Strategic Analysis of Countdown Supermarket in New Zealand

Running Head: COUNTDOWN 0
Strategic Management
Student Details
1/3/2019

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Executive Summary
This report is developed to analyse the New Zealand’s supermarket naming Countdown in
order to help the organization to develop innovative recommendations for itself in a non-
negligible way. The report discusses about the problems, strategic issues such as competitive
and challenging environment, consequent price war, technological problems, and increasing
number of competitors in the retail industry faced by the Countdown. This report analyse the
organization both internally and externally. Internal analysis is done with the help of SWOT
analysis which describes the strengths and weakness of Countdown. Biggest strength of
Countdown is its large number of distribution centre but still lagging behind in technological
advancements. External analysis is done with the Porter’s Five Forces analysis tool which
identified two problems of threats of substitutes and threats of new entrants. Threats of
substitutes is high for Countdown from convenience stores and farmer’s market, however, yet
threats of new entrants is low for Countdown due to insidious leasing agreements and local
zoning laws. As response to these problems faced by Countdown, management has
implemented strategies of product differentiation which uses price differentiation strategy and
enhanced special offers to the customers. Countdown’s corporate strategy is “price down”
which provides products at lower rates and resulted in profit of around $70 million to the
customers. Business strategy adopted by Countdown is “tailored strategy” which provides
better and more organised store experience to the customers.

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Contents
Executive Summary...................................................................................................................1
1. Introduction............................................................................................................................3
2. Strategic Objectives of Countdown.......................................................................................4
3. Internal and External Framework...........................................................................................7
External Analysis...................................................................................................................7
Internal Analysis....................................................................................................................8
4. Response of the Management to impact of the Environment................................................9
5. Corporate and Business Level Strategy...............................................................................10
Corporate Level Strategy.....................................................................................................10
Business Level Strategy.......................................................................................................11
6. Problems Faced by Countdown...........................................................................................12
7. Problems faced within the Industry......................................................................................13
8. Recommendations................................................................................................................14
References................................................................................................................................15

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1. Introduction
The retail sector of a country plays an important role for the growth of its economy. Retail
market is highly dynamic, constantly changing in order to meet the demands of the customers
and competitive pressures. Retail market is highly diverse too which covers everything from
daily use household products to high end fashion, building supplies, fuels, and cars (Retail
NZ, 2018).
Countdown is a full service supermarket which is based in New Zealand. It is a subsidiary of
Woolworth New Zealand, which is too subsidiary of Australian supermarket store
Woolworths Limited. Countdown supermarket was established in 1981 and it is in existence
in New Zealand since then. Stores of Countdown supermarket are generally larger and bigger
as compared to any other supermarket’s stores. Natalie Davis is the Managing director of the
Countdown who is looking all the functions of the organisation and ensures to meet the
objectives of the organisation (Gs1nz, 2018). At present Countdown have around 184 stores
and 18,000 employees working for countdown. It is one of the biggest supermarket chains in
New Zealand and fulfilling needs and providing services to around 2.5 million customers
every week. Countdown is committed to provide the best services and the shopping
experience to its customers by providing convenience and surplus choice. At Countdown, in
store team is supported by four dry grocery distribution centres, one seafood processing plant,
two meat processing plants, one central support office, and three fresh produce distribution
centres in order to meet the requirements of the store (Countdown, 2018).
Mission of Countdown
Countdown is working on the approach of people first. The company puts its customers on
the top priority and all its decisions and designs are formed to benefit the customers most. In