Assessment of Hilton Food Group plc.

This assessment focuses on the Food & Beverage industry in the UK, specifically on Hilton Food Group plc. It discusses the company's structure, governance, and the significance of PESTEL analysis. The impact of PESTEL factors on Hilton Group is also highlighted.

ASSESSMENT
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The assessment is done to focus on the Food & Beverage industry in UK. It laid
emphasis on the well- known company which is facing a rapid success from the year of
establishment in 1994. The Hilton Food Group plc. had attained a great success till then and is
still continuing to achieve the greater heights of success. Its organisational structure and
management are described in the report along with the ways in which it is governed. It also
focussed on the boards of directors along with the year of their appointment. The significant of
PESTEL analysis was also evaluated. At the end, the impact of the PESTEL factors on the Hilton
Group was also laid emphasis which can help the company to increase its overall profitability
and progress.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................4
Ways in which company is structured and governed..................................................................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................7
Significance of PESTEL Analysis for a business organisation...................................................7
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................9
PESTEL Analysis of Hilton Food Group plc..............................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Business Management deals in managing the coordination and organisation of various
activities of business such as planning, leading, monitoring etc. in order to achieve business or
organisational goals. But it cannot be achieved by only the input and the feedback, the external
factors play the equal role in enhancing the progress of the companies (Valta and et.al., 2016).
The report is focussed on the Hilton Food Group plc. which is in UK and has its subsidiaries in
various countries of the world. It is the leading specialist in the packing of food which does its
business internationally by supplying its products to major international retailers. The history and
the overview of the company will be highlighted followed by its organisational structure and
management. Furthermore, the importance of PESTEL factors will also be highlighted by
carrying out the PESTEL analysis for Hilton Food group plc.
TASK 1
Ways in which company is structured and governed
(A) History and Overview of the Company
Hilton Food Group plc. is the leading specialist in the business of food packing which
also supplies its products to the major international food retailers like Tesco, Rimi, Denmark,
Woolworths etc. The business of Hilton was established in the year 1994 with the main aim to
set up and operate packing facility of beef and lamb central meat in Huntingdon, England. Hilton
has faced a rapid success from the year of establishment and has now about 6 factories across
Europe. It also had developed its two joint ventures in order to sell its products in majority of the
supermarkets in 14 European countries and Australia (History of Hilton Food Group, 2020).
In the year when Hilton was established, it supplied its products to the well-known retailer
company Tesco in UK. After that, it is expanding itself by introducing various factories in
Drogheda, Ireland, Vasteras, Sweden, Tychy, Poland and many more other central European
countries. In 2007, it floated on the main markets of London Stock Exchange with a premium
listing. After the plan to open up factories, it started establishing joint ventures collaboration with
Woolworths in Australia, Sonae which is the leading food retailer in Portuguese and with many
other leading companies.
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Figure 1: Hilton Food group plc.
Source: We welcome Hilton Food group plc as a new SAI platform member, 2020
The company ensures that its packing plants operates in such a way that it satisfies the
expectations of Hilton customers. Recently, in 2019 it also invested in a well-known
manufacturer of vegetarian product. It gives the whole credit of its success to its 4,900
employees who helped the company in achieving the growth in terms of geographical expansion,
product range extensions and its retail customers are contributing in taking the competitive
advantage in the emerging markets. It products are mainly fresh items including roasting joints,
chops, steaks, meat cuts and minces whose manufacturing and packing is done according to the
customer specifications.
(B) Organisational Structure and Management
The organisational structure of Hilton food group plc. is very systematic with the clear
hierarchy which describes the overall progress of the company. It has qualified and much
experienced people on its Board of Directors (Organisational structure of Hilton Food group
plc., 2020). These and the employees strive very hard to increase the overall growth of the
company. Their main aim is to bring innovation in the company to attract maximum customers
and make them satisfied (Innovation, 2020).
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Figure 2: Organizational Structure of Hilton Food Group plc.
Source: Organisational structure of Hilton Food group plc., 2020
The company has simple, clear and well-defined strategy which mainly focus on four elements
which are as follows:
 Extend the product ranges in order to meet the demands of the existing customers.
 Partnership with the existing customers in new territories.
 Attract the new customers in new territories and gain them.
 No compromise with the unit costs, quality and product development.
The employees and all the people in the Hilton are aware of its strategies and thus tries to build
strong relationship with the suppliers of high quality meat across the different countries in the
world (Strategy, 2020). This makes the company and its structure more flexible and also creates
a sense of trust in the employees regarding the competitive rates.
The Board of Directors of the Hilton Food Group plc. and their time of election are mentioned
below (Board of Directors, 2020):
Name Title Year of Election
Robert Watson OBE Executive chairman of the board 2002
Philip John Heffer Chief Executive Officer, Executive Director 1994
Nigel Richard Majewski Chief Financial Officer, Executive Director 2006
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Christine Cross Non-executive Independent Director 2016
John G. Worby Senior Non-executive Independent Director 2016
Angus Porter Non-executive Independent Director 2018
Rebecca Shelley Non-executive Independent Director 2020
The Hilton Food Group, being a people oriented business attracts, retains and recruits the best
available talent pool which can drive the future growth of the company. Around 2,181 employees
are working full time across six sites of company. The employees and the board of directors
collaboratively work in order to contribute towards the success of the company which has now
subsidiaries including Hilton Foods UK Limited, Hilton Meats Zaandam BV etc.
Corporate Governance
The company was appointed as FIT remuneration consultants LLP who are neither
directly nor indirectly connected to Hilton Food Group plc. The non-executive directors are also
appointed by considering various terms and conditions which are available for inspection at the
registered office at the normal business time and at the AGM. This can be evident by the
transition of the CEO, Robert Watson to the Executive Chairman of the Hilton Food Group and
the same is expected to become the Non-executive officer in 2020.
The governance of the company can be evaluated by its Tax strategy. This tax strategy was in
respect to the Hilton Food group and its subsidiaries which is regularly updated and reviewed by
its Board of Directors. The company pays right amount of tax at right time and also comply with
all the relevant laws and regulations.
TASK 2
Significance of PESTEL Analysis for a business organisation
PESTEL analysis plays a significant role in the growth of any business. It contributes greatly
in expanding a product line or introducing the company to a new location, it helps in making
various strategies and its planning. It helps every business owner in identifying significant
changes in Political (tax policy, trade restrictions etc.), Economic (Inflation cost, National GDP
etc.), Social (Population demographics, buying habits etc.), Technological (innovation in
technology, improvement in production technologies etc.), Environmental (carbon-emissions,
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CSR etc.) and Legal factors (Employment law. Working practices regulations etc.) regardless of
whether it is a start-up or an established organisation (Çitilci and Akbalık, 2020). The internal
factors of the company are managed and controlled by its team of various departments like
accounts, sales, marketing etc. But these external factors exist and will continue to exist without
our role.
PESTEL analysis is generally a framework which is mainly used by the marketers in order to
analyse and monitor the macro-environmental factors which impacts the organisation in any way
(Greer, 2018). After analysing these factors, it becomes easy for the company to identify the
threats and the opportunities by using which the companies can face a significant position in the
market.
The businesses carry out PESTEL analysis in order to evaluate the changes in the market for
making decisions accordingly. It also affects the relationships and the marketing that the
establishes company has made (Douglas and et.al., 2018). The organisations believe that keeping
in mind about the changes that can take place helps the decision-makers to make fruitful
decisions.
This can be evident with an example. Elections in the country can sometimes remove a pro-
business, government can replace that business with the one who follows all the regulations and
many more other factors (Long, Looijen and Blok, 2018). This suggests the companies to follow
all the rules and laws. This is how political factors impact the overall business. One more
example can be about the impact of technological factor. The use of advanced technology by the
maximum people cut down the effects of the campaigning, offline advertising etc. because the
businesses can attract the customers through various online platforms which are much cost
effective and not much time-consuming.
When starting a new business also, it is must to have a complete analysis of the market where the
business is going to be set-up. People who starts a new business in other countries would find the
results of the PESTEL analysis more valuable because it makes them aware about the fact that
there must be expansion of business or consolidation.
The business organisations also make use of the PESTEL analysis for optimizing their presence
in any foreign market. PESTEL analysis helps them to have a deep insight about the macro-
environment and its impact which a geography textbook cannot provide. It even facilitates the
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strangers who wish to start the business by providing a clear view that leads to cost-effective
decisions and better allocation of funds.
Summing up all the above mentioned points, the business organisations carry out PESTEL
analysis to gain a deeper insight about the external environment rather than the input. It therefore
becomes cost-effective to have a deeper understanding of the environment that affects thereby
raising awareness of the potential threats and to exploit the opportunities which can be used to
strengthen the business of any existing or new firm.
TASK 3
PESTEL Analysis of Hilton Food Group plc.
The ways in which PESTEL factors that impacts the macro-environment of Hilton Food
Group plc. are as follows:
Political
The political factors play a significant role in analysing the factors which affects the long
term profitability of Hilton group in certain country or market. The company is operating in Food
& Beverage Industry in more than dozen countries thereby exposing itself to various types of
political environment and political system risks (Triguero, Fernández and Sáez-Martinez, 2018).
In order to achieve success, it must meet up all the political challenges and risks like Taxation,
Level of corruption, change in government policies, trade regulations and many more. All these
factors directly impact the services of the company and restrict many of its operations to be
performed (Stathers and Schroders, 2017).
Negative: When the company plans to extend its business in another country then its high
taxation level can directly impact its profitability by impacting the internal trade and preventing
exports. The company has already faced this as the government priorities changed which and
imposed high trade restrictions which affected the exports and harmed the relationships with
foreign trade partners. Executive chairman of the Hilton Food Group plc., Robert Watson stated
that the company had to take various mitigation actions in order to become resilient to withstand
Brexit uncertainties by unveiling an increase in turnover and profits during 52 weeks till 2018
(Henry, 2018).
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Positive: The positive side of this is that this situation made the company to analyse its
potentialities to withstand in the difficult situation and prove itself better by striving hard to
continue progressing instead of giving up which boosts up the confidence of its employees and
the workers. The company faces many challenges regarding such restrictions to perform its
operations in different countries which must be noted and meet up.
Economic
It is much important for the Hilton Food Group plc. to analyse the economic factors
including the foreign exchange/ interest rates, inflation, labour market conditions, saving rates
etc. which determines the aggregate demand and aggregate investment in an economy (Hamid,
Said and Meiria, 2019). For example, the GDP growth rates determines the ability to pursue its
long-term growth strategies. High GDP affects the consumers’ ability to spend more on the
offered products.
Positive: The high unemployment helps in arranging for surplus labour at comparatively low
wages which reduces the production cost of the company. The company has already faced the
changes regarding the borrowing ability and attitude towards the investment due to the
fluctuating interest rates. The high interest rates have positively contributed by encouraging the
attitude towards the investment and enhancing the growth opportunities for the company. The
exchange rate fluctuation also influences the company’s overall profitability and international
trade.
Negative: On the other hand, the high fluctuations on local currency caused serious concern for
Hilton Food Group plc. This decreases its customer base and the overall profitability.
Social
The culture of the Hilton Group is highly influenced by the societal norms, values and
trends. The marketing department can use the information retrieved from the analysis of social
factors in order to target the consumer groups and increase the appeal of offered products to the
potential buyers.
Positive: The demographic trends like aging population, migration trends and socio-economic
variables helps the company to choose right market segments especially with high growth
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potential. The migration also helps in developing marketing strategies and to bring international
managers to host country.
Negative: The Hilton Food group plc. has to adjust its business management practices when
entering markets with low or high power distance. The company has already faced the impacts of
growing inequality in many countries which alters its power structure. The company also has to
adopt niche marketing strategies because of the small number of high-end market because the
company cannot offer luxury products at premium prices in such markets.
Technological
Hilton Food group plc. must analyse the importance of technological factors during the
strategic decision making process which can help in capturing the technological trends to achieve
certain business advantages like increased profitability, boosting innovation along with
enhancing operational efficiency (Tourky and et.al., 2020).
Positive: The company has got various opportunities by the development of information and
communication technologies. It adopted various innovative marketing techniques to enhance the
collaboration with the customers. It can leverage the opportunities offered by digital marketing to
improve its performance. Technological trends also help the company to start the creative social
media campaigns in order to develop online brand communities.
Negative: The adoption of advanced technologies has shortened the life cycle of development of
new product. The new products are developing more quickly by the use of such newer
technologies which helped the supply chain partners to gain more power. But this gave much
pressure to Hilton Group in order to compete with them by integrating flexibility and healthy
business relationship with value chain partners.
Environmental
Analysing the impact of environmental factors is necessary for the company as the
environmental consciousness is growing and the climatic conditions are changing (Bresciani,
2017). The company has its presence internationally so it is must to consider the differences in
the environmental standards, laws and regulations of different countries.
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Positive: Hilton Food group can use the opportunity of growing trends for the green and eco-
friendly products by adopting green business practices to win the stakeholder’s trust. It can also
be benefited by the investment in renewable technologies to ensure the long-term sustainability.
Negative: Extreme weather and climatic conditions can increase the cost of operations and
compel the company to make its value chain more flexible. It also generates a need to revise the
product and marketing strategies as such changes also impacts the spending patterns of
consumers.
Legal
It is important for Hilton group to consider the legal environment and regulatory structure
of the marketing which it plans to expand itself in order to avoid getting into some serious
trouble (Köbnick, Velu and McFarlane, 2020). Ignoring these factors can cause undesired
circumstances like hurting competitive advantages due to violation of intellectual property rights,
violating consumer protection standards result in harmed organizational image and many more.
Positive: Regulations of intellectual property ensures the protection of companies’ patents and
valuable ideas. The company can be benefited by protecting intellectual property rights to
strengthen its positioning against the other competitive market players.
Negative: There are many laws which set the maximum price which ensures a certain quality
standard but it restricts the company to increase its price beyond that limit even after adding
quality to its products. also, if the company does not follow laws like, employee protection,
consumer protection etc., then it can face the worst effects like weakening the position in the
market and decreased goodwill.
Therefore, Hilton Food group must consider all the PESTEL factors mentioned above in order to
minimize its negative impacts and increase the opportunities which can enhance its overall
progress and growth.
CONCLUSION
The above report shed light on the Hilton Food group plc. company in UK which performs
its operations worldwide. It also focussed on the history and the overview of the company
including the ways in which it is structured and governed. The importance of PESTEL analysis
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for the business organisations was also highlighted. Last but not the least, the PESTEL analysis
for the Hilton Group was also carried out in order to analyse the impact of the external factors on
the macro-environment of the company.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bresciani, S., 2017. Open, networked and dynamic innovation in the food and beverage
industry. British Food Journal.
Brito, T.L.D. and Harkiolakis, N., 2017. Influence of UK economic and market policies on a
small wine merchant. International Journal of Teaching and Case Studies. 8(1). pp.29-
45.
Çitilci, T. and Akbalık, M., 2020. The Importance of PESTEL Analysis for Environmental
Scanning Process. In Handbook of Research on Decision-Making Techniques in
Financial Marketing (pp. 336-357). IGI Global.
Douglas, N. and et.al., 2018. How the food, beverage and alcohol industries presented the Public
Health Responsibility Deal in UK print and online media reports. Critical Public
Health. 28(4). pp.377-387.
Greer, G., 2018. Win in India: An Analysis of Market Entry Strategy Into India’s Food and
Beverage Industry.
Hamid, A., Said, M. and Meiria, E., 2019. Potency and prospect of halal market in global
industry: an empirical analysis of Indonesia and United Kingdom. Business and
Management Studies. 5(2). pp.54-63.
Köbnick, P., Velu, C. and McFarlane, D., 2020. Preparing for Industry 4.0: digital business
model innovation in the food and beverage industry. International Journal of
Mechatronics and Manufacturing Systems. 13(1). pp.59-89.
Stathers, R. and Schroders, U.K., 2017. The bee and the stock market: An overview of pollinator
decline and its economic and corporate significance. In The Business of Bees (pp. 124-
144). Routledge.
Tourky, M. and et.al., 2020. New conceptualization and measurement of corporate identity:
Evidence from UK food and beverage industry. Journal of Business Research. 109.
pp.595-606.
Triguero, A., Fernández, S. and Sáez-Martinez, F.J., 2018. Inbound open innovative strategies
and eco-innovation in the Spanish food and beverage industry. Sustainable Production
and consumption. 15. pp.49-64.
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Valta, K. and et.al., 2016. Adaptation measures for the food and beverage industry to the impact
of climate change on water availability. Desalination and Water Treatment, 57(5),
pp.2336-2343.
Online
Board of Directors, 2020. [ONLINE] Available through :<
http://www.hiltonfoodgroupplc.com/board-directors >
Henry, Z., 2018. Hilton Food Group Plc PESTEL analysis. [ONLINE] Available through :<
https://www.case48.com/pestel-analysis/10854-Hilton-Food-Group-Plc >
History of Hilton Food Group, 2020. [ONLINE] Available through :<
http://www.hiltonfoodgroupplc.com/about-us/history >
Innovation, 2020. [ONLINE] Available through :< http://www.hiltonfoodgroupplc.com/about-
us/innovation >
Organisational structure of Hilton Food group plc., 2020. [ONLINE]. Available through :<
http://www.hiltonfoodgroupplc.com/index.php/about-us/history >
Strategy, 2020. [ONLINE] Available through :<
http://www.hiltonfoodgroupplc.com/about-us/strategy>
We welcome Hilton Food group plc as a new SAI platform member, 2020. [ONLINE]. Available
through:< https://saiplatform.org/our-work/news/we-welcome-hilton-food-plc-as-a-
new-sai-platform-member/>
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