Thornton 's, A Premier Chocolatier Company

The premium chocolate industry is a large market in the United States and continues to grow around 10% annually. It is also populated with very strong

Hershey’s and Cadburys are moving towards the premium chocolate market through the acquisition or upmarket launches (Zietsma, 2007). The profit potential present in this sector supported by its 20% annual growth rate make it very attractive for large organizations to come forward and avail this opportunity. There is a low threat of new entrants prevailing in this chocolate industry because of the high capital requirements and expected retaliation by current manufacturers. Current players in the industry also possess some barriers to entry for new entrants by maintaining economies of scales with their large production capacity and keeping their product differentiation with their specialized and novelty chocolate products. Even though there are low switching costs and easy access to distribution channels, but still the brand loyalty of the customers including the Rogers’ Chocolate itself make it harder for new firms to come into the competition.

Steven Wang, a fluently bilingual American-born Chinese, jointed Carvel Asia Limited in September 1997. After spending three months, he moved to Beijing with a priority mandate to increase Beijing Carvel‘s sales, particularly in the ice-cream cakes category. But he quickly discovered, “this was going to be difficult because there is an amazing lack of information upon which to base any decisions”. Then he relied on his own observations, feedback from Beijing Carvel customers and sales staff, and information gleaned from business magazines and public reports to help him make his decisions. Finally he found that:-

The film includes many exclusive interviews with representatives of some of the world’s most popular brands and brands which have revolutionized marketing. It also features opinions of many well-known advertising

The transportation cost of chocolate was high and small mom and pop stores commonly supplied chocolate made locally. Today you would be hard-pressed to find local chocolate in the United States, with the shelves dominated by four major brands. The

Cadbury uses market penetration strategies to keep people aware of their brand. They do this all in their current market. They do this by selling more to existing customers, like selling their products in multi-packs. This means that the customers can buy their products in larger quantities and it will encourage them to do so as they can have more of the product instead of buying it individually. They also use product development strategies such as selling new products in an existing market.

The premium chocolate industry is having an intensive competition in Canada with the strong growth potential. Industry growth opportunity imposes increasing competition from rivals and threats of new entrance that adds pressure on overall profitability. Even though Roger’s has been able to establish its place in the chocolate industry with its strong brand recognition and products’ quality, it still needs to be on top of ever- going market changes, by continuously

The premium chocolate market has been growing at 20% annually, showing that buyers are willing to pay more for a better tasting and better quality chocolate. The declining growth of the overall chocolate market and rapid growth of the premium chocolate market is positive for current producers of premium chocolates in that the decline

In pursuit of upscale segments of the market and an increased market share, Consumer Food Groups (CFG) purchased the rights to become a distributor of Montreaux’s European chocolate products in the United States in June 2011. As CFG is the division which produces confectionery products for Apollo foods, they contribute not only to one-third of the company’s total revenues and net income, but are a vital part of Apollo’s ranking as second in the global confectionery business. Upon acquisition of the rights for Montreaux’s chocolates CFG formed a new division, Montreaux Chocolate USA. Under the leadership of David Raymond as division manager and Andrea Torres

The Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker is experiencing an exponential year over year growth rate of their premium product. This is a situation that all new businesses strive for and although Scharffen Berger is pleased with their growth, they are facing a potential dilemma. The company must consider how they will keep up with growing demand while having enough capacity to handle the increase in production and maintain their high quality standards.

United Cereal is a diversified company established in 1910 by Jed Thomas. The company produces snack foods, dairy products, beverages, frozen foods, baked goods, and cereals. The cereal industry generates one third of United Cereals revenue. United Cereal focuses on “commitment, diligence, and loyalty” which attracted many people to work for the company. Jed expected his Managers to adhere to a strong set of values and wanted committed Managers that would uphold his philosophy of the “The UC Way” to its customers. In addition, the company focused on listening to its customers and spotting current trends to make the market part of their core value. United Cereal was well known as an

By October 2012, it had been over 15 months since Apollo Foods, a global consumer packaged-goods firm, had obtained the rights to distribute the well-known European chocolate company, Montreaux, in the United States. Andrea Torres, the director of new product development at Montreaux Chocolate USA, is presented with the

Through a joint venture franchising structure with fairly rigorous contractual stipulations Michel’s central administration were able to expand the business to China “on a shoestring” while still maintaining “arms length control” of how the Chinese business was run. The licensee and joint venture partner bore the financial risks, while risks of damage to the brand that a failed venture would cause were deemed negligible due to China being so far away from the Australian market.

Hausser Foods is clearly experiencing a decline in sales growth due mostly to competition and a decline in population growth. The case focuses mostly on the southeast sales region; however the decline in sales growth is affecting the entire company. The lack of new ideas by the sales force is primarily due to a lack of reflective and adequate encouragement from HDQ as well as a fear or concern that such new ideas for sales revenue might actually burden the sales force in the following year through increased sales targets.

China has grown at a fast pace in the past 30 years. It has experienced double digit growth in the last two decades and it became the world’s largest trading power accounting for more than 10 percent of the global Gross GDP surpassing the GDP of the United States in the year 2013. (Barone and Bendini 2015) Currently there is a macroeconomic slowdown in the Chinese economy and the Chinese government is restructuring its reform process for taking China from a manufacturing and exports based economy to consumer based economy. (He 2014) According to a World Bank report, consumption growth remains robust in China as of May 2015 with real retail sales up by 10.5 percent. (World Bank 2015) This would seem an appropriate time to enter China as it enters the consumer spending period which would allow our brand to get well established in China now instead of it being launched when the economy was