The Walt Disney Company's Yen Financing, Harvard Case Study

The structure of the wine industry is quite different around the world. The barrier to entry is relatively higher in the New World than in the Old World. Referring to the market data on the level of concentration in 1998, people can see a few players dominate the markets in Australia and the U.S. while the level of concentration is quite low in Europe. Therefore, the rivalry in Old World is intense there.

The dynamics of the global wine industry are better understood through a brief history of wine as well as an overview of the wine making process. Some countries have longer historical and cultural ties with wine then others and that can affect the quality and perception of the product in the eyes of the consumer. Also, the conditions in which the wine grapes are raised and the processes used to make the wine can create a superior wine and therefore a competitive advantage.

The buyer’s power within the wine industry varies between different places in the world. There are for example strategic differences between Europe and the “New World”. The “New World” includes countries like the US, Australia, Chile and South Africa. In Europe there is a big competition

Oftentimes, wineries would re-use empty wine bottles. Shipping was another problem for Napa Valley and California wine in general. Expensive shipping resulted in higher prices for bottles. Principal markets in the East Coast preferred wines from France and Italy because they were cheaper than California wines (Leve).

Mauricio Cruz, a wine merchant for Cruz 's Spirits Emporium, wants to determine if the average price of imported wine is less than the average price of domestic wine. The data obtained is shown in the table below.

AIFS wants to offset any change in the exchange rates that may adversely affect their profit margins by using currency forward contracts and currency options. These hedging activities work to offset the three types of risk defined above as bottom-line risk, volume risk, and competitive pricing risk. Since these hedging activities must be put in place two years before the actual year of sales, AIFS must decide the proportion and cost

To compute the optimal order quantity of each wine we firstly needed to compute the unit cost per bottle and the salvage value of each. From the description of the case we could easily identify that the unit cost of each bottle was 50% (gross margin) of the price plus the 1,25€ per bottle of the transportation costs. With this we computed the unitary cost of each type of wine.

B. Suppose an American exporter has just received a payment of € 100,000, how many dollars will result upon conversion?

Wine consumers hardly think about price when it comes to buying. For the lower grad cheaper wines, the power of the buyer is greater; but when in comes to premium brands of wine, the power of the buyer is low.

The pricing for the products themselves are harder to approximate. There are many factors that go into deciding the price for a certain type of wine, with a certain name, from a certain company, containing a certain type of grape, that was processed a certain way. Many wine companies throughout the US have a high end wine and a low end wine. This allows the company to enter the market at all angels. Especially with the down turn of the economy, many companies have had to

The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world and is headquartered in Burbank, California, USA. It was established by Walt and Roy Disney in 1923. Since its inception, Disney has grown vastly so that operational areas now include theme parks, motion pictures, television dramas and consumer products.

I would recommend U.K market because both in volume and value U.K is being importing higher than U.S. U.K has easy procedure to distribute nationwide than U.S. U.K has a perfect platform to excel in branding and building the image. U.S is lacking in distribution, numerous different markets and there are more domestic wine producers. Therefore, I would definitely recommend U.K. and in terms of distributor; I would recommend distributor who had worked in 1996 because Montgras gained 75% of sales through restaurants. Moreover, the fixed tax of £1 makes this a great market for reservas regardless of retail price. The expensive wines might be at least twice the quality lower end wine in terms of quality of the wine

The Walt Disney Company, a diversified international company operated entertainment and recreational complexes, produced motion picture and television features, developed community real estate projects, and sold consumer products. The company was founded in 1938 as a successor to the animated motion picture business established by Walt and Roy Disney in 1923.

Nowadays, in the “Old World” countries of Europe, where the bulk of the volume is still produced, this is of great concern. However, consumers, especially younger drinkers, prefer the high quality wine from famous brands which are imported into Europe by the “New World” player, and the growth rate is at average10% per

Great Eastern Toys is a company in Hong Kong that exports a huge percent of its total sales to the North American and European markets and hence is exposed to currency risk. Previously, the company was occupied with expanding their business and the company 's management had never given much attention to currency risk until their recent meeting with their banker. The banker pointed out that the depreciation of the European currencies during the previous two years had resulted in a substantial loss of income. The company 's management was indeed convinced that they should begin to devote more time and manage their currency position. In this report, we are going to explore the different options for Great Eastern Toys to hedge