The impact of Covid-19 on business: A study on Sainsbury

This report analyzes the impact of Covid-19 on Sainsbury's profitability and sales. It identifies potential challenges faced by the company and suggests suitable strategies to overcome them.

Problem Based Report
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INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Literature Review.............................................................................................................................3
Analysis of collected facts......................................................................................................6
Interpretation of data..............................................................................................................7
Findings and Conclusion................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15
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INTRODUCTION
Covid-19 has negative impact on business sector in UK. It has been evaluated that many
business faced negative consequences in terms of decrease in profit and sales. This research
identified the impact of covid-19 on business.
Research aim
To identify the impact of Covid-19 upon the profitability and sales of the company. A
study on Sainsbury.
Research objectives –
The research objectives in the context of this study are as follows:
 To determine the impact of covid-19 on business.
 To evaluate the potential challenges that Sainsbury faced during Covid-19.
 To identify suitable strategies that Sainsbury can implement to overcome the challenges
faced by Covid-19 upon the profitability and sales of the company.
Research Questions –
The key questions of research related to this study are as follows –
 What is the impact of covid-19 on business?
 What are potential challenges that Sainsbury faced during Covid-19?
 What are the suitable strategies that Sainsbury can implement to overcome the challenges
faced by Covid-19 upon the profitability and sales of the company?
Literature Review
Impact of covid-19 on business
According to the viewpoint of Panzone, Larcom and She, 2021 there is a significant adverse
impact of COVID-19 on business organization irrespective of its size and scope. This outbreak
created many challenges in front of organization in which they face challenges to conduct their
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business operation in effective manner. Due to this pandemic organization face challenges to
manage their employees conduct business operation and also face challenges in terms of
decrease in sales and profitability (He and Harris, 2020). In addition to this according to the
viewpoint of it has been identified that due to this change in consumer behaviour buying
behaviour also measured that affected overall sales of business organization. t is essential for an
organization to implement changes and strategies in their business plan in order to overcome the
negative impact of COVID-19.
Potential challenges that Sainsbury faced during Covid-19
According to the viewpoint of Buchheim, Krolage and Link, 2020 business organization in all
the sector have faced the negative impact of Covid-19. In context with Sainsbury it has been
identified that it is a leading organization in retail industrial sector through which it has been
identified that the major challenges that company has faced due to COVID-19 is this exact same
that other organization in retail whether they are small or medium or large has been faced
(Bloom, Smietanka and Thwaites, 2020). In this the challenges that company face during prophet
19 is management of employees, conducting business operations in effective manner, decrease in
sales overall profitability and conducting operations in a well defined and effective manner. All
these challenges affected Sainsbury in adverse manner and allow them to face negative
consequences in terms of decrease in sales and overall profitability . In this it is essential for
company to implement strategies to overcome these challenges at it affected them in an adverse
way.
Suitable strategies that Sainsbury can implement to overcome the challenges faced by Covid-
19 upon the profitability and sales of the company
According to the viewpoint of He and Harris, 2020 adversely impacted business growth and
profitability in which number of organizations face challenges in adverse manner. In this there
are number of strategies with the help of which company can significantly overcome the negative
challenges and impact of COVID-19 on the overall growth company. There are suitable
strategies that organization in United Kingdom business can implement in order to overcome the
negative impact of COVID-19. In this business organization can take advantage of digital
technology tools in order to conduct their business operations (Panzone, Larcom and She, 2021).
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It is one of the most important form of strategy which allow company to conduct cost effective
marketing operations. In addition to this company can also undertake use of allowing employees
to perform their work on remote areas. This will allow company to maintain safety and security
of employees, In addition to this company can also take advantage of communication plan in
order to conduct communication with employees consumers and suppliers during crisis.
Furthermore with the help of taking advantage of preparing recovery for purchase material anu
shipment company can conduct their business operations in effective manner. Thus, from the
above analysis it has been identified that with the help of taking advantage of these strategies
organization can overcome the challenges faced by them during COVID-19 which affected their
profit and sales on adverse basis. With the help of this organization can significantly maximiser
growth and can deal with the challenges in a well defined and effective manner which further
benefit them to gain higher growth and profitability in industry. It has been identified that most
of the organization faced challenges on the same level such as decrease in employees, sales and
profitability in this with the help of taking advantage of these strategies organization can assure
long term growth and sustainability in industry and can also manage the challenges that has been
negatively affected their growth and profitability.
Questionnaire
Q1) Are you aware with the notion of Covid-19?
a) Yes
b) No
c) Neutral
Q2) As per your opinion do you think, covid-19 affect business in negative way?
a) Yes
b) No
c) Neutral
Q3) According to your view point, covid-19 affects organisation growth and profitability?
a) Yes
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b) No
c) Neutral
Q4) As per your opinion, what is the impact of covid-19 upon the profitability and overall
corporate of the company?
a) Positive
b) Negative
c) Neutral
Q5) What are the potential challenges that Sainsbury faced due to covid-19?
a) Decrease in sales
b) Decrease in profitability
c) Low income
d) Increase in debt
Q6) What are the suitable strategies that Sainsbury can implement to overcome the
challenges faced by covid-19?
a) Digital business
b) Allow employee to work remote
c) Effective communication
d) Effective check on business activities
Q7) Provide some recommendation to Sainsbury to overcome the challenges faced by
covid-19.
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Analysis of collected facts
Use of following frequency table is made for systematic and clear analysis of collected
raw data:
Q1) Are you aware with the notion of Covid-19? Frequency
a) Yes 27
b) No 2
c) Neutral 1
Q2) As per your opinion do you think, covid-19 affect business in
negative way?
Frequency
a) Yes 25
b) No 2
c) Neutral 3
Q3) According to your view point, covid-19 affects organisation growth
and profitability?
Frequency
a) Yes 24
b) No 5
c) Neutral 1
Q4) As per your opinion, what is the impact of covid-19 upon the
profitability and overall corporate of the company?
Frequency
a) Positive 24
b) Negative 3
c) Neutral 2
Q5) What are the potential challenges that Sainsbury faced due to covid-
19?
Frequency
a) Decrease in sales 8
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b) Decrease in profitability 9
c) Low income 7
d) Increase in debt 6
Q6) What are the suitable strategies that Sainsbury can implement to
overcome the challenges faced by covid-19?
Frequency
a) Digital business 10
b) Allow employee to work remote 8
c) Effective communication 12
Interpretation of data
Theme 1: Notion of Covid-19
Q1) Are you aware with the notion of Covid-19? Frequency
a) Yes 27
b) No 2
c) Neutral 1
a) Yes b) No c) Neutral
0
5
10
15
20
25
30 27
2 1
Chart Title
8

Interpretation
According to the above graph it has been set at the 27 out of 30 respondents are aware with the
concept of covid-19. While remaining 2 did not aware with the same and last 1 respondent one
were neutral.
Theme 2: Covid-19 affect business in negative way?
Q2) As per your opinion do you think, covid-19 affect business in
negative way?
Frequency
a) Yes 25
b) No 2
c) Neutral 3
a) Yes b) No c) Neutral
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
25
2 3
Chart Title
Interpretation
From the above graph it has been stated that 25 out of 30 respondents are agreed covid
19affected business in negative way . While on the other hand remaining 2 respondents didn’t
think the same another 3 respondents for neutral.
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Theme 3: Covid-19 affects organisation growth and profitability
Q3) According to your view point, covid-19 affects organisation
growth and profitability?
Frequency
a) Yes 24
b) No 5
c) Neutral 1
a) Yes b) No c) Neutral
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
24
5
1
Chart Title
Interpretation
From the above graph it has been stated that 24 out of 30 respondents said that covid019
affected effect organization growth and profitability while remaining 5 did not agree with the
same and last 1 respondent neutral.
Theme 4: Impact of covid-19 upon the profitability and overall corporate of the company
Q4) As per your opinion, what is the impact of covid-19 upon the
profitability and overall corporate of the company?
Frequency
a) Positive 3
b) Negative 24
c) Neutral 2
10

a) Positive b) Negative c) Neutral
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
3
24
2
Chart Title
Interpretation
According to the bar graph it has been stated that 3 out of 30 respondents said that covid 19 have
positive impact profitability of the company. While remaining 3 respondents were neutral and 2
respondents were neutral.
Theme 5: Potential challenges that Sainsbury faced due to covid-19
Q5) What are the potential challenges that Sainsbury faced due to
covid-19?
Frequency
a) Decrease in sales 8
b) Decrease in profitability 9
c) Low income 7
d) Increase in debt 6
11

a) Decrease in sales b) Decrease in
profitability c) Low income d) Increase in debt
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
8
9
7
6
Chart Title
Series1 Series2
Interpretation
From the paragraph it has been stated 8 respondents said that major challenges in Sainsbury can
face due to covid 19 is decrease in sales while remaining 9 goes with decrease in profitability .
In addition to this 7 respondents said that low income is major challenges that company can face
and remaining 6 goes with increase in debt.
Theme 6: Suitable strategies that Sainsbury can implement to overcome the challenges
faced by covid-19
Q6) What are the suitable strategies that Sainsbury can implement to
overcome the challenges faced by covid-19?
Frequency
a) Digital business 10
b) Allow employee to work remote 8
c) Effective communication 12
12

a) Digital business b) Allow employee to
work remote c) Effective
communication
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
10
8
12
Chart Title
Interpretation
From the graph it has been stated that 10 responded that said that digital business strategy benefit
Sainsbury to overcome challenges due to covid-19. While 8 goes with allowing employees to
work remote. At last 12 respondents foes with effective communication.
Findings and Conclusion
Findings
According to the above research it has been analysed that Covid-19 have negative impact upon
overall growth and profitability of organization. It has been analysed that according to the report
of ONS it has been identified that Covid-19 affected workforce price, turnover rate and business
resilience and affected United Kingdom economy in an adverse manner. From this research it
has been underline that most of the respondents are aware with the concept of COVID-19 and
they think that it affected business in a negative manner, most of the respondents said that
COVID-19 affect growth and profitability of organization. This research identifies that there is a
negative impact of COVID-19 on overall corporate and profitability of company. Respondents
state that there is decreasing profitability and sales of organization, due to this issue most of the
respondents identify that with the help of digital business and effective communication company
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can overcome the challenges that they have been faced due to coronavirus, This research
findings identifies that it is essential for an organization to undertake use of digital business
opportunities tools, techniques in order to conduct overall roles and responsibilities in a well
defined and effective manner.
Conclusion
Thus according to the above research it has been concluded that corona virus have
negative impact on overall business growth and profitability. However in order to overcome this
it is essential for organization to emphasise upon implementing the use of digital technology,
making employees to work remote areas and take use of effective communication and have
proper check on business activities. This will benefit them to utilise their resources in a well
defined and effective manner and assure greater growth.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bloom, N., Bunn, P., Mizen, P., Smietanka, P. and Thwaites, G., 2020. The impact of Covid-19
on productivity (No. w28233). National Bureau of Economic Research.
Buchheim, L., Dovern, J., Krolage, C. and Link, S., 2020. Firm-level Expectations and Behavior
in Response to the COVID-19 Crisis.
Chronopoulos, D.K., Lukas, M. and Wilson, J.O., 2020. Consumer spending responses to the
COVID-19 pandemic: an assessment of Great Britain. Available at SSRN 3586723.
Fairlie, R. and Fossen, F.M., 2021. The early impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on business
sales. Small Business Economics, pp.1-12.
Flynn, D., Moloney, E., Bhattarai, N., Scott, J., Breckons, M., Avery, L. and Moy, N., 2020.
COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. Health Policy and Technology, 9(4),
pp.673-691.
He, H. and Harris, L., 2020. The impact of Covid-19 pandemic on corporate social responsibility
and marketing philosophy. Journal of business research, 116, pp.176-182.
Panzone, L.A., Larcom, S. and She, P.W., 2021. Estimating the impact of the first COVID-19
lockdown on UK food retailers and the restaurant sector. Global Food Security, 28,
p.100495.
Tiutiunyk, I.V., Humenna, Y.H. and Flaumer, A., 2021. Covid-19 impact on business sector
activity in the EU countries: digital issues.
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