Strategic Plan for Woolworths/Macro Wholefoods
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To dedicate a team to find potential new |
2 assistant |
To establish |
By mid of 2012. |
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organic farmers (or encourage existing |
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non-organic farmers) and help in getting |
‘Macro Farmers |
with new |
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organic certificates to these potential |
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farmers. |
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This team should also work to establish |
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long term relationship with organic certification organisations (like Biological Farmers of Australia-BFA)
10 Action Plan Summary
At a marketing level, the target is to increase customer awareness of organic products to 80% by the end of 2015. On the supply side, a separate supply chain department for Macro food products should be created by the beginning of 2013 with a goal to create a stable relationship with existing and develop new organic farmers to keep up with the demand. To achieve financial goals, product lines should be extended to 900 products in 2014 with a 10% increase p.a. afterwards. A separated or integrated approach to product layout should be adopted and all existing supermarkets redesigned accordingly by the end of 2012. Product lines of baby food and pet food should be expanded by developing Woolworths’ private labels under the Macro wholefood brand or by acquiring existing entities which manufacture organic products for either babies or dogs. Macro is to adopt focused diversification strategy for the years 2012-2015. In 2015, the marketing and financial departments of Macro and Woolworths have to investigate economic benefits of Macro changing to a differentiation strategy.
11 Conclusion
Organic Industry dynamics are changing with sustainable development of food industry. With the entry of retailers into organic food market has created great demand for organic products and has brought this industry into mainstream. Woolworth’s acquisition of Macro has positioned itself straight into this emerging market. Woolworth’s has rich knowledge and experience in retail over a long
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Strategic Plan for Woolworths/Macro Wholefoods
period of time and is well known for its ‘Passionate About Retail’. Woolworths should use its core competencies in the field of brand, supply chain, innovation and distribution channel for the development of Macro Brand of organic products. Macro will strengthen the brand image of Woolworths in front of customer for its commitment to take care of customer health and also environment. Correct strategy will give a competitive edge to Woolworths Macro over other competitors. With the proposed strategy for focused differentiation, diversification into new product lines, marketing and financial strategy can give a right direction to Woolworths for further business development of its Macro brand. It will be equally important for Macro to convert the proposed strategy into actions by implementing action plan effectively without any lags. It will be very important for Woolworths to define roles and responsibilities for key management positions in Macro division and how they can be interlinked to higher management. Woolworths has a huge potential in the emerging organic industry with a very bright future.
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