Duque Papetiers Gros: Business Expansion Analysis and Recommendations

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This report analyzes the potential for Duque Papetiers Gros, a family-owned stationery business in Northern France, to expand into neighboring markets like Germany and Switzerland. It examines the wholesale stationers market in Germany, analyzes Duque's financial performance, and assesses the feasibility of international expansion. The report also explores the costs associated with a new building, analyzes customer satisfaction data, and provides recommendations for improving the business's operations and customer experience.

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Report for Duque Papetiers Gros
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction
..................................................................................................................................3
Task 1
...............................................................................................................................................4
Task 2
...............................................................................................................................................5
Task 3
...............................................................................................................................................7
Task 4
.............................................................................................................................................10
Task 5
.............................................................................................................................................12
Task 6
.............................................................................................................................................13
Task 7
.............................................................................................................................................14
Task 8
.............................................................................................................................................15
3. Conclusions
................................................................................................................................15
4. References
.................................................................................................................................16
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1. Introduction
Analysing and finding out potential scopes or opportunities for business expansion in local and

global market is necessary for growth of any business. In this report Donald Duque owned a

small family stationery business called
DuquePapetiers Gros based in Northern France has
been discussed. For a small family business like
DuquePapetiers Gros, it is important to
understand both potential gain and risk of expanding in new market. As this business already

become established in north France and created good image in that market therefore, it is looking

to expand in neighbouring countries market like Germany or Switzerland for higher company

growth. For this reason this report is being made analysing its product and its potential in the

neighbour countries where its expansion can be done, customer base of new market, financial

prospect of the expansion and recommendation.

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Task 1
2.
Analysis of Issues for Duque Papetiers Gros
2.1 An Overview of the Wholesale Stationers Market in Germany

According to the MGCC report, the annual turnover of Germany stationary industry is more than

€14.8 billion. Estimation of individual spending on this sector product is
€182 annually out of
which
€35.2 is spent on writing and drawing material. As Germany is the second largest market
of stationary goods across European Union countries, there is a significant scope of market

development for this company.
Duque Papetiers Gros also will get strong competition in this
market from local brand which has good image not only locally but also internationally.

Germany’s local brand is also merging to increase their resource and counter new competitor like

Duque Papetiers Gros.
It could be a big challenge for Duque Papetiers Gros for establishing
successful expansion. Wholesaler stationers in Germany is try to enter its retail business. Form of

specialist retailer or brand boutique is a hit concept in this country. This is also another problem

for
Duque Papetiers Gros as they till now has not entered retail business of stationary.
Increasing digitalization in Germany as they do not sell computer through which most digital

work is done. The slow economy performance of Germany is not portraying Germany as

lucrative expansion option for this company. Although ecommerce which is a growing industry

in Germany. It can be used as medium to expand in this country which will help the company to

navigate the risk of expanding to Germany market as well as explore its increasing revenue,

turnover and demand in this stationary market
( MGCC Perspectives, 2018).
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Task 2
2.2 Annual Spending on Writing/Drawing Materials per Capita

Countries

Annual Spending on Writing/Drawing Materials

per Capita

Germany
€ 35.20
Switzerlan

d
€ 35.50
AUSTRIA
€ 35
France
€ 28.30
Slovenia
€ 20.40
Italy
€ 18.60
Hungary
€ 9.60
Table 1:
Annual Spending on Writing/Drawing Materials per Capita of 7 countries
(Source:
MGCC Perspectives, 2018)
Germany

Switerland

AUSTRIA

france

Solvenia

Italy

Hungary

0.00

10.00

20.00

30.00

40.00

Annual Spending on Writ-
ing/Drawing Materials per
Capita

Figure 1:
Annual Spending on Writing/Drawing Materials per Capita of 7 countries in
graph

(Source:
MGCC Perspectives, 2018)
In this report we had analyse the individual consumer spending on writing and drawing materials

of 7 European Union countries including France and Germany. The country which spends the

most on these types of items is Switzerland followed by Germany and Austria. As these are main

products of
Duque Papetiers Gros; analysis of these items should be done to see which
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neighbouring country has most lucrative market in term of consumer spending. The table above
represents the annual spending of 7 countries on
writing and drawing materials. The annual
individual spending of Germany, Switzerland and Austria are €35.20, €35.20 and €35

respectively after which fourth highest is France (€28.3). The gap between first 3 countries and

other 4 countries is very wide. As this company is only operating in northern part of France, it

has huge potential of expansion in Switzerland, Germany and Austria. If the company is looking

for established market then Germany, Switzerland and Austria are its options but if it ready to

develop new market then other 3 countries can be an alternative for them
(Parker, 2018). As it has
been analysed in the previous part that Germany market is established but will be big risk for

Duque
Papetiers Gros for the sluggish economy growth of Germany, mismatch between
company business model and Germany’s stationary industries main business model (wholesaling

vs. Retailing ) and strong competition from its local brand . Therefore, either
Duque Papetiers
Gros
can explore established market of Switzerland and Austria or develop market of other 3
countries that is Italy, Slovenia and Hungary.

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Task 3
2.3 Analysis of Duque’s last three financial years of sales data (2015-2017)

Product item
2015 Sales (€) 2016 Sales (€) 2017 Sales (€)
printer cartridges
25000 26000 22000
general office supplies
25000 27000 23000
low-cost printers
15000 18000 18000
office furniture
25000 25000 27000
shredders
25000 29000 29000
paper-based supplies
25000 27000 27000
writing/drawing

materials
25000 30000 32000
total sales
165000 182000 178000
Table 2: Duque’s annual sales for 3 consecutive years

(Created by the learner)

2600
0

2700
0

1800
0

25000

2900
0

2700
0

3000
0

2016 Sales (€)

printer cartridges
general office supplies
low-cost printers
office furniture
shredders
paper-based supplies
writing/drawing mate-
rials

Figure2: 2016 sales of Duque

(Source: Created by the learner)

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220
00
23
00
0

18
00
0

27
00
0

29
00
0

27
00
0

32
00
0

2017 Sales (€)

printer cartridges
general office
supplies

low-cost printers
office furniture
shredders
paper-based
supplies

writing/drawing
materials

Figure 3: 2017 sales of Duque

(Source: Created by the learner)

The mixed pie chart of annual sales of 2016 and 2017 shows in 2016 highest sales was in

shredders and writing or drawing materials. From the charts it can also be addressed that the

sales of writing or drawing materials increased in the year of 2017.

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Table 3: Correlation Coefficient of Annual sales
(Source: Created by the learner)

Figure 4: Duque’s financial sales represented through scatter diagram

(Source: Created by the learner)

Duque’s annual sales for 3 consecutive financial years are presented in the scatter diagram

above. If the value of R is closer to 1 then the prediction is more likely to be accurate and

relation between two variables is strong and if R
2 is nearer to 0 then prediction is like to be weak.
In this case R
2 is 0.54 which is in-between meaning prediction is may not be strong.
9

Year
Correlation Coefficient
2015-2016
0.900885233
2016-2017
0.847510399
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The existence of linear progression diagram in above specifies the potential increase in the
growth of the company in the upcoming years. The company did not witness any growth in their

profit margin in the year of 2017 but it is being assumed that by the year end the company will

have a growth in their sales leading to a significant increase in their profit margin.

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Task 4
2.4 Feasibility of Expanding to Germany & International Standards

Should I expand my business to Belgium & Germany?

Pros
Score/10 Cons Score/10
High per capita spending in

stationary goods
8 Strong competition from
local brands
8
Increase use of e-commerce
8
Increasing digitalization

and use of computer rather

than paper

9

Established market and high

growth in this sector of these

countries

7

Slow economic growth of

both countries (Belgium

and Germany)

7

High demand
6 Taxation policies 6
Quality of human resource
5 Labour cost 6
Manufacturing costs
5 Registration fee 5
Location
5 Decrease in rating of ease
of doing business
7
Total Pros
44 Total Cons 48
Average Pros
6.285714 Average Cons 6.857143
Table 5: Duque’s financial sales represented through scatter diagram

(Source: Created by the learner)

The above table show the advantages of expanding in Germany and Belgium is slightly less than

disadvantages of this move. According to this table,
Duque Papetiers Gros should look into
other option and not expand in Germany.

The international standards that apply to Duque’s activities are listed below.

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ISO 4217: 2015 – this standard is made to ensure the accurate use of currency code. This
currency made it easier to understand in which country currency transaction is happening
(Vishik
et al.,
2017).
ISO 45001: 2018-
this standard is made to ensure that workplace hazard and accidents are
avoided as much as possible. This standard has been named as ‘
Occupational health and safety’.
It provide guideline and rules is made by committee of expert in this area. It follows other

generic standard like ISO
14001 and ISO 9001 which help to create other safe working
environment
(Jain et aI., 2018)
ISO 50001: 2011-
this standard help the organisation their continuous improvement in their
performance and encourage continuous growth and development of the organisation. It correlates

a product with market requirement (Mustapha
et al., 2017)
ISO
26000:2010 – this gives advice and helps to understand about social responsibility, its
practice and motives. It also ensures effective steps are taken to fulfil this responsibility. It looks

after every prospect of business activities like its location, size, number of employees and many

others
(Ross, 2018).
ISO 3166 -
it has three part, one part is for country code, another is for subdivisions and last part
is for former country code .it help to define countries and its subdivision but in same time does

not reveal its name of the country.
(Buchta et al., 2018).
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Task 5
2.5 Costs of a New Building

A.
Since the interest is applied in the beginning of every year, the monthly cost for loan
repayment will be identified as under:

BALANCE AMOUNT (R)
200,000
RATE (r)
10%
YEAR OF REPAYMENT(t)
30
YEARLY REPAYMENT
21,215.85
MONTHLY PAYMENT
1,767.99
Table 6: calculation cost of building in first scenario

(Source: Created by the learner)

Formula

=PMT(r,t,R )/12

B.
Instead of beginning of every month, when the interest is applied in the beginning of every
month the repayment cost changes as below:

The formula to be used for calculation is:

P = R*[(1-(1+r)^-n)/i]

BALANCE AMOUNT
200,000
RATE
0.1
YEAR OF REPAYMENT
30
YEARLY REPAYMENT
21,060
MONTHLY PAYMENT
1,755
Table 7: calculation cost of building in second scenario

(Source: Created by the learner)

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By the above calculation, we get that if we assume the cost of the building is 200000 not
220,000 .The monthly cost if interest is applied at the beginning of the year for whole year it
will be slightly higher than the monthly cost when interest is calculated every month. Therefore

it is in the interest of the Duque
Papetiers Gros to take loan in the second method of
calculation.

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Task 6
2.6 Mean Value of Orders

The given zero hypotheses value is
240.
For generating sample mean 50 accounts were chosen at random and the mean was found to be

230, mainly indicating that the order of the magnitude cannot be considered as 240.
H
= €240
For the 50 accounts that were chosen at random the standard deviation was found to be
43 and
the case is considered to be reasonable.

The significance level is assumed to be 5% according to the problem, which implies that the use

of standard deviation is necessary.

The use of standard error is important here which is s
√n/ and after the values are inserted it is
found to be 43√50/. The result generated is 6.08 (decimal has been moved up to 2 points)

For sample mean as
230, the interval value is considered to be 228,252.
Thus, the null hypothesis and middle value of the Duque is
230 and 230 respectively.
Therefore, it can be said that the approximate value of the order recived is
230.
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Task 7
2.7 Customer Satisfaction

It is not easy for any company to gain its customer loyalty and trust in this new age of

competition. To get a complete response of the questionnaire,
changes in the timing and method
of sending questionnaire of
Duque Papetiers Gros is must as it is sent in December which
include all main holidays of the year like Christmas and New Year and all want to spend this

time relaxing with family and also email may get lost in the spam or a person can also delete it

without opening. The questionnaire should be given face to face in time of delivery and

deliveryman can politely ask customers to fill it. Also questionnaire look dull, it can be made in

bright colour to attract the customer. Reward like discount coupon can be given to customer in

exchange of completing the questionnaire. Most customers liked to get reward so there is more

possibility that they will fill the questionnaire completely and it also will increase customer

coming back for another purchase if they had a discount coupon. It is a situation in which

company will not lose only lose a small amount of profit margin but can increase sale of
Duque
Papetiers Gros
. Reward can also be given to those employee communicate feedback from
customers to them regularly.

CUST_SERV
QUAL_P&S SALES_STAFF PRICE_VALUE
Mean
3.5 3.15 3.45 1.95
Standard

Deviation

0.76088
0.36634 0.82557 0.51041
Table 8: statistical calculation with data of recorded customer feedback

(Source: Created by the learner)

For the above statistical calculation, we get that the performance of sales staff is inconsistent and

also service quality had no consistent standard. Consumers do not regard the product of this

company worth of the price given. Quality of the product has to be improved.

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Task 8
3.
Conclusions
This report analyse the stationary market of European Union countries. Also a detail summary of

Germany is given separately. Advantages and disadvantages of expanding of in Germany and

Belgium are also discussed. Cost of potential expansion is also calculated. Weakness of the

company is also discussed in last part of the report and also recommendation for improvement of

feedback system is also given.

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4. References
MGCC Perspectives – A Chamber of Commerce magazine, pp. 7-8

Buchta, C., Hornik, K. and Hornik, M.K., 2018. Package ‘ISOcodes’.

Jain, A., Leka, S. and Zwetsloot, G.I., 2018. Approaches to Managing Health, Safety and Well-

Being. In
Managing Health, Safety and Well-Being (pp. 33-65). Springer, Dordrecht.
Mustapha, M.A., Manan, Z.A. and Alwi, S.R.W., 2017. Sustainable Green Management System

(SGMS)–An integrated approach towards organisational sustainability.
Journal of Cleaner
Production
, 146, pp.158-172.
Parker, S.C., 2018.
The economics of entrepreneurship. Cambridge University Press.
Ross, H.F., 2018. Communicating ethical business practices and its effects on the knowledge,

perception and behaviour of stakeholders.

Vishik, C., Karame, G., Masucci, R., Goodman, D., de Jong, E., Bumerl, S., Huth, M. and

Vandezande, N., 2017. Blockchain: Perspectives on Research, Technology &

Policy.
Politics, 14, p.15
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5. Appendices
2.3

a)

Product item
2015 Sales (€) 2016 Sales (€) 2017 Sales (€)
printer cartridges
25000 26000 22000
general office supplies
25000 27000 23000
low-cost printers
15000 18000 18000
office furniture
25000 25000 27000
shredders
25000 29000 29000
paper-based supplies
25000 27000 27000
writing/drawing

materials
25000 30000 32000
total sales
165000 182000 178000
formula for total sales of 2015
=SUM(B11:B17)
formula for total sales of 2016
=SUM(C11:C17)
formula for total sales of 2017
=SUM(D11:D17)
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b)
2600
0

270
00
180
00

250
00

290
00

270
00

3000
0

182
000

2016 Sales (€)

printer cartridges
general office
supplies

low-cost printers
office furniture
shredders
paper-based
supplies

writing/drawing
materials
total sales
2200
0

230
00
180
00

270
00

290
00

270
00

3200
0

178
000

2017 Sales (€)

printer cartridges
general office
supplies

low-cost printers
office furniture
shredders
paper-based
supplies

writing/drawing
materials
total sales
20
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c)
21

Year
Correlation Coefficient
2015-2016
0.900885233
2016-2017
0.847510399
1 out of 21
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