Rogers Chocolates Essay Example for Free

Rogers Chocolates Essay 1. The premium chocolate industry is changing dramatically with the growth rate in the chocolate industry falling as a whole, other traditional big name chocolate companies like Hershey’s and Cadburys are moving more towards the premium chocolate industry. The premium chocolate industry growing 20 percent annually and with the baby boomers purchasing more chocolate, they put are putting great emphasize on quality and brand when they purchase their chocolates. The underlying drivers of change are changes that companies go through in the industry and competition conditions. There are 14 total driving forces that drive industry change but Roger’s chocolates has 6 driving forces in particular that affect them the most. First are the changes in the long-term industry growth rate because of the decreasing growth rate in the chocolate industry. Second are the changes in who buys the product and how they are used because as mentioned in the text, 20 percent of the â€Å"heavy users’ account for 54 percent of the pre-Christmas sales. Third is marketing innovation because their customers and clients had environmental concerns in bettering their packaging, procurement, and operational decisions. Fourth driving force are the entry or exit of major firms and this can been seen with companies like Hershey’s and Cadburys moving more toward the premium chocolate industry. Fifth driving force is the regulatory influences and government policy changes because larger chocolate manufactures are seeking a redefinition in the word chocolate under USFDA guidelines so that they could purchase cheaper versions of the product and still call it chocolate. Six and final driving force is changing societal concerns, attitudes, and lifestyle. People nowadays are more focused in the way they eat and are more concerned with their diet. Organic chocolate is a major topic and now dark chocolate is becoming more popular because it had been proven to be healthier than milk chocolate cause of their heart-healthy anti-oxidant. 2. Roger’s Chocolates competitive strategy is basically focused on their rich and long lasting history of their company. Roger’s Chocolates was founded in 1885 and they were Canada’s oldest chocolate company. Some of their products include Empress Squares, Dark Chocolate Almond Brittle, Marquis Assortment, Collectible Gift Tins, Fruit Nut Collection, and Ice Cream products. Their industry position is not where they hope to be, because of stiff completion from Godiva, Bernard Callebaut, and Lindt. One thing that management has done is focus their high quality hand wrapped chocolates which include Victoria Creams and they have also introduced their specialty items such as chocolate coved truffles, caramels, and orange peels. Roger’s Chocolate has introduced their line of sugar-free chocolate which opens up their market to people who cannot eat that much sugar like diabetics. Roger’s Chocolates functional strategy and tactics need to improve to be aligned with their competitive strategy, they should not only pride themselves in the uniqueness of how they specially wrap their chocolate they need to be more competitive within their industry by offering more selections of their products like fat-free products or market themselves better like Godiva does when you join their membership for free, every visit when you buy something Godiva gives you a free truffle. Something like that is what Roger’s Chocolates need to focus more on. 3. The action that Steve Parkhill should undertake to improve Rogers’ competitiveness in the Canadian Premium Chocolate Industry is focus more on what their customers want from the product. It is nice and everything that Roger’s Chocolates comes nicely packaged but the majority of the people are not interested in that part, though it does bring attention to the product. The taste of the chocolate is what is important and the ingredients it comes from as well. He needs to see what is it about their product that could give them the competitive advantage of their competitors. Also in terms of culture, although Canada is full of tourism, they need to establish themselves in other places where there are high volume of people that like premium chocolate. Expand their products towards the United States where people go visit like big cities. 4. SWOT analysis †¢Strengths = Premium chocolate markets grows 20 percent annually, high quality hand wrapped packages, stores are located in tourist areas (cruise ship traffic), well established in history, high quality ingredients. †¢Weakness = Name is not recognized internationally, expansion of the company is not considered, the sales agents do not provide links of their resellers to the website so customers do now know all the places that sell Rogers’ chocolates, do not sell my the majority to their customers †¢Opportunity = Expand their products to the U. S. or internationally, become a public company to get more exposure, produce organic items †¢Threats = Hershey’s and Cadbury moving towards the premium chocolate market, many competitors (like Godiva) , Board members do not want to grow, potential selling of the company to investors, post 9/11 tourism is slowing down. The future for Roger’s Chocolates looks like it is going to stay steady with no real big changes coming in the future. They will keep their rich history going but it does not seem like anytime in the future Roger’s Chocolates will be expanding their business. 5. At first Roger’s Chocolates was in a strong financial position due to the fact that the company was privately held and did not have to deal with public shareholders. But just after the current shareholder acquired the company, growth had substantially slowed down in the past years. Tourism has fallen down a lot as well since September 11. 2001 and the decline of the dollar has not helped much the financial either. Roger’s Chocolates level of profitability is doing well with Canada’s market for chocolate being $167 million dollars annually that is a big chunk of the market share for Roger’s chocolate to work with. Their liquidity seems to be doing well, Roger’s chocolates has strong resources in keeping their facilities and raw materials working well. Though there is a lot of room for Roger’s Chocolate to expand they seem to be operating at an average level.