Duque Papetiers Gros: A Report on International Business Expansion

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Duque Papetiers Gros, a stationery business, and its potential for international expansion, particularly into Germany. It begins with an overview of the German wholesale stationers market, highlighting its size, growth, and consumer spending habits. The report then analyzes Duque's sales data from 2015 to 2017, assessing sales trends and using charts to visualize product performance. It evaluates the feasibility of expanding to Germany, considering pros, cons, and international standards like ISO 31000, ISO 14000, and ISO 9000. The report also calculates the costs associated with a new building, including mortgage payments. Furthermore, it investigates customer satisfaction through Z-score analysis and provides recommendations for improving survey response rates and presents descriptive statistics on customer feedback. The report concludes with a summary of findings and recommendations for Duque's expansion strategy, emphasizing the importance of promotional efforts and cost control.

Report for Duque Papetiers Gros
Date:

Report for Duque Papetiers Gros 2018
1. Introduction
There is presence of German stationery sector which is gaining well position in market. This
sector has developed and introduced very innovative products and services in context of consumer
preferences and habits. The present report is giving brief discussion about Duque Papertiers Gros
which deals with stationery services and products to small shops, offices and local school. This type of
business unit has framed very effectual image and gained trust and even reliability. In the present
report Duque owner wants to expand its business in other countries like France, Germany or Belgium.
So according to this report will be presenting gist about trend of annual spending on drawing and
writing materials with reference to seven European countries.
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Report for Duque Papetiers Gros 2018
2. Analysis of Issues for Duque Papetiers Gros
2.1 An Overview of the Wholesale Stationers Market in Germany
The current stationery industry of Germany is well positioned. According to report of
Trade association for writing and office supply has replicated the total turnover of specific
industry is above 14.8 Billion per year which is equal to spending of every individual that is
more than 182 annually. In the European Union countries, Germany is at second position with
respect to spending for stationery as 35.2 of it is used on drawing and writing materials. There
was rise in industry of stationery by 3.5% in year 2014 and 2015 (Green and Salkind, 2016). It
will be giving outcome as of raising demand which has raised by 2.5% and even demand has
been increasing from abroad of 5%.
Germany has very good reputation in context of stationery brands in worldwide. They
have attained very significant market shares with respect to positive image in market against
private labels. There is existence of very broad range of several products with unique
challenges and development. The turnover is decreasing of paper and its products as this
category is experiencing growth rate in positive aspect and even there is growth in office
supplies and different writing instruments by 5% in year 2015.
In the industry of stationery, 2200 wholesale organizations are operating and half of
them are giving turnover less than 500000 as it consists of wholesalers of selling paper,
writing instruments and office supplies and even the ones who are giving directly to
commercial customers are termed as business intermediaries. Due to merger various
stationery wholesalers decreased there operations and various organizations took exit from
market.
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Report for Duque Papetiers Gros 2018
2.2 Annual Spending on Writing/Drawing Materials per Capita
According to research, it has been identified that stationery industry of Germany is
growing with well positioning. According to this report, 14.8 billion is total turnover of specific
industry per year. There spending is equal of every individual which is more than 182 annually
and 35.2 was specific part was only drawing and writing materials. In the context of per capita
income, Switzerland is leading with 34.5 and followed up by Germany and then Austria. In the
context of European Union countries such as France and Germany who’s spending is also
accounted in below mentioned chart of spending (McEwen and Dean, 2015). Along with
the perspective of enhancing annual spending, Duque must give special emphasis on various
promotional aspects and even online servicing. According to published data of HBS, the least
decade number of pupils got decrement by 11.9% and it will directly tend towards negative
impacts in context of drawing and writing material and even by revenue.
Illustration 1: Annual spending for writing and drawing
(Source: )
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Report for Duque Papetiers Gros 2018
2.3 Analysis of Duque’s last three financial years of sales data (2015-2017)
a. Assessment of sales
In the context of assessing sales, there has been specific use of formulae of sum and
this has identified revenue of sales. In the year 2015, it was 165000 and it rose to 182000 but
in next year 2017, it was decreased to 178000. While, assessing growth in 2016, it gave
positive impact of 10.30% and from 2016 to 2017, it decreased from 2.20%. Therefore,
Duque has major requirement of giving special focus on promotional strategies and
controlling cost for generating more sales (George and Mallery, 2016). The main reason for
decreasing sales was due to general office supplies and printer cartridges from year 2016 to
2017 was 14.81% and 15.38% respectively. For maximising sales, Duque has to take various
measures or actions in context of these products and more new adaptation.
b. Mixed Pie Chart
26000
27000
18000
25000
29000
27000
30000
22000
23000
18000
27000 29000
27000
32000
printer cartridges
general office supplies
low-cost printers
office furniture
shredders
paper-based supplies
writing/drawing materials
(Source : International Organization for Standardization, 2018
Interpretation: The pie chart consists of two layers which represents sales of each
product item. The innermost layer is representing sales of 2017 and outermost is reflecting
sales of 2016.
c. Total sales with correlation between sales and year
Year 2015 2016 2017
Total sales 165000 182000 178000
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Report for Duque Papetiers Gros 2018
Correlation 0.73
Correlation represents relationship of both variables as it can be interpreted that
movement of one variable has been assessed in this measure. There is a representation in
graph format which depicts both years sales revenue which is correlated but it has moderate
nature. It can be interpreted that as year passes, the revenue of sales will increase very
significantly (Nakagawa, Johnson and Schielzeth, 2017).
d. Evaluating sales trend
Year
2018 6500 (x) + 162000
6500 (4) + 162000
188000
2019 6500 (x) + 162000
6500 (5) + 162000
194500
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Report for Duque Papetiers Gros 2018
2.4 Feasibility of Expanding to Germany & International Standards
a. Completion of table
Sr. No. Pros Score / 10 Cons Score / 10
1 Enhancing customer
base
9 Huge turnover of staff 6
2 Possibilities are
relocated
7 Requirement of huge
capitalizing
7
3 Talented personnel 8 Quality impact 8
4 Economies of scale 6 Deficiency in operational
control
5
Average cons 30 Average cons 26
Interpretation: Duque should expand its operation in context of business by observing
its feasibility. The outcome of above table implies that there are more pros as compared to
cons as it can develop framework in very sound manner which will be accomplishing success
in countries like Belgium and Germany (Ye, 2014.).
b. International standards for adherence
There are various standards which has to be adhere by Duque for expanding business
operations in different countries such as Belgium and Germany such as:
 Risk Management (ISO 31000): This standard provides various guidelines, framework and
principles for managing risk. It helps organization in improving likelihood of accomplishing
objectives and helps in determining threats and opportunities and proper allocation of
resources for treatment of risk.
 Environmental Management (ISO 14000): It is considered as family of standards which gives
various practical tools to organizations of every type for managing their environment
responsibilities. Usually it focuses on different approaches like labelling, life cycle analysis,
audits and communications.
 Quality management (ISO 9000): According to this standard, there is requirement of
organization for maintaining specific quality of different products and services which will be
accomplishing requirements of every customer in great extent.
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Report for Duque Papetiers Gros 2018
2.5 Costs of a New Building
a. Computation of monthly cost of 30 years repayment of mortgage
Repayment mortgage duration Payment of loan Amount (monthly)
30 years
Total amount of
loan/Discounting factor 21215.85 / 12
21215.85 1767.98
b. Application of interest rate of every month
Particulars Time period (n) Interest rate per month
Figures 30 years * 12 months 10% /12
360 times 0.00833
Monthly payment 176.7280305
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Report for Duque Papetiers Gros 2018
2.6 Mean Value of Orders
For identifying the average order value there has been calculation of Z score value.
The absolute value of Z gives deep insight in context of distance which took place between
raw and population mean in context of standard deviation (Auplish and et. al., 2017).
Null hypothesis (H0)
There is no difference in mean value of actual order and
expected value.
Alternative hypothesis (H1)
There is difference in mean value of actual order and expected
value.
Alpha value for rejection and
selection of hypothesis 0.05 (given)
If p value is smaller than 0.05 than alternative hypothesis will be accepted and if its
greater than 0.05 than rejected.
Particulars
Average value of
whole population Sample mean Standard deviation Z score assessment
Outcome 240 230 43 (240-230) / 43
(10) / 43
0.23
Interpretation: The above table is giving brief presentation of Z score in tabular format
which is greater than standard limit that is 0.05. It can be interpreted that null hypothesis is
accepted against alternative hypothesis as there is no significance difference in mean value of
actual order and expected value. So it can be stated that average order value is similar in
context of both categories such as actual and budgeted.
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Report for Duque Papetiers Gros 2018
2.7 Customer Satisfaction
a. Recommendations for improving rate of survey responsive
Survey has been conducted by Duque in every December for tracking information in
context of needs, expectations and desire of consumer. There are various respondents who
fill questionnaire for less than percentage of 5 is not considered as an appropriate situation.
The most important measure can be undertaken that questionnaire should be given to only
people who are aware about topic. For improving responsive rate Duque must emphasize the
appropriate needs should be placed in context of communicating advantage of specific survey
to those respondents. Respondents must be aware that there feedback will be used for
framing strategies and along with this privacy of information will be confidential must be
ensured (Hittner, 2016).
Duque must be capable for increasing survey rate by applying very simple and
understandable language and it should be accessed to very specific customer base. The email
address which is used for sending questionnaire must be in such format that it should allow
customer to reply on same so this will ensure concept of time saving. They must inform
respondents about time which is taken for survey in advance only so this will attract more
customer. As in this rational world, every body like shortcuts so in this aspect also survey
should be in concise and short format so this boost the number of respondents and even
information will be qualitative as well. There is presence of various respondents who forget
their survey in inbox so cheerful reminders must be given as it will raise participation rate.
b. Descriptive statistics
Particulars Mean Standard error Median Mode
standard
deviation
Customer
service 3.5 0.17 4 4 0.76
Quality of P&S 3.15 0.08 3 3 0.37
sales staff 3.45 0.18 4 4 0.83
Price / value 1.95 0.11 2 2 0.51
Interpretation : In the above table, descriptive statistics state that out of 20
respondents average responses are implying level of customer service and product's quality
and even sales staff of Duque as well is considered as good staff. Mode and median of
customer service and sales staff is 4 which reflects that half of data set is giving excellent
remark to Duque. 1.95 as mean value depicts the products of customer rated and service of
Duque. As it is under criteria so it has been depicted as fair value. There are various
customers in huge proportion who are not satisfied with quality of stationery services and
products at very reasonable price. The high level of satisfaction has been evolved among
various customer and it has been converted in same into organization of loyalty as an
organization has basic requirement of giving special emphasis on controlling the cost (Zheng
and et.al., 2017).
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Report for Duque Papetiers Gros 2018
3. Conclusions
From the above report it has been concluded that industry of stationery has gained huge
market share plus well position in Germany on the basis of expanding its business as well. The
customer base and margin of profit will be enhanced by Duque via exploring its operations in
Germany. It can be articulated from report that Duque has major requirement to focus on quality of
product and strategy of diversification. It can be also justified that level of spending is high of
customer with comparison to drawing and writing material. It can be clearly viewed from above report
that expanding its operations in Belgium and Germany would be giving huge success by observing its
Pros and cons. It can be also framed that Duque need must be evaluated by giving special emphasis on
modifying and revising its existing framework of policy. Duque will be attracting more customer by
setting competitive prices of such stationery product.
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Report for Duque Papetiers Gros 2018
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