPenney and Macy’s. We find this industry, as well as these two companies, interesting from a strategic perspective. JCPenney has recently undergone a massive strategic restructuring in regards to its pricing, brand offerings, and store layout, pushing it away from the typical department store strategy of discounts and coupons. Its new strategy has become much closer to Wal-Mart’s strategy of every day low prices. Macy’s, on the other hand, has restructured with a push from the economic

This will benefit John Lewis as sales for the good quality products would be increasing which furthermore could lead to John Lewis recovering from their losses if they were in one and go into break even or begin to start getting profits. John Lewis would buy more stock from its suppliers at this period of the economic environment as when demand increases you must get more supply to meet that demand. Also John Lewis at the time since they buy in bulk from their suppliers they can benefit from getting more stock at a good price that gives good value for money, as usually suppliers would offer you extra amounts of stock if you buy in large quantities. During this period of time interest rates would be low compared to in recession because there isn’t as much financial institutions to try get as much finance as they can from small amounts of borrowings from their company in this period as customers, business etc intend to borrow more money in this period of time as they are fairly financially stable, so to encourage the businesses and customers to begin taking sources of finance they lower the rates. So John Lewis is more likely to start borrowing sources of finance if needed then in the period of growth.

In this assignment I will identify what competitive factors and changes Tesco faces in the retail sector and how it might respond to these under the following headings; retail environment using PESTEL, and competitive environment based on overcoming barriers to entry, pricing, new markets and mobile population. In this assignment I will be talking about how Porter’s five forces are being used by Tesco.

In this segment, the retailer J.C. Penney will be analyzed against the department store retail industry, with particular emphasis placed upon their competitors, Macy’s and Kohl’s. The major components to be discussed will include the general external environment (i.e. demographics, economics, politics, legal requirements, technologies and global expansion), the industry environment, the competitive environment, the driving forces and the key factors for success within the industry. In terms of the general external environment, the retail industry is a multi-trillion dollar business in the United States alone and maintains operations primarily due to consumer spending. Such purchases rely upon the disposable income of

Since acquiring number one ranking in 1996, Tesco has developed a successful multiformat strategy that has accelerated its advantage. Its UK sales are now 71% larger than Sainsbury’s. Also the Competition Commission’s report makes it very difficult for a competitor to challenge its scale and has effectively scuppered Wal-Mart’s chances of stealing UK leadership. Therefore, Tesco is in an enormously strong position in its domestic market.

As one of the major retailers in the United States, JCPenney has 1,104 department stores in 49 states and Puerto Rico as of February 2, 2013. The key success of its business is tremendously depending on the sales performance. However, the retail business is highly competitive, with low barriers to entry and low profit margin. Due to large sales plunge in 2012, the company is in financial trouble. The thorough analysis of JCPenney’s financial statements is vital to judge the future performance of its business.

The purpose of this report is to critically analyse the financial ratio results of Morrison 2008 and 2009 as an equity analyst and compare it with like for like by using Tesco supermarket.

‘We aim to return the UK High Street Retail business to its role as Britain's most popular stationer, bookseller and newsagent … Our plans encompass improved efficiency through cost savings and margin enhancement, while rebuilding the competitiveness and depth of our product ranges.' (Ms Swann BBC, July 2005)

JC Penney is not as large as some of its competitors, many of which have more substantial resources and are constantly attacking their market share. The company also faces threats from economic conditions, such as high unemployment and the recent recession. When consumers are under financial pressures can easily decide to shop elsewhere, such as Kohl’s, Target, and even the dreaded Walmart. Even the perception of better value can drive consumers elsewhere.

There are 92,796 grocery stores in the UK and the market value increase by 19.5% in the last 5 years and according to IGD forecast the UK grocery market should reach £203bn by 2019. But what we can see in the figure 1 that from 2009 to 2014 annual grow in the grocery market start decreasing from 4.9% in 2009 to 2.8% in 2014. One of the reason for this is difficult economic conditions which had an effect for consumer spending. Consumers choose to spend less money on food by buying less food or by looking for cheaper places. Retail market is diversified into three main sectors: Hypermarket and superstores which accounts for 42.3% of retail market, convenience stores 21.4% and small supermarkets 20.3% (Figure 3). So about 84% of sales are done in these three sectors. The biggest 4 retail chains in UK are: Tesco which takes 28.7% market share, Asda has 17.3%, Sainsbury’s 16.6% and Morrison’s 11%. (Figure 2) So, if we will sum up 4 biggest retail market chains we will have about ¾ of market share. Finally, a strong characteristic of this sector is competition with price wars and a