Managing Small and Medium Enterprises: A Case Study of Davison Canners

This report discusses the nature of entrepreneurship, SME start-up process, business concept, competitive advantage, current level of demand, growth and development of Davison Canners, challenges of managing and running the business, SMEs current growth and development strategy, and government support measures available to help the business in overcoming the challenges faced.

Managing Small and
Medium Enterprises

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................4
Nature of entrepreneur behind the venture..................................................................................4
SME start up process...................................................................................................................5
Business concept and any source of competitive advantage ......................................................5
Current level of demand and competitive environment .............................................................6
Growth and development of the business to date .......................................................................6
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Small and medium enterprises basically refers to the independent firms, non-subsidiary
that employs fewer than given number of employees. SMEs plays a significant role in terms of
country's overall production and they act as core to the economic growth of developing
countries(Abimbola and Kolawole., 2017). (Bayyoud and Sayyad., 2016).In the present report,
Davison Canners is taken into consideration. Their basic roots are basically in apple growing and
processing and their business has branched into number of exciting areas. The present report will
cover discussion about nature of entrepreneur and start-up process. In addition to this, the present
report will cover analysis about the business concept, sources of competitive advantage and also
about competitive environment. Moreover, the report will cover discussion about growth and
development of business and also about challenges of managing and running the business. The
report also consist of SMEs development strategy and current growth as well.
MAIN BODY
Nature of entrepreneur behind the venture
Davison Canner is basically located in United Kingdom and also part of the vegetable
and fruit preserving and speciality food manufacturing industry. From the traditional perspective,
Davison Canners been an apple processing and growing business but as a result of investment it
has now diversified into hot eat desserts. According to the nature of entrepreneur, the family of
Davison grew and harvested their first crop over the forty years of Irish Bramley apples. In order
to grow their business, they have expanded themselves into variety of products such as jam
packed with ideas, apple plus compotes like apple dice, apple family cut, apple slice, trio of
apple, caramelised apple, apple and blackcurrant etc (Csath., 2020). In order to remain at the
forefront of the industry which enables the customers to have confidence in their capabilities to
deliver all levels to the highest possible standard.
Behind this venture, the nature of entrepreneur is that to innovate themselves to a next
higher level through their products. Their innovation is into the context of kitchen from where
ideas come to life where they work tirelessly and invest their time and resources within this food
industry. According to current period of time, there has been scene of innovative food which is
ever changing and surprising as well. They are continuously investing and reinvesting into both
their people and business as well.

So the basic nature of entrepreneur is to grow themselves with support of venture with
their single product of apple into innovative manner so that they can attract large number of
customers into positive manner.
SME start up process
To start a business of SME, it is important that to identify the business idea, validate the
business idea and after that get a memorable business logo and name as well. After that develop
a business plan with the understanding of business finances and also choose the right bank for
the small business. In the further step, choose the structure of the small business and at the end
get the permission for license(Dosumu and et.al., 2020). In this way, small medium enterprises
has started their business into positive manner. In context to Davison Canner, they have started
their journey in such a manner that over the forty years, the family of Davison grew and also
harvested their first crop of Irish Bramley apples. After the four decades, orchards and brand new
grade AA BRC accredited factory facilities on site and their family firm has grown into one of
the leading producers of speciality of fruits, jams, fruit compotes and bakery fillings as well. In
this manner, Davison Canner has started their career into effective manner and result oriented
manner as well with support of innovation and development as well.
Business concept and any source of competitive advantage
The business concept refers to the direction and forms its operation as well and according
to the traditional concept, businesses only exist to earn profits through providing goods and
services to their customers. The main business concept of Davison Canner is that they have to
sell their products into innovative manner with their new concept with support system of new
machineries and technologies as well. Competitive advantage basically refers to those factors
which allows the company to produce goods and services in a more better and cheaper way as
compared to their rivals(Eneh and Okezie., 2017). In context to Davison Canner, they have
competitive advantage in this spectrum that the brand has launched hot eat desserts and puddings
as well which will help in terms of growth of the business. Davison Canner has also competitive
advantage in this context that they have unique range and flavour innovation gives the company
a point of difference as well. On the initial level, they have popular innovation vouchers in order
to retain specialist expertise from Loughry college's food innovation centre to develop the new
dessert range.

In this manner, the company has competitive advantage into the market in order to grow
and develop themselves into positive manner.
Current level of demand and competitive environment
The current level of demand basically refers to the maximum level of sales which is
available to all the firms in a market during the given period of time and also under given set
conditions of market. In context to Davison Canner, their variety of products and different ranges
in terms of apple products has attracted people on large scale. The competitive environment is
basically the system where different businesses compete with each other through support of
different marketing channels, pricing methods and promotional strategies(Khan and et.al., 2020).
In this competitive environment, competitors can directly affect the business and the decisions
that has made by the company in order to work smoothly into continuous manner. In context to
Davison canner, there are lots of competitors into the market who are very similar to Davison
Canners limited. It includes calibre power electronics limited, PR2 engineering limited, W S
dunsire & sons limited, ITP solutions ltd, Pneutrol international limited. So in this competitive
environment, they have to be always ready with every kind of challenge and innovation factor as
well so that they can stand out competitively into this market.
Growth and development of the business to date
The business growth and development refers to the initiatives, ideas and activities which
help in terms of making the business more in better terms. It includes, enhancement in revenues,
growth in terms of business expansion, increasing profitability through strategic partnership and
also make the strategic business decisions. There are basically five stages of business growth
which includes existence, survival, success, take off and resource maturity as well(Ratnadianti
and et.al., 2020). In context to Davison Caner, for the growth of business they have launched
their own brand of hot eat desserts and puddings. They have come up with new product varieties
and ranges as well so that they can generate large amount of revenue and also earn profits on
large scale. They have also installed new machineries and technologies in order to make the
product more innovative and result oriented as well.

Challenges of managing and running the business
It has been observed that businesses have to face lots of challenges and they can't manage
the business into appropriate manner. The challenges majorly includes keeping up with the
market, planning into the ahead form, cash flow, financial management, right systems. To run
the business into smoother manner, it is necessary that to have proper analysis of market and
should have deeper research for the upcoming changes into the market so that accordingly
actions and decisions can be taken for it (Reuter., 2015).Sometimes businesses have to face
challenges into the context of implementing new technology into successful manner because
everybody can't cope up with this new change at the organisational level. In context to Davison
Canner, they have to face challenges in terms of financial management because they are majorly
focused on continuous investing and reinvesting into the business and people as well. They also
aim for gaining the confidence level of their customers due to which they have faced difficulty in
terms of bringing innovative products into continuous manner due to which it is challenging to
make the interest of customers into continuous manner.
The SMEs current growth and development strategy
According to current period of time, small and medium enterprises start growing with
support system of UK government and their policies. Their growth also depends on this
parameter that how much people are taking interest in terms of working in this field. Until there
is no support system of finance and their products are not innovative then it becomes difficult for
the growth of SMEs. The development strategy for SMEs is that United Nations Economic
Commission for Europe has taken initiative through promoting policies and regulatory reforms in
order to create an enabling environment for the development of SME (Sandada., 2015). In
context to Davison Canner, for their development they are continuously reviewing their business
model and also looking for ways in terms of expanding themselves into positive manner. They
have diversified their business through new product ranges and also secured the new orders in
GB and Dubai and also they have launched their own brand range of desserts-simply puddings.
In this way, company has made development in terms of their strong position into the market.
In this currently changing environment there are various parameters due to which organisation
has to face lots of difficulties and it includes globalisation, uncertainty, technology and

innovation. At the organisational level, the major changes have been happened due to these kind
of parameters. Globalisation is the situation where every country can trade with another country
of different kinds of goods and services and this kind of big change has given the organisation
with this opportunity that they can grow themselves into positive manner. There can be any kind
of uncertain situation which includes the natural calamities due to which organisation has to
make changes in their way of working and other procedures as well. There can be different kind
of technologies due to which organisation has to take different decisions for it accordingly. There
are certain financial sources of SMEs which include Own Capital/savings, small business loans,
personal loans, trade credit, private equity firms, venture capital firms and crowd funding as
well. The main source of funding for SMEs are bank loans and venture capital firms which help
the SMEs to grow themselves into positive manner. According to the evaluation it has been find
out that bank loans are the best option in order to provide finding to SMEs into positive manner.
Government support measures which may be available to help the business in overcoming the
challenges faced
It has been observed that UK government has launched various initiatives in order to
improve and increase the opportunities for small and medium enterprises. For overcoming the
challenges they have faced they can take support system of loans given by the UK government
so that they can overcome their financial losses into positive manner and can positively stand
again into the market in stronger manner. In context to Davison Canner, the challenges they have
faced and it can be resolved through support system of UK government where they provide
financial support in terms of growth and development of small and medium enterprises.
Government policies and measures also help in terms of taking further step into positive manner
for Davison Canner. In this manner, they can positively face challenges into result oriented
manner.
Explain about the extent to which the business has considered social and sustainable goals and
whether they have opportunity for the business
It has been observed that Davison Canner has adopted sustainable goals up to a very large
extent because their basic ingredient of their product is apple which is very necessary for the
final product generation (Silalahi and et.al., 2021). This is that basic ingredient which does not
harm the environment in any aspect so basically the company has followed all the sustainable
measures into positive manner. The business has become social in this aspect where their

innovative products has attracted people on large scale due to which company can generate
revenue into large amount. So from the very long perspective the company has wider
opportunities for the business into positive manner for their further growth and development as
well.
CONCLUSION
The above stated report concludes that small and medium enterprises plays a very
significant role in terms of growth of a country. It has been concluded that behind the venture of
the company, the nature of entrepreneurs matters on a very large scale. For initially starting a
business, small and medium enterprises has to follow certain policies and frameworks as well
due to which they can perform into legalised manner.
It has been determined that the growth of business depends on this factor that what is the
demand of product within the market so that accordingly production has been done into positive
manner. It has been observed that for the growth of small and medium enterprises there should
be a development strategy so that company can take decisions accordingly for it into positive
manner.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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1205-1218). IGI Global.
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AND VARIATIONS IN SELECTED DEMOGRAPHIC VARIABLES. Ecoforum
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Silalahi and et.al., 2021. Factors affecting intention to adopt halal practices: case study of
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