Impact of Business Environment on Hilton Food Group Plc

This report discusses the impact of the business environment on Hilton Food Group Plc and provides an overview of their structure, board of directors, and CEO. It also explores the importance of PESTEL analysis in understanding external factors and achieving company targets.

Business
Environment

EXECUTIVE SUMMERY
In this report it is given that how business environment affect the businesses and
overview of the Hilton food group plc, their structure and how their board of directors and CEO
work there and when they get joined and their performance evaluation. An analysis of external
factors with the help of PESTEL and how PESTEL analysis help the respected company in
achieving their targets and objectives.

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMERY..............................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
TASK1.............................................................................................................................................4
Explain organisation structure................................................................................................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
PESTEL analysis for organisation..........................................................................................6
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................8
Use PESTEL framework to assess macro environment of company.....................................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFRENCES.................................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Business environment includes all the external and internal environment factors such as,
employees, suppliers, customers, employees, government, market trends and economic factors.
All these factors of business environment affect the company directly or indirectly (Bowen and
Ozuem, 2019). This factors help in identifying the business opportunities, help in planning
management, overall growth, performance and profitability of the company. For this assignment
the chosen company is Hilton Food Group, plc. This company was founded in 1994, headquarter
Huntington, united kingdom, to operate beef and lamb central meat packaging facility in
Huntington. The assignment includes, structure of the Hilton food group, its management and
how their management governed the company, importance of the PESTEL analysis and how this
external environment affect the chosen company.
TASK1
Explain organisation structure
Hilton food group was established in 1994, to operate the beef and lamb meat packaging
facility in Huntington, England. Since its establishment and till now, facilities are grown and in
addition to expand their business, they acquired a packaging facility in Netherlands, established
new four factory outlets in European countries and entered into the joint venture with Australia
and Portugal. Their main focus is on meet the local customers requirement as fast as possible. In
2020, they make an agreement with Belgium to supply delhaize.
The organisational structure is a system which shows the overall structure that how the
different activities are directed in order to achieve the target of the company. These includes the
role and responsibilities which is divided in the organisation. One of the organisational structure
is Divisional, which is actually based on the markets, customers, government and industries.
Hilton food groups, used the hierarchical structure due to large size of the firm including six
factories selling their products in fourteen countries. Furthermore it can said that Hilton company
used divisional organisation structure (Cela, Sicilia and Sánchez, 2015). The main division is in
three parts: Ownership division, management division and timeshare division.
The terms and condition for the appointment of the non-executive directors is provided
by the appointment and inspection is done in registered office during the normal business hours

and at the GM meeting. In the chosen organisation, there are 7 directors are on the board.
Information related to them are given below: Robert Watson OBE: He joined the company as a Chief Executive in 2002 and has been
an amazing growth of the group from the date of joining and become the Executive
Chairman on 1st july 2018. Before this he worked in foyle food group, in foyle he worked
with various position to become a chief executive officer in 1987 (Chang, 2016). He was
also a industry leader during BSE crises, representing northern Ireland. Furthermore, he
was the board member of the Livestock meat commission(LMC) from 1995 to 1999, food
for Britain from 1997 to 2003 and Robert also become the chairman of the nomination
committee. Robert will focus on the new business development in the new market areas
and new product categories. Philp Heffer: He joined the company in 1994 as managing director progressing to chief
operating officer and in last become the chief executive officer on 1st July 2018. he had
the major contribution for all the devlopment of the hilton's business and its satisfying
customers. Philip attended Smithfield collage and become the associate member of the
collage in1984. Nigel Majewki: He was appointed as the finance director in 2006. He joined Hilton after
completing services with Pepsi Co. From 1995 to 2006. and now he become the chief
executive officer of Germany, Austria and Switzerland's branches of the respected
company. Nigel is worked with royal Dutch shell plc and white bread and co plc. He is
qualified as a CA from Birmingham poly technique in 1981 and get a first class degree in
accountancy. He is also the chairman of the Risk Management Committee of Hilton
Food Group. Christine Cross: Christine joined the company, as the Non-Executive Director in 2016
and she is the food scientist before this she serve the 14 years to TESCO, as senior role,
focusing on own brand, food & non-food items and makes global connections. She
currently working with Zoo plus AG and several private companies as the position in
Non-executive directors (Ghorbel, Ghorbel and Jmaiel, 2017). And Christine is also the
chairperson of the remuneration committee. John Worby: John joined the company in 2016 as a chartered accountant with a good
experience in public sector and food companies. Prior to this, he was a finance director

retiring in 2013 at Genus plc. John is also chairman of the audit committee and its senior
independent senior director. Angus Porter: Angus joined the Hilton as a Non-Executive Director with a great
knowledge in public corporations, food companies, retailer stores (Ituarte, Khajavi and
Partanen, 2016). He completed his MA in natural science and PhD from the university of
Cambridge. He plays various executive and non-executive directors role in the companies
like; Mars. BT, WPP etc. currently he is the Non-executive chairmen at McCall's retail
group and co-chairman at direct wines Ltd. Also the non-executive director of TDC
A/S(Denmark).
 Rebecca Shelley: Rebecca joined the Hilton, 1st April 2020. Rebecca done with the
various role like market-facing investors and corporate communication at a number of
companies. Rebecca was the communication director and member of executive groups in
TESCO plc and also holding the position of global corporate affairs director at TP ICP,
plc. Currently she is a non-executive director director at sabre insurance group plc and a
member of trustee at game and wildlife conservation trust. She completed her BA(Hons)
in philosophy and literature from the university of Warwick and done MBA in
international business and marketing from class business school.
Among all of these seven; Robert Watson OBE and Philip Heffer are the Executive
Directors of the Hilton Food Group and Christine Cross, John Worby, Angus Porter and Rebecca
Shelley are the Non-Executive Directors of the respected company. “Robert Watson OBE” is
the chairperson and “Philip Heffer” is the CEO of the company.
TASK 2
PESTEL analysis for organisation
PESTEL analysis is a framework or tool used by marketers to analyse and monitor the
external marketing environment factors that can have indirect impact on an organisation.
PESTEL consist of many factors that is political, economical, social, technological,
environmental or legal factors (Jima and Raju, 2015). It is important to understand how exactly
these factors affects the business. Well, there is no exact time for it, but organizations usually do
it before launching a new product or service, entering a new region or country, shifting a new
route to a current market or while working as a part of a strategic project team.

Importance of PESTEL in an organisation:
 Deeper understanding: The best thing about the PESTEL analysis is that it makes easy
to understand the factors that affects direct or indirect on the business environment
(Mainetti, Mighali and Patrono, 2015). At the time of launching a new product, it
increases strategical thinking and deeper understanding of the various factors like new
technological trend, consumers law etc. which affect the product launch in the market.
 Cost effectiveness: While additional programs can help organize input and feedback,
PESTLE analysis can be completed through a simple document or pen and paper. It is
also straight forward. The amount of research necessary, how much time, and how often
PESTEL analysis for the firm is optional.
 Exploit opportunities: It helps in exploiting that arise from time to time due to external
factors. By using PESTEL analysis to study external environments, opportunities can be
found and used to strengthen a firm's business. For example, the lower interest rate in the
real estate industry is an economic factor that creates an opportunity for a firm to increase
demand for housing, as housing loans get cheap due to a lower interest rate.
PESTEL provides a simple and easy framework for analysis because it involve cross-
functional skills and expertise. It also helps in reducing the impact and effects of potential threats
to the organisation. The concept is to constantly scan the six areas of PESTEL in order to detect
changes in the external environment (Muratovski, 2016). These make it an often used framework
for carrying out marketing analyses.
Why is it important for organisations to carry out PESTEL analysis?
PESTEL analysis factors are very important for every organization. As it helps an
organization to identify the external forces that could impact their market and analyse how they
could directly impact their business. The Covid-19 pandemic has brought this type of analysis
onto the table of all global corporate and multinational companies. The Coronavirus has had a
impact on so many areas: like financial, work force, logistics, transportation etc., which have
rarely been thought of by convectional feasibility studies or normal analysis (Nicholas and Steyn,

2017). PESTEL analysis helps organisations in doing strategic planning to expand their business.
Whether it is a start-up or an established organization, it can help every business owner in
identifying significant changes in the political, economical, social, technological, environmental,
and legal factors. For example, like Economic factors that affect Hilton may include the extent of
expected and real economic growth in the UK, national taxation policies, and seasonality and
weather problems. Likewise, the political approaches can influence the number of visitors, both
tourists, and business travellers visits to a nation. Moreover, Hilton performance is directly
affected by consumer protection and employment laws in UK, as well as, the nature of
competitive regulation, and risks of military invasion in the country. This is where PESTEL
analysis plays a great role.
TASK 3
Use PESTEL framework to assess macro environment of company
The PESTEL analysis can be helpful in Hilton food group by making the strategic
business planning and decision making process. As Hilton are looking for the expansion of their
business so they needed to developing the strategies in an effective manner and achieving in
long term goals and objectives.
PESTEL factors which influence the respected company: Political Factors: This external factor influence the long term sustainability and
profitability for the Hilton. Political environment related to many other aspect of the
company like: Political stability of the nation, different changing policies, the governance
sectors, Bureaucracy and corruptions, taxation and trade policies. All these points are the
example of the political factors which can influence the various internal factors of Hilton
food group plc. Economic factors: Economic factors such as, exchange rate, labour rate policies, market
changing environment and demand factors. All these terms must be identified to the
Hilton company in order to growth of the industry and organisation (Ravazzani, 2016).
Business Cycle stage, High rate of inflation, employment and labour rates, labour market
conditions and economic structure. All these various examples of economic factors can
influence the decision making strategies in Hilton Food Group Plc. Social factors: Society culture includes norms, value and trends and development.
Understanding the culture of customers and their need can help the Hilton company to

achieve the desired targets and objective easily (Stacey, 2016). Examples of social factors
are: Increased rate of immigration or emigration and changing trends, Demographic,
equity and power sharing, gender roles, society norms and culture, online shopping and
their spending pattern. All these factors influence the services of the Hilton Food Group. Technological factors: Rapid technological advancement and major diffusion in
technologies all over the world can influence the major areas of the respected company
such as profitability, Innovation up-gradation and increasing the operational efficiency.
Examples of technological factors include: Automation, social media marketing,
innovation, shortened the product life cycle and R&D on technological impact . Environmental factors: These factors varies from countries to countries, Detailed
environmental analysis is help in respected company to entered in a new market or new
product line. Examples of environmental factors are: recycling and waste management,
renewable technologies, climate changes, eco-friendly products and avoidance of
resource depletion.
 Legal factors: To enter into in new market, legal factors can helps a lot in the respected
company. Careful evaluation of the legal sector may help the company to avoid the series
trouble like; issue in competitive advantages, violation of the rights, etc. Examples are;
Employees protection laws, consumer protection laws and changes is various law
segment in the environment (Chang, 2016).
These PESTEL analysis can impact the Hilton Food Group plc, in various terms. External
factors affect the internal environment of the company.
PESTEL factors which impact the Hilton food group plc: Political factors: For Hilton, it is compulsory to evaluate the different political factors
which can effect the their company in different ways and can effect the growth and
diversifying nature. Factors that considering while entering into new markets: Political
stability, risk of military invasion, level of corruption, favoured training partners and
pricing regulation. All these are the examples which affect the status of Hilton company. Environmental factors: Different markets have different norms which affect the Hilton
company by profitability ratio, consumer preferences and demand of their services.
Factors that can be consider are: weather, laws, recycling, wastage materials and attitude
towards renewable energies.

 Social factors: Belief of the customers, play a important role in how the marketers of
Hilton company will understand the customers of their areas and how they implement
their messages for food and beverages industries customers. Social factors that analysed
by the Hilton company are; demographic, organisational structure, culture and attitude. Technological factors: Hilton gives more time in technological advancement so that they
can cope up with the changing pattern in the society and become a profitable market in
the industries of food and beverages companies (Cela, Sicilia and Sánchez, 2015).
Examples of these external factors which can effect the Hilton nature are: recent
technologies advancement and technological impacts. Economic factors: Hilton food group plc, can use these factors in growth rate and
inflation, economic indicators such as food and beverages, customers support and
spending nature. Factors like skill development, education level affect the company's
internal factors.
 Legal factors: Hilton manage all the legal factors with high efficiency as they affect the
goodwill of the company. Some of the legal factors which affect the respected company
like Discrimination laws, copyright and intellectual rights. These factors affect the
companies image and policies if the company doesn't analysis the legal factors in the
environment.
CONCLUSION
It is conclude from the whole assignment that business environment plays a very
important role in the establishment of the business. With the help of business environment
analysis companies can take the decision immediately with the presence of external and internal
factors. However companies never lies directly on the external factors. To resolve this issue
companies like Hilton Food Groups plc, choose the appropriate techniques like PESTEL
analysis, which help in making the appropriate decisions and achieving the companies objectives
and targets. Business environment also motivates the employees of the respected company to
work effectively because this report gives an overview of the company and clarify the position of
the company in the market.

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