Steeple analysis
Iceland Foods Ltd the frozen food specialist, one of the best Big 25 companies to work for in the UK (rank as No 10, 2015) and Best big company to work for the year before (The Sunday Times, 2014) has an existing network of 880 stores around the UK and a further 40 owned or franchised stores across Europe together with a global export business.
For 2017 the company was declared as the Best online supermarket of the year through survey which was conducted by more than 7,000 members of the public ranking Iceland’s online services ahead of Waitrose, Ocado, Morrisons, Tesco and Sainsbury’s. With annual sales of 2.7 billion (2015), an employment force of more than 26,000 people (2017) and a vision to be the best in frozen food products the company has further plans for expansion.
Founded in 1970 the company currently employs 26,000 people.
QUESTION 1:
Assess the attractiveness of the UK market for further growth and also identify the potential benefits that can be derived from a further European expansion.
(40 marks)
QUESTION 2:
While the company is examining the possibility to expand further to Europe, the CEO (Sir Malcolm Walker) would like to seek your advice about the feasibility and entry strategies for entering a European country. The company so far has already been operating in Spain, Portugal, Iceland, Channel Islands, Ireland, Isle of Man and Czech Republic.
You are required to examine the following three aspects of internationalisation and provide recommendations based on the analyses you have carried out:
(a) Suggest from the following list of European countries one country only to enter and provide the rationale for choosing this country for international expansion; The list of European countries are:
(1) Poland
(2) France
(3) Italy
(4) Sweden
(5) Germany
(25 marks)
(b) Suggest the optimal rate of international expansion in the chosen country (Small or Large scale expansion); and
(10 marks)
(c) The most suitable entry strategy and entry mode for entering that particular European country.
(25 marks)
