Undergraduate Report: Strategic Management Analysis of Lola's Cupcakes

This report conducts a strategic analysis of Lola's Cupcakes, a UK-based food retail business specializing in cupcakes. It begins with an introduction and company overview, detailing Lola's Cupcakes' history, operations, and product offerings. The core of the report employs strategic management models, specifically PESTLE and SWOT analyses, to evaluate the internal and external business environments. The PESTLE analysis examines political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors impacting the business, while the SWOT analysis assesses the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. A key focus is the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Lola's Cupcakes, examining how lockdowns, supply chain disruptions, and changing consumer behavior affected the business. The report concludes by summarizing key findings and insights derived from the analyses, highlighting challenges and potential strategic responses for the company. The report uses secondary data and literature review to support its findings and recommendations.

Sample

Abstract
The main aim of this report has bene to highlight the models of strategic management and
their application in a literature review which states the current business condition of Lola’s
cupcakes. The main models which were used in this file included SWOT analysis and PESTLE
which are used to examine the internal and external; business environment of the industry in
order to highlight the potential problems and impacts that happen due to various disturbances.
The disturbance which this report focused on was the impact of COVID-19 on the business of
food retail focusing on Lola’s cupcakes as a result. The file was successful in identifying key
issues with the help of the models used.

Contents
Abstract............................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................1
Company overview....................................................................................................................1
Presentation of data...................................................................................................................1
PESTLE of Lola's cake bakers.................................................................................................3
SWOT Analysis of Lola's cake bakers.....................................................................................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
There are many tools of strategic management which are used to navigate and find some tough
threats and weaknesses that a business is currently dealing with which is very helpful in
fortifying business operations for long term sustainability of competencies. Lola’s cupcakes are
one of the most promising food retail businesses found in UK which has a penchant for making
innovation in the field of desserts. This report will highlight key issues with the help of models
of strategic management such as PESTLE analysis and SWOT analysis in order to judge the
impact that pivotal external disturbances have had on the company such as the COVID-19
pandemic (Aditya, Stephen, and Radhakrishnan,2021).
MAIN BODY
Company overview
Lola's cupcake bakery shop was founded in 2006 and them headquarter are in Landon,
Mayfair. This bakery started by two friends, Victoria and Romy Lewis, they originally taking the
orders in their room and baking in their parents kitchen, and then the order will increase day by
day and start flooding , along with they have to move home baker to professional bakers in
Primrose hill, because of their love for baking and passionate for the work , They open Lola's
concessions in Harrods, Topshop and Selfridges and they also start online businesses and work
hard to expand their businesses, Now they have a twenty bakery shops in London, and make
thousands of hand crafts cake and cupcake daily (Wiid and Cant, 2021). The Lola's sweet
cupcake bakery are make hand- made cupcakes in North west Landon bakers where their team
member bake thousands of cake and cupcakes variety such as classic cake, Fantasy cakes, Posh
cakes, Cheesecake and lots of variety and flavour they have. They decorate their handcraft cakes,
cupcakes, brownie and further more making the finest ingredients, there are hundreds of
employees are working in their industries of Food and Beverages Services (Archer-Kuhn,Ayala,
Hewson and Letkemann, 2020).
Presentation of data
During the Covid-19 pandemic time are impacted the all Food and Beverages companies and
businesses including the bakery industries. In pandemic time the mass production and supply
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chains are close because of lockdown and they also effected the economy as well. When the
lockdown starts of 2020, the sales of non- edible products such as sensitizer, paper shops, hand
sanitizer and others, were demand and sales will increase, but the people are not purchase the
edible products up to the mark such as, meat products and baker products. Because of lack of
supply and demand many bakery shops have closed due to shortage of labours (Umaraw and
Chauhan, 2018). The another factor which impact the market is the lack of raw material
availability, because of this issues the Lola's bakers and small bakery shops face lots of problems
(Baur,and Trench, 2022). But the time passed the government allowing the reopening the shops,
after this the bakery products demand will increase especially breads it is the essential products
which is used in daily diet. The pandemic time has increased the demand for bakery products
such as cookies, cake, brownie and so on, so this high demand helps the baker shops in their
growth.
The sales of bakery shops increased by 62.3% completing the week ending and it has
been increased the demand approx. 44.3% for the cookies and crackers in the food and beverage
sector (Udgata and suryadevara,2021).
During the COVID-19 pandemic situation, people are more aware about to them maintain
immunity level, they are more concern to their health, that's why the bread products demand will
increase to compare the other bakery products. Lola's bakery shop also follows the rules and they
shut the majority of retail stores and only selected stores are open, along with they ensure the
team safety (Cannon, and Middleton-House,2022).
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According to the official response which has been released by the company, the firm has
been suffering as the majority of the shops have to be closed and some remaining ones are left
open to function as important hubs. The company has also been focusing on digital channels as a
result (Rizzo Hartholt, and Mozgai, 2021).
PESTLE of Lola's cake bakers
PESTLE Analysis is a frame work of external factors such as political, Economic,
Sociological, Technological, Legal and Environment which effect the organisation. This factors
helps the company to analyse the macro environment along with it support to take batter
decision. To doing effective PESTLE Analysis Lola's bakers need to be done the regular
analyses, which can help the company to find the trends early and taking a competitive
advantage. Lola's cake bakers need to focus on this tips to doing effective PESTLE analysis
which are listed below: Using the expertise and advance resources within the businesses, when
use PESTLE analysis also try to apply other techniques such as SWOT analysis, Ansoff Matrix
and so on to make batter planning, don’t make the consolation about the future it is totally based
on past and present time (ErdemEş, Saylan, and Inci, , 2021).
Political Factors of PESTLE Analysis- This factors determine the activity of the government
which effect the company or industries along with this Political factors include this government
activity such as Tax policy, trade restrictions, political stability and further more (Sawik, T2022)
To maintain the strong presences in the market Lola's baker, need to expand their business at the
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international stage but they want to ensure that they can survival long- term in the market, they
need to focus on political factors which helps the industry to prepare for the changing the
political environment. For example- Now government system is based on autonomy, which helps
the business to make environment friendly in nature, Lola's cake bakers can take a advantage of
this economic freedom which is given by the democratic governance system, which helps Lola's
bakers to doing free trade and promote their business all over the world (Fabiyi, 2018).
Economic factors of the PESTLE Analysis- It is the second PESTLE factors, which include
economic growth, inflation, wages rates, unemployment and others. This variable directly affects
the business performance and ability to achieve the economic target. Lola's cake bakers need to
understand this factors to predict the long- term and short- term growth of the company in the
chosen factors (Ramachandran, et.al, 2022). Lola's bakers need to analysis the economic growth
rate of the countries while taking any international decisions, because those company having a
high growth rate giving a more opportunities to the company to earn high profit, however those
countries having slow economic growth rate so it will affect the company performance and they
having more risk (García, and Martínez-Prieto, 2022)
Social Factors of the PESTLE Analysis- This factors represent the demographic features such
as social value, norms and costumes of the society. This social factors helps the company to
make better plan for doing market strategies. These factors are identifying the target customer of
the particular market segment and highlight the local workforce. Lola's cake bakers need to
careful handle this social factors, because it is related to the people and social- culture
environment which can helps the company to driven the highly successfully business towards the
failure (Pop, Rus, and Drența, 2019). For example – Lola's cake bakers are focus on young
consumers because youngster is having a positive attitude they like to adopting diversity
management practises to compare the old peoples. Along with the positive attitude towards the
migration helps to shows that Lola's cake bakers can easily hire the new staff from the different
cultural backgrounds, and this thing helps the company to do better performance and earn more
profit (Ginanneschi, 2021) Technological Factors in PESTLE Analysis- Today's industries
world, technology development is very initial part for the company and economic development,
so Lola's bakers need to adapt the advance technology which helps to expand their business and
improve their work performance, they need to understand the new product advancement rate and
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product life- cycle rate factures are liked by the consumer. Along with is helps to reduce the cost
of labour of the company (Gupta, Modgil,Bhatt,and Kamble 2022)
Legal Factors in the PESTLE Analysis- This factors helps the Lola's company to get more
details information which is related to the laws and regulation which include health and safety,
consumer protection act and so on (Meerasri,and Sothornvit, , 2022). It supports the Lola's cake
baker company to expand their business globally (Jha. and Bhattacharyya, 2018) Environment
Factors in the PESTLE Analysis- Lola's cake bakery need to increase the depth knowledge
related to the environmental regulations. For example, Lola’s cake bakery need to adopt the
environment friendly practises and encourage the consumption practises among the targeted
consumers (Liu, Zhuand Zhang, 2018).
SWOT Analysis of Lola's cake bakers
SWOT Analysis is a technique which helps the company to analysis their strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities, and threats. SWOT can also uncover those areas which effect the company
performance and holding back along with competitors could exploit the company if they don’t
protect herself. They examine the both Internal and External factors which analyse that what’s
going on inside and outside of your company. Some of these factors are controllable and some
are uncontrollable. So it can help the company to face challenges and protect from future risks.
Strength
 Bakery products having a different
varieties of baked food items and this
play a significant role to attract the
consumer. Lola's cake bakers make
sure that they are giving some offers
on the basic products such as bread,
biscuits, cornbread and others.
 If Lola's bakers having a unique artist
design on cakes and pastries which
add the value to their products and
make them more presentable. It is very
important to attract the consumer
Weaknesses
High price is the weakest part for the bakery
business because the other direct and indirect
costs such as high fuel prices, transportation
cost and so on cost is increases and shop owner
also increase the retail; price and consumer are
not like this thing.
To enter in new market is very difficult for the
new bakers because the computation will
increase day by day, and to set new business in
different countries and gain trust of the
consumer is difficult part for the company.
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because consumer is don't want only
food product they also want good
looking food items.
Opportunities
 Lola's bakery conducts a market
research to check the demand of the
bakery product which is helpful for
their growth.
 They have a opportunities to adapt the
healthy market because people are
more like heathy products
Threats
 The Competition are increase day by
day in the market and it is difficult to
maintain their potions. And it is
difficult to enter the new market
because it is hard to change the
consumer mind set.
 Social media platform also a big threat
for the bakery businesses because a lot
of experts are share their recipes with
their followers and encourage the
people to try and make this recipe at
home.
Conclusion
The above report went into detail regarding the Lola's cupcake company. This report we
giving the detail company overview and give a presentation overview which helps the company
to know their position in the market along with we justify that what was the impact of the
company during the COVID-19 pandemics time. After completion of this project, it was
successfully concluded that use of tools such as PESTLE analysis and SWOT were helpful in
identifying impact that are dealt by key issues on specific industries such as food retail (Maher,
Hogarty, and Ben Artsi, 2022).
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Aditya, S., Stephen, J. and Radhakrishnan, M., 2021. Utilization of eggshell waste in calcium-
fortified foods and other industrial applications: A review. Trends in Food Science &
Technology, 115, pp.422-432.
Archer-Kuhn, B., Ayala, J., Hewson, J. and Letkemann, L., 2020. Canadian reflections on the
Covid-19 pandemic in social work education: From tsunami to innovation. Social Work
Education, 39(8), pp.1010-1018.
Baur, D.G. and Trench, A., 2022. Not all gold shines in crisis times–Gold firms, gold bullion and
the COVID-19 shock. Journal of Commodity Markets, p.100260.
Cannon, S. and Middleton-House, R., 2022. RADICAL ACCEPTANCE AND EXECUTIVE
DECISION-MAKING IN THE AGE OF COVID-19. Crisis, Chaos and Organizations: The
Coronavirus and Lessons for Organizational Theory, p.147.
Erdem, O., Eş, I., Saylan, Y. and Inci, F., 2021. Unifying the efforts of medicine, chemistry, and
engineering in biosensing technologies to tackle the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Analytical Chemistry, 94(1), pp.3-25.
Fabiyi, I.C., 2018. Optimization and Purification of Alpha Amylase Produced by Aspergillus
Niger Using Yam (Dioscorea Spp) Peel as Substrate in Submerged Fermentation (Doctoral
dissertation, Kwara State University (Nigeria)).
García, Á., Bregon, A. and Martínez-Prieto, M.A., 2022. A non-intrusive Industry 4.0 retrofitting
approach for collaborative maintenance in traditional manufacturing. Computers & Industrial
Engineering, 164, p.107896.
Ginanneschi, M., 2021. Long-term strategic thinking, the Themis method and the future of food.
Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 165, p.120468.
Gupta, S., Modgil, S., Bhatt, P.C., and Kamble, S., 2022. Quantum computing led innovation for
achieving a more sustainable Covid-19 healthcare industry. Technovation, p.102544.
Jha, S. and Bhattacharyya, S.S., 2018. Online restaurant entrepreneurship: the story of Holachef
in an increasingly digitalized India. Emerald Emerging Markets Case Studies.
Liu, J., Zhu, J. and Zhang, J., 2018. A DEA-based approach for competitive environment
analysis in global operations strategies. International Journal of Production Economics, 203,
pp.110-123.
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Maher, D.I., Hogarty, D. and Ben Artsi, E., 2022. Acute onset ocular myasthenia gravis after
vaccination with the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. Orbit, pp.1-5.
Meerasri, J. and Sothornvit, R., 2022. Novel development of coffee oil extracted from spent
coffee grounds as a butter substitute in bakery products. Journal of Food Processing and
Preservation, p.e16687.
Pop, A.D., Rus, G. and Drența, R.F., 2019. Modeling and Simulation of Technological Factors in
Bakery Industry. In Advances in Manufacturing Engineering and Materials (pp. 531-538).
Springer, Cham.
Ramachandran, et.al, 2022. Social Economic Impacts for Covid-19 Pandemics Using Machine
Learning Based Optimization Algorithm. In How COVID-19 is Accelerating the Digital
Revolution (pp. 101-114). Springer, Cham.
Rizzo, A.S., Hartholt, A. and Mozgai, S., 2021. From Combat to COVID-19–Managing the
Impact of Trauma Using Virtual Reality. Journal of Technology in Human Services, 39(3),
pp.314-347.
Sawik, T., 2022. Stochastic optimization of supply chain resilience under ripple effect: A
COVID-19 pandemic related study. Omega, 109, p.102596.
Singh, R.,et.al , 2021. Nanotechnology-Based Strategies for the Management of COVID-19:
Recent Developments and Challenges. Current Pharmaceutical Design, 27(41), pp.4197-4211.
Udgata, S.K. and Suryadevara, N.K., 2021. Advances in sensor technology and IOT framework
to mitigate COVID-19 challenges. In Internet of Things and Sensor Network for COVID-19 (pp.
55-82). Springer, Singapore.
Umaraw, P. and Chauhan, G., 2018. Quality characteristics of spent hen meat powder
incorporated whole wheat breads. Nutrition & Food Science.
Wiid, J.A. and Cant, M.C., 2021. MARKET CONDITIONS IN GAUTENG TOWNSHIPS:
CONDUCIVE TO BUSINESS GROWTH AND SUSTAINABILITY. Academy of
Entrepreneurship Journal, 27, pp.1-16.
Online referencing
Lola's Response to the National Lockdown, 2021 [online] available through
https://www.lolascupcakes.co.uk/Page/33/CoronaPage.htm
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