Wits Business School Case Study: Legendary Retail Brands Analysis

This assignment analyzes Legendary Retail Brands (LRB), a South African company operating under a franchising business model. The case study examines LRB's history, including its origins as Burgundy Rose Trading 64 Limited and its subsequent acquisitions of MICA Hardware, House of Paint and Décor, and DIY Depot. It explores the challenges and opportunities faced by LRB in a competitive market, including the potential threat from larger competitors like Pick n Pay and Checkers. The analysis focuses on LRB's business model, identifying it as a franchising model that allows independent retailers to maintain their individuality while benefiting from collective strength. The assignment also provides recommendations for LRB, suggesting areas for improvement such as store branding, personalized services, and potential expansion into other countries. The provided solution is a student's response to the Wits Business School case study, "Legendary Retail Brands: A Sustainable Business Model?"

Running head: LEGENDARY RETAIL BRANDS
LEGENDARY RETAIL BRANDS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Context
Legendary Retail Brands is a South African company, which was initially called the
Burgandy Rose Trading 64 Limited. The company provided an opportunity to MICA Hardware
to start fresh in the year 2009 by coming together and purchasing the brand from Super Group
(Soicher & Beswick, 2016). The company then went on to incorporate the House of Paint and
Décor in 2010 and DIY Deport in 2012. The COO of the company, Alan Reeves, had been
thinking about the next step for the development of the company. Though the company had been
incurring profit through the difficult economic environment, there was a need for a sustainable
plan to take the company ahead. Alan Reeves though that the companies like Pick n Pay,
Checkers that sold hardware as well as paint could provide competition to the company in future
(Soicher & Beswick, 2016). The business of LRB was to provide the best products, value ads,
services solutions, for the independent retailer. There were many questions where the COO
questioned if the company was a sustainable model or not.
What business model does Legendary Retail Brands follow?
Legendary retail brands works on the concept of “independent retailers”. The business
will have the benefits from the peers to back them up and will help them face any problems that
they might face in the future. Inspite of having the backing from the peers they maintain their
individuality in the market and are able to trade freely. The retailers and the sellers when united
together can stand strong in the market and gain the market consolidation. It has its franchises
that run the business. Therefore, the business model that LRB follows is Franchising Business
Model. The most popular form of business, it enables LRB to expand its business and it requires
only capital investment (Johnson, 2016). LRB was better at dealing with the suppliers and
managed the cash flow that enabled them to order stocks that had once been a difficulty for them.

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Having a franchise thus, makes it get a better hold of the market share (Johnson, 2016).
Therefore, it can be said that Legendary Retail Brands (LRB) is a Franchising Business Model
that operates according to its strategies and models.
Recommendations
Legendary Retail Brands are sustainably providing services to the people. Based on the
business model of franchises, the company is moving ahead with its business. However, there are
certain areas where the company can improve upon where they can reduce the competition from
their rivals and improve their business. They should be willing to adopt prescriptive practices in
order to gain control over the store branding. The company should be invested to offer more
personalized services not only as the owner-managed stores. The company should find out ways
to put itself in the position where they can extract more value from the market for the company.
Though the company is flourishing well as a franchise in South Africa, it can also expand its
bases in other countries to obtain more and more profit.

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References
Johnson, G. (2016). Exploring strategy: text and cases. Pearson Education.
Soicher, A., & Beswick, C. (2016). Legendary Retail Brands: A Sustainable Business Model?.
Wits Business School.