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Benchill & sons is furniture company which manufactures and distributes basic office

furniture,its strength includes increasing its market share, brand value and customer base.

Its market share is increasing due to Benchill & sons their products as cheaply as possible and

in high volume. Its brand meets a basic standard value favoured by customers who buy in

bulk. Benchill & sons are able to undercut competition keeping furniture designs

simple,there is no great sophistication in the manufacturing process.. Benchill & sons is able

to maintain its loyalty to its customers as a result the brand easily recognizable and reliable to

the customers. Similarly Benchill & sons has the benefit to buy the products or raw materials

cheaply in huge quantity or economics of scale and doing this they can deliver the products in

cheaper prices as compared to their rival companies. Also customers are always benefited

from the variety of goods and services offered from the single place as Benchill & sons has

able to do. Speke Furnishings strength includes a proud reputation for quality and durability,

customers are willing to pay extra for their products and they have very few defective

products, promt delivery and after sales services. Thorntree Office Solutions strengths lies in

the manufacture of specialist products,investing in new innovations and designing and

making products which solve a particular problem

Although Benchill & sons is offering variety of its products and services is a good strength

but it has also weakness as well. Offering a variety of goods and services might lose the

specialisation and it may find hard to compete with the specialised competitor in particular

products and ultimately hamper its brand image. Speke Furnishings are not the only high

quality office supplier and the competition is tough. .Thorntree Office Solutions only

manufactures specialist products, its market share will be very limited.

There are various opportunities for Benchill & sons,. It has the opportunity to research upon

new markets such as specialising in a specific furniture range, It has the opportunity to

develop small store type market rather than large markets, add more stores. Speke

Furnishings produces high quality and durable furnitures and underpinned by high quality

customer services, this can assist in their expansion as customers are always looking for high

quality products.Thorntree Office Solutions has the opportunity of investing in new designs

and innovations, this may bring in new customers with special needs.

Weakening economy and increasing number of unemployment might be the one of the threats

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to the companies and during this period people have very little to spend and world is still in

the shadow of recession. They also have threats from their competitors.

The political factors that may affect the companies are for instance the constitution of the

country, stability of the political system, relationship of the country, governments views on

culture, religion and economy, political parties and their ideologies etc. Political factors

highly influence the environment of the business and these factors should be closely taken

into account. These factors are the external factors and one can do nothing to change these

factors. Looking at the companies and the business environment in which they operate is that

of the UK. So, analysis of the political factors is of great importance if they are to be

successful.

In business world, economic factors are very crucial for every organisation. Economic factors

involves interest rate, inflation rate, economic policies of the government, gross domestic

product, consumer buying and spending habits, growth rate etc. It is very essential for every

business organisation have a core concept of the economic factors. For the three furniture

companies, economic factors are a key concern as these factors directly affects demand,

supply, profits and costs. The world is still under the phase of recession and the companies

also suffered from the recession as its sales growth rate were slowed down.

Socio Cultural factors includes demographics, income distribution, population distribution,

lifestyle, education, social mobility, consumption habits etc. consideration of Socio Cultural

factors are necessary for the marketing, growth and development of any organisation.

Looking at all the three companies, it can be seen that they are able to cope with Socio

Cultural factors by introducing variety of different types of furniture in a single store to meet

the needs of their customers

Technological factors relates to the introduction and installation of latest scientific

technologies to the business. Its about changing with the time. Use of new technologies not

only benefit to the organisation but also to the customers. Technologies help to produce

quality products saving time and money, an example of Benchill & sons is by keeping its

design simple. Speke Furnishing is by improving systems ,processes and services to keep

quality high and Thorntree Office Solutions is by in new innovations and designs

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Environmental factors relates to the weather and climate change. Global warming issues and

environmental friendly awareness has forced the entire organisation to consider

environmental factors. In simple environmental factors for any manufacturing industry is

volume of pollution created by the product or service, recycling opportunities, environmental

friendly products and many more. .

Legal factors involve the various laws and legislation enforced by the government of the

country. So it is important for the entire business organisation to possess sufficient

knowledge of laws for the better performance of the business. Some of the legal factors may

be discrimination law, consumer law, anticompetitive law, employment law, health and

safety law etc. These laws are set by the government in order to control the monopoly,

provide healthy competition and price stability. Legal factors govern Benchill & Sons,Speke

Furnishing and Thorntree Office Solutions, theyve been been able to abide by the legal

rules and regulation in the country.

Michael Porter (Harvard, Competitive Strategy 1980) developed Five Forces analysing tool

in order identify opportunities and risks for business organisation to enter into a new market.

This analysis provides clear analysis and action than SWOT analysis. Five Forces explains

the relationship between the five dynamic forces that influence business organisations

overall performance. These Five Forces are as follows;

1. Intensity of Competitive Rivalry2. Threat from New Entrants3. Threat from Substitutes4. Bargaining power of Buyers5. Bargaining power of SuppliersIntensity of Competitive Rivalry:

According to Porter Competitive rivalry between any industries is likely to occur when large

numbers of firms compete for same customers and resources, when there is similar share in

the market, slow market growth, high fixed cost, high warehouse cost, low switching cost,

low level of brand identification etc. For the tree companies they have other furniture

companies as competitors in the UK . These furniture companies always compete with each

other for better product, price, promotion and distribution.

Threat from New Entrants:

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According to Porter, major threat any industry faces is from the new entrants. Threat from

new entrants arises when market is in high profit. This high profit attracts new firms and if

new entrants enter into the market then profit will reach at its competitive level. So every

industry established in the market tries to act as a barrier for new entrants. In order to obstruct

new entrants, firms adopt various types of entry barriers such as producing products in

economic scale, differentiating products and retaining loyalty, investing huge amount of

capital, offering lower switching cost, making assess to distribution channel more

complicated and expensive.

Threat from Substitutes:

According to Porter, substitutes means the product that is available from another industry that

possess and provides similar amount of satisfaction and benefits to the customer as comparedto the products manufactured within the industry. . The threat of substitute is said to high

when customer cost of switching is low; quality of substituted product is equal or superior in

quality and cheaper as compared to firms price.

Bargaining Power of Buyers:

Bargaining power is the strength of customer to influence upon industry. It is ability of

customer to influence the price and forces the price down reducing the profitability. Buyers

are powerful when they have the option to buy products from various suppliers, when they

are concentrated, lower switching cost and volume of buyer also makes the buyer powerful.

So understanding of power of buyer is essential for every industry in order to achieve the

profitability.

Bargaining Power of Suppliers:

Any producing industry requires supplies. These supplies might be in the form of raw

materials, labour, components and other supplies such as expertise service. Suppliers tend to

be in power when there are few substitutes in the market, when there is no option of

switching from one product to other or costly switching option. When suppliers are in power

they refuse to work with the industries and bargain for high prices, provide low quality

materials etc. .

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