Metcash Business Communication: Sales Structure and Profitability

This report provides an analysis of Metcash, an Australian wholesale distribution and marketing company, focusing on its strengths in employee policies, community management, health, safety, and human rights. It also addresses criticisms related to declining profitability and shareholder value due to market competition and decreased customer spending in independent stores. The report recommends that Metcash enhance its competitiveness through increased sustainability efforts, strategic investments in advertising and promotional schemes, and improved employee training to add value to sales conversations, ultimately aiming to restore investor confidence and maintain its market reputation. The company should leverage its existing strengths to improve sales processes and customer engagement.

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BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
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Executive Summary
The purpose of this report is to analyze and the selected company Met Cash based in Australia. It
analyzes the aspects in which the company excels at and determines the aspects for which the
company has been criticized. The report begins by introducing the company and describes the
aspects for which it excels and the criticism faced by the company. Further, it recommends
various ways and techniques to improve its sales structure and profitability so as to gain the trust
and confidence of the potential investors of the company and the stakeholders. Lastly, it
concluded that the company has can utilize its strength in order to maintain its goodwill and
reputation in the market.

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................3
2. Met Cash......................................................................................................................................3
2.1 Aspect in which the Met cash excels at.....................................................................................3
2.2 Another aspect Met cash excels at.............................................................................................4
2.3. An aspect the Met Cash is criticized for...................................................................................4
3. Recommendation.........................................................................................................................5
4. Conclusion...................................................................................................................................5
References........................................................................................................................................7

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1. Introduction
Met cash is a wholesale distribution and marketing company based in Australia and New
Zealand. The company operates in segments like Food and Grocery, Liquor and hardware
segments. It is an independent supermarket and convenience retail stores. The hardware segment
of the company sales hardware products and other independent retail outlets serves food and
liquor. The company was founded in the year 1920 (Hardy and Laslett 2014). Met Cash is a vital
organization for Australia as the independent retailers support their local communities in various
ways. The company is highly known for its sustainability and independence. The company is
best known as a marketing and distribution specialist that supplies wide range of dry grocery and
fresh foods through its various independent grocery stores. The purpose of this report is to
analysis the areas in which the company excels at, and the areas in which it has been criticized.
2. Met Cash
2.1 Aspect in which the Met cash excels at
The company excels at its employee policies and community management. It excels at
managing the perceptions of the employees as well as the communities. Met cash recognizes the
importance of the employees and the communities as a whole in which it operates its business
activities. The company is an integral part of social fabric of the communities in which the
independent retails are located (Browne and Levy 2016). It extends financial support to the
independent retailers, it provides donation of the staff time, donation of products from its food
pillar. The company provides support to its local communities through its community chest trust
fund. The company raises funds and distributes it to the local charities such as the hospitals,
wellbeing initiatives, and disaster relief. The company has major charity partners that are the Mc
Grath Foundation, Special Olympics Australia and the Vinnies Christmas appeal. It concern for
its employees and communities have enabled the company to achieve much reputation among
the community. Moreover, the company excels are its food reduction policy, which remains a
primary focus of the company and enhance its retail network. They also excel at managing the

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employee by considering them as the most valued asset, it is highly fundamental to its culture
and core values (Hill et al. 2016). Its progress rapidly against its gender targets and promotes
equality in the workplace.
2.2 Another aspect Met cash excels at
Another aspect at which Met Cash excels at is health, wellbeing and safety. Th3e
Company is also known for its human rights and modern slavery. The company is committed to
its continuous reinforcement of zero harm. It implies that the company has a policy of preventing
work-related injury and illness of the employees, members and the public for which it operates.
The company excels at taking key safety performance measures (Abhayawansa and Guthrie
2014). This initiative has helped the company to improve the incident reporting and its
investigation culture within the company. Further, the company has implemented few initiatives
based on making safety simple to help the company, to improve its safety and continue to strive
towards the goals. Additionally, the company highly prioritizes wellbeing of their people, it
provides the employees opportunity to the range of benefits to promote the wellbeing. Further,
the company has a wide and diverse supply chain that encompasses the goods and services. They
highly acknowledge the role and responsibility in seeking human rights through its ethical,
responsible and sustainable business practices (Veljanovski 2012). The company excels at
collaborating with the supply chain and partners with them to ensure that the supply chain and
operations do not contain products of forced and bonded child labour. They reinforce the core
values of treating the employees and the people concerned with the organization with dignity and
respect. Moreover, the company undertakes supply assurance audits and they ensure non
conformance through physical and desktop audits. This is another aspect at which the company
excels at.
2.3. An aspect the Met Cash is criticized for
The company has faced criticism and has been accused of retuning share values to its
shareholders. Due to increased competition in the market and the sluggish consumer spending, it
has prevented the grocery, liquor and hardware wholesaler from providing shareholders share

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value of above $4.00 (O’Halloran 2013). However, this has made the investors nervous about the
future prospects of the company. The independent stores supplied by Met Cash had a loss of
large amount of customers which has further increased the operating costs and has sharply cut
down its profits. It has significant affects on the earnings of Met Cash and the investors have to
factor their forecasts on the future financial outcomes (Walters and Rainbird 2017). It has faced
criticisms that is has faced to maintain its goodwill, it has indicated that the company lost the
most important customers. Further, the competitive pressures faced by the company have
affected the profitability of the company and thus have shaken the trust and confidence of the
stakeholders. Therefore, it faces criticism from the investors and the potential stakeholders of the
company.
3. Recommendation
It is recommended that the company must address the increased criticism among the
stakeholders and investors because of lower profitability. The company needs to keep up with
the goodwill and maintain it. It has been analyzed that the second largest broad rage liquor and
grocery wholesaler has come under the pressure of the company share price. Therefore, it is
highly essential that the company must increase its sustainability and focus on increasing its
competitiveness (Walters and Rainbird 2017). It can utilize its capabilities to substantially
strengthen its functioning and capabilities if it intends to build up the significant market share
price. It has been analyzed that the company excels at its employee management and
communities, therefore the company can utilize its strengths and enable them to increase the
consumer spending among the general public. Further, the company can increase its investment
in advertising and focus on its promotional schemes. The company has increased reputation in
the market of its operations, to maintain its goodwill and reputation, it needs to evaluate its sales
processes and train its employees to deliver value (O’Halloran 2013). They can add value to the
sales conversation with the use of relevant content and insights. This will generate more sales
and increases the profitability of the company which will turn will gain back the trust and
confidence of the potential investors and stakeholders of the organization.
4. Conclusion

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Therefore from the above analysis it can be concluded that the Met cash being the most
popular food, beverage and hardware wholesaler excels at managing the employees of the
organization and communities in a most desirable manner. The company is highly known for its
wellbeing, health and safety and its human rights policies. Further, the company is highly
involved at its charitable activities and donations. However, it faced criticism of decreased
profitability and low dividends provided to its investors and shareholders. The report has
provided recommendations to improve the performance and maintain its goodwill. It has
recommended that the company must take initiative to improve the sales flow. It must focus on
the advertising and promotional techniques. As it has a good reputation among the employees
and the communities, it must provide the employees training so add value to the sales
conversation and engage with the customers to initiate a long term relationship.

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References
Hardy, C.A. and Laslett, G., 2014. Continuous auditing and monitoring in practice: Lessons from
Metcash's business assurance group. Journal of Information Systems, 29(2), pp.183-194.
Browne, E. and Levy, M., 2016. Competition law: Metcash-a new paradigm for merger
analysis. Keeping Good Companies, 63(11), p.672.
Hill, C., Branch, F., Heights, G. and Park, H., 2016, Market Analysis. Horizon, 100(400), pp.4-
03.
Abhayawansa, S. and Guthrie, J., 2014. Importance of intellectual capital information: a study of
Australian analyst reports. Australian Accounting Review, 24(1), pp.66-83.
Veljanovski, C., 2012. Metcash, Market Power and Counterfactuals. Australian Business Law
Review.
Joosub, T.S., 2019. Risk management strategies to maintain corporate reputation (Doctoral
dissertation).
Van Der Linde, K., 2015. Tax Administration, Beric Croome and Lynette Olivier: book
review. Tydskrif vir die Suid-Afrikaanse Reg, 2011(4), pp.836-838.
Walters, D. and Rainbird, M., 2017. Cooperative innovation: a value chain approach. Journal of
enterprise information management, 20(5), pp.595-607.
O’Halloran, L., 2013, Ethical planning firm vs Metcash on pub plans.

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