Introduction
Business is commenced to earn profits and achieve the goals and objectives of the company. The purpose of the report is to get information about the business which helps in fulfilling the interest of employees, employers and shareholders. It helps in making business decisions, identifying opportunities, solving problems and in evaluating progress towards goals. Nisa retail store is a grocery wholesaler, founded in 1977 by Peter Gravin and Dudley B. Ramsden. This store is located in the United Kingdom and has a headquarters at Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire and United Kingdom. It deals in food, beverages, bakery items, snacks and so more. The store has 1400 partners and 4000 stores worldwide (The Nisa Story, 2023). The store has a turnover of 1.45 billion Pound. The strategy of the store is to give an advantage to independent retailers and help them by growing their business in the competitive market. Cotswold Fayre, McColl’s and AGNE are some of the main competitors of the Nisa retail store.
This report will highlight the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats which play a crucial role in the growth of the company. It helps the company to know the internal and external factors that positively and negatively impact the company. It will provide an overview of the role that companies play in corporate social responsibility towards society. It will suggests the innovation and creativity done by the company to increase its profit margin. In the end the report will propose some ideas to improve and expand a business in the long run with the accomplishment of goals.
Main Body
SWOT analysis of the NISA retail store
- Strengths –NISA retail store provides a variety of grocery products including food, beverages, bakery items, snacks and so more yielding higher sales. The store operates almost 4000 stores worldwide with 1400 partners, increasing revenue every year (Benzaghta et al.,2021). One of the biggest strengths of the store is that there is 74% brand awareness among customers makes the product different from competitive brands and helps in generate revenue. The retail store uses superior technology to amplify the online shopping experience of its customers.
- Weakness – One of the biggest weaknesses faced by the store is poor delivery experience due to a shortage of drivers, which affects the company's reputation. Between 2022 and 2023 there are 9000 robbery incidents at convenience stores and 87% of employees face verbal abuse. This all harms the reputation of the store in the market. Also, the cost-cutting measures make customer service poor and reduce the morale of employees which leads to employee dissatisfaction.
- Opportunities- NISA retail store expands their business by investing and opening 100 stores in the first half of the year. Partnerships with other well-reputed companies give opportunity to attract more customers by offering more products. By using the opportunity of the joint venture, NISA can increase market share by using local company`s knowledge and enjoy entry into the international market.
- Threats – The increasing growth of competitive companies like Costcutter, ADM, Londis PLC and Bargain Booze Ltd. threatened the market position. Also, the profitability of the store is threatened due to disturbance in the supply chain (Puyt et al.,2020). The period of recession makes a consumer unable to demand products as a result sales are reduced. The cost of doing business also increases due to an increase in the price of raw materials and labour cost affects the company and acts as a serious threat.
Corporate Social Responsibility by Nisa
Corporate Social Responsibility is important for doing day-to-day business activities, it benefits both the company and society at a large scale. The company makes sustainable and ethical policies to protect the environment. Nisa performs many activities to reduce the adverse impact of business activities on the environment by operating the business activities in an environment-friendly manner. Waste management is the biggest and perpetual problem in the retail industry. Packaging is compulsory to protect and maintain product quality but it creates a huge waste problem and seriously affects the environment (Fernández‐Gago, 2020). The store uses waste management schemes to protect the environment and separate the waste before going to landfill with plastic, metal and paper. In October 2005, the highest environmental specification warehouse was built that adopted the Green Travel PLAN (Corporate Social Responsibility, 2023). To minimize carbon emissions and fuel consumption, Nisa designed eco-friendly vehicles. These vehicles also use bio-diesel. An energy-saving system is installed for saving energy of lamps and sensors lighting in planned open areas. PIR detectors are also installed on lighting in toilets and certain items. In 2010, a Waste Packaging Scheme was launched by Nisa, in this plastic and cardboard are collected from partners' stores for the recycling process. This scheme helps reduce the annual waste cost and protect the environment.
Under CRS, Nisa promised to remove all caged eggs from his label range by 2025. For quality assurance, Nisa voluntarily introduced a ban on food that has the possibility of hyperactivity in young children. The Organic Food Federation also certified Nisa to do business in organic products. Corporate Social Responsibility also includes human rights responsibility regarding fair trade practices like equal pay for equal work (Daudisa, 2020). It is the responsibility of a business that labour is not exploited and overburdened at the workplace. Under CSR, it is the responsibility of businesses to offer high-quality services to customers, offering competitive salaries, encouraging the environment to employees and creating job opportunities to reduce the unemployment rate. Nisa fulfils its social responsibility by doing charity, donations and volunteer programs. CSR initiatives are important to raise awareness and boost business performance and sustainability of the environment.
Innovation and Creativity in Business by Nisa retail store
Innovation and creativity are essential for achieving the success of a business. Creativity is the power to produce ideas and there is no innovation without creativity. It helps in solving different problems by providing different solutions. Without innovation and creativity, business offers the same goods and services which hinders the growth of a business. Introducing innovation various Nisa partners convert their stores to the latest Evolution format making retailers invest in their business to increase customer demand. Nisa Retail introduced ‘Nisa Fresh Thinking’ to help partners in creating the best customer offers and grow their businesses. It supports partners by providing retail expertise and leadership to improve customer experience with in-store solutions, store format innovation and expert account management team. It helps in shaping an entrepreneurial partner base (Gasparin, 2021).
Nisa provides marketing support to speed up awareness of Co-op's own-brand products. It backs up partners in developing their offering into a Co-op own-brand range, it offers support for the development of new products. Nisa makes innovations in snacking, BBQ and summer drinking occasions to increase sales for Nisa partners in seasonal events. With the increasing trend and need for online shopping the Nisa retail store provides services online, which benefits the store and the customer both. The customer gets a wide variety of products at their doorstep also helps in saving time for customers and the store benefits by reaching large customers which helps them increase their market share for products and services leading to maximizing profits and growth. For innovation and creativity, a business needs to invite feedback from customers and staff (Carayannis, 2020). It helps them recognize their needs and helps in providing better solutions and ideas for more innovation. For innovation, the retail store should use a data collection strategy, which helps the store know what things are important for the customer and what they need from the store. The store deals in organic products due to changes in the tastes and preferences of customers and provides good offers to attract existing and new customers is a part of innovation and creativity.
Recommendation to expand and improve
To improve and expand, NISA should add new offerings to its customers by doing proper market research and talking about it to the current customers (Porter,2019). Entering a new market with a new location helps them add new customers, which leads to an increased market share of a business. NISA should provide services through online platforms to help them engage those customers who are not able to get services due to geographical distance (Alzoubi, 2022). The business should focus on digital advertising to attract more and more potential customers, this helps improve and expand a business.
Conclusion
As expressed, the business runs to achieve its goal or objective. For the achievement of a goal, a business has to address various activities. The business has to analyses strengths and weaknesses and has to evaluate upcoming opportunities as well as threats. This determines a business's efficiency in developing goods and services. For the betterment of society and to protect the environment, the company has to fulfill its responsibility by doing waste management, offering organic product and this benefits a business in maintaining reputation and strong brand image. For a successful operation of a business, Nisa make some innovation in a business like operate business online and new product development for continuous visible growth in the business. At last, expansion of a business is necessary to increase market share for a product and to increase sales and profits of a business so the objectives of a business are achieved.
References
Books and Journals
Alzoubi, H., Alshurideh, M., Kurdi, B., Akour, I. and Aziz, R., 2022. Does BLE technology contribute towards improving marketing strategies, customers’ satisfaction and loyalty? The role of open innovation. International Journal of Data and Network Science, 6(2), pp.449-460.
Benzaghta, M.A., Elwalda, A., Mousa, M.M., Erkan, I. and Rahman, M., 2021. SWOT analysis applications: An integrative literature review. Journal of Global Business Insights, 6(1), pp.55-73.
Carayannis, E.G. ed., 2020. Encyclopedia of creativity, invention, innovation and entrepreneurship. Cham: Springer International Publishing.
Daudisa, T. and Vevere, V., 2020. Importance of professional ethics and corporate social responsibility within business studies curriculum within context global economy. In SHS Web of Conferences (Vol. 74, p. 04004). EDP Sciences.
Fernández‐Gago, R., Cabeza‐García, L. and Godos‐Díez, J.L., 2020. How significant is corporate social responsibility to business research?. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 27(4), pp.1809-1817.
Gasparin, M., Green, W., Lilley, S., Quinn, M., Saren, M. and Schinckus, C., 2021. Business as unusual: A business model for social innovation. Journal of Business Research, 125, pp.698-709.
Porter, M., Serafeim, G. and Kramer, M., 2019. Where ESG fails. Institutional Investor, 16(2).
Puyt, R., Lie, F.B., De Graaf, F.J. and Wilderom, C.P., 2020. Origins of SWOT analysis. sIn Academy of management proceedings (Vol. 2020, No. 1, p. 17416). Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510: Academy of Management.
Online
Corporate Social Responsibility. 2023. Online. Available through: < https://www.nisalocally.co.uk/corporate/ >
The Nisa Story. 2023. Online. Available through :< https://www.nisalocally.co.uk/corporate/the-nisa-story/ >