GOURMET BAKERS INTRODUCTION:The word gourmet is from the French term, defined as "refined and uncontrolled love of good food". Gourmet is an industry classification for high-quality premium foods in the United States. Gourmet may describe a class of restaurant, cuisine, meal or ingredient of high quality, of special presentation, or high sophistication. Gourmet food is characterized by high quality, accurate preparation, and artistic presentation. This name ³gourmet´ was suggested by his daughter daug hter who is living in America. ³Gourmet Bakers and Sweets´ is the largest food retail chain of Lahore. It is based in Lahore, the second largest city of Pakistan known for its traditional foods and passion for eating. It was started with a single outlet in Ichra in 1987 by Mr.Muhammad Nawaz Chathha, in the begging they did not get good response which resulted in shut down. He again started in 1992 at different place at Muslim town, and Gourmet did not look back since then. Now with its 5 production units,2 restaurants and 88 sales outlets, gourmet outreaches to a huge population for their food needs. Mr. Chathha the founder of Gourmet stared his business with 20million rupees. He is holding the position of Managing Director of the company. He was serving in Shezan Bakers as a General Manager and later on he decided tomake his own bakery. He started his business through getting employees from Shehzan bakers in the beginning. Gourmet produces a wide variety of bakery items, sweets and dairy products and offers high quality services in their restaurants. Gourmet has introduced many new items in bakery products categories which were previously not in the market of Lahore. Gourmet stresses hard on quality and taste of their products and making them affordable for their customers at the best prices in the market. The company has shown an explosive annual growth of more than 25% till 2006in its business since this unique business was started in in 1992. Recently gourmet shows 65% of annual growth in its business from 2006 to 2009. With his commitment and strenuous effort to provide the consumers with best quality food products in a convenient and unmatched displaying manner, Gourmet has become a success story of business growth in Pakistan. At the moment Gourmet has more than 4500 employees e mployees working in the organization.
MISSION STATEMENT:³Our mission is to provide quality products at lowest prices´
VISION STATEMENT:³Leader of quality juice providers in the region by offering products enjoyed inevery home. This will be achieved from the dedication of each employee inconjunct ion with supportive participation from management at all levels.´
SWOT ANALYSIS:SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Internal factors, the strengths and weaknesses and external factors, the opportunities and threats. The analysis shows Gourmet Baker Pakistan's Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. The SWOT analysis will give you a clear picture of the business environment Gourmet Baker Pakistan is operating in at the present t ime.
STRENGTHS:y
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER: By having a strong R&D center
Gourmet is offering a quality product to their customers. Gourmet is offering a product to their customer in different packing and acco rding to different occasions. y
WELL ORGANIZED STRUCTURE: Gourmet has a well organized structure. All the
departments perform their work according to the organizational structure. 100% of production at Gourmet is carried out at automated plants. y
TEAM WORK : All the departments are working as a team such as Quality assurance,
Marketing, MIS, HR and Administration etc. Working as a team increases the efficiency of the Gourmet. y
LOW COST: Keeping costs lower than their competitors and keeping the cost
advantages helps Gourmet Baker Pakistan pass on some of the benefits to consumers. y
SUPPLIER RELATIONSHIP: Supplier relationships are strong at Gourmet Baker
Pakistan, which can only be seen as strength in their overall performance.
y
CUSTOMER RETENTION: As Gourmet is offering complete range of sweets, dairy,
and bakery products to their customers with the best quality and taste. Gourmet is able to retain the customers because of its brand name and worth of the brand. As retaining the customer is better rather than switching towards the new custo mers.
WEAKNESSES:y
LESS FINANCIAL RESOURCES FOR ADVERTISEMENT: Gourmet is using less
financial resources for advertisement. By using the appropriate resources they can advertise their product by different tools of advertisement. y
LATEST MACHINERY REQUIRED FOR INCREASING THE PRODUCTION RATE: Latest machinery is the key strength of any organization, but Gourmet lacks in
this point. By using the latest machinery Gourmet can increase the production rate. y
HIGH COST OF PRODUCTION: Another weak point of gourmet bakers is that they
have high cost of production which also creates a problem for them. y
LIMITED DISTRUBTION NETWORK: limited distribution network is also a weak
point for gourmet bakers.
OPPORTUNITIES:y
Gourmet Baker Pakistan is in good financial position, which is an opportunity for them to explore in terms of investment in new pro jects.
y
Grasping the opportunity to expand the customer base is something Gourmet Baker Pakistan can aim for, either geographically or through new products.
y
Expanding
the product/service lines by Gourmet Baker Pakistan could help them raise
sales and increase their product portfolio. y
Gourmet Baker Pakistan has a number of highly skilled staff, which is an opportunity for them to explore as expertise of their staff can help Gourmet Baker Pakistan to bring the business forward.
y
One of the most important opportunities is that Gourmet can increase their target market by capturing other cities which consist of the potential customers.
y
Gourmet is the well recognized brand nationwide which means the worth of the brand is good in the mind of the customers. Because of the brand worth Gourmet can come up with the different market of bakery products.
THREATS:y
Extra
competition and new competitors entering the market could unsteady Gourmet
Baker Pakistan and be a threat. y
The actions of a competitor could be a major threat against Gourmet Baker Pakistan, for instance, if they bring in new technology or increase their workforce to meet demand.
y
Changing of consumer preferences is a major threat of any organization. As if we talk about Gourmet now people prefer international brand over local brand which have become a major threat.
y
Consumer lifestyle and tastes changes from time to time could lead to less of a demand for Gourmet Baker Pakistan products/services.
y
Gourmet Baker Pakistan could be threatened by the growing power that their suppliers have to set their prices.
y
Rising price of sugar is also a threat for Gourmet bakers.
y
Rising inflation is also a threat for Gourmet bakers.
y
The ups and downs in politics is also a threat for them.
