Strategic Analysis: Post Holdings Buying Weetabix - Coursework Report

This report provides a comprehensive strategic analysis of Post Holdings' acquisition of Weetabix, examining the strategic position of the company, stakeholder impact, and external and industry environments. The analysis utilizes strategic tools such as Porter's generic strategies, Bowman's strategy clock, PESTLE analysis, and Porter's Five Forces model to evaluate the competitive landscape and strategic implications of the acquisition. The report assesses the changes incurred after the acquisition, including the impact on stakeholders, and provides an in-depth examination of the external factors influencing the company's operations. The report also includes an introduction that outlines the key aspects of strategic management and its application to the case study, a detailed evaluation of the strategic levels, and a conclusion summarizing the key findings and recommendations.

Strategic Management

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Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
Evaluation of the relevant level of strategy-600 Strategic position of company..........................................3
Porter’s generic strategies........................................................................................................................3
Bowman’s strategy clock.........................................................................................................................4
Stakeholder Analysis...................................................................................................................................6
External Analysis........................................................................................................................................8
PEST Analysis.........................................................................................................................................8
Industry Analysis.......................................................................................................................................11
Porters Five Forces Model.....................................................................................................................11
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................13
References.................................................................................................................................................15

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Introduction
Strategic management is the process of adopting the strategic tools to evaluate the business
environment. The process includes the various activities such as analyzing, summarizing and
determining the market and business environment. The company can generate the strategies by
analyzing the business environment. The company has to analyze the operation environment
such as external and internal environment. There are strategic tools that can used to analyze the
environment and these are PESTLE Analysis, Porters Five Forces Framework, SWOT Analysis,
Stakeholders analysis and the others (Ansoff, et. al, 2018). In this report, the discussion is based
on the topic of strategic analysis and the changes which is incurred in the specific case. In this
paper, the case of Post Holdings and Weetabix has been discussed. In this case, Post Holdings
buy the Weetabix while operating the business (Post Holdings, 2019). After buying the
company, the changes has incurred in the company as the external and industry factors affects its
operation activities.
In the beginning of the paper, relevant strategies have been discussed that helps to attain the
objectives. After that, stakeholders analysis will be done in order to understand the changes and
the impact on the stakeholders has been analyzed after the buying the company. Later on external
and industry analysis will also analyze in order to determine the effect of environment on the
operation activities. PESTLE Analysis and Porters Five Forces Model will be used as the
strategic model to examine the external and industry environment.
Case study
Post Holdings is a customer packaging goods holding company that operates the business in the
form of stores. It offers the food ingredient, refrigerated, convenient nutrition, foodservice and

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private categories of food brand. It operates the business in United States. Weetabix is a whole
grain wheat breakfast cereals producers in United Kingdom (Weetabix, 2019). In the year 2017,
Post Holding purchases the UK Company Weetabix $1.76bn (BBC, 2017).
Evaluation of the relevant level of strategy-600
Strategic position of company
The term strategy can be defined as the mission, vision as well as the direction of the business
which can be achieved by the company in the long-term. It is essential for the business to attain
the competitive advantage for which they form the effective strategies. The strategic positioning
is considered as the method through which the company seeks to distinguish itself from its
competitors who are present in the market. In the case of buying of Weetabix by the Post
holdings need the analysis of position among the target market. The acquisition of Weetabix by
Post holdings need to conduct the analysis of the strategic position process with the motive to
understand the environment that include internal and external in which they are dealing tough
competition. The below given are the strategies which are used for analyzing the strategic
position are given below: -
Porter’s generic strategies
In the history, Michael porter proposed three general strategic approaches which include cost
leadership, differentiation and focus. Out of this strategy, the company that has been purchased
applies the differentiation strategy that can lead to the impact on the Post holdings company.
It has been found that Weetabix will employ the strategy of the differentiation within the market
so that they provide the product in the global market which consists of China, UK, Mexico and
Africa. The company exports the product to more than 80 countries due to which it has a unique

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position in the market. It has been determined that the focused differentiation approach lead to
the rise in the sales within the niche markets (Weetabix, 2019). In the article of the BBC, it has
been found that the market sales in the Chinese market have not seen the significant rise because
of the preference of the Chinese people due to the liquid-based cereals (Madsen, and Walker,
2015). However, this has been found that the Weetabix Company provides the wide range of the
breakfast cereal. In the research, this has been found that the company applies the strategy in
which they determine the condition in the market and according to that they form the new
versions of their products so that they can easily meet the needs of the customers in the niche
market. However, it has been found that the company needs to improve their position by
providing the innovative products to their clients (Rothaermel, 2015). Thus, the position of this
Weetabix Company will form the position of the Post holdings. The innovative product range
example is breakfast biscuits for customers that don’t like cereal breakfast.
Bowman’s strategy clock
Cliff Bowman’s majorly emphasized on the eight possible positions with the help of which
products and services of the company can be classified with the focus on price as well as the
perceived value to their clients. This strategy is majorly used by the companies with the motive
to determine the competitive position as compared to the other players who are present in the
market. It is essential to analyze the position as similar brands are present in the market
(Wheelen, Hunger, Hoffman, and Bamford, 2017).

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 Low price and low added value: - It is the first and the foremost position of the
Bowman’s strategic clock model. In this case, post holding buying Weetabix shows that
it is the basement strategy for the bargaining. At this level, the business doesn’t find the
competition as the products are not differentiated.
 Low price: - This is the second position which shows that the cost minimization strategy
is essential for being successful. The margin of Weetabix remains low which might
influence the operations of Post holdings. This is the stage in which the competition
among the companies remains high and they face price war.
 Hybrid:- It is the third position which defines the low price and product differentiation.
The main aim of Weetabix is to attracts the customers towards its product due to which it
offers the cheap prices with the differentiate product from the other companies product.
 Differentiation: The fourth position of Bowman's clock is the differentiation strategy.
The main focus on research and developments which main aim is to bring the new
product into the new products and changing consumers trends. These strategies help the
company to make its product differ from the products of the other company. As the
Weetabix operates the business in 80 countries where each country has different loyalty

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of consumers and their demand. These make the services of the company different from
the other companies (Salavou, 2015).
 Focused differentiation: This strategy defines that the company has to maintain it’s
positioned at the international level. Weetabix introduces breakfast on the Go drinks in
the year 2014. It launched Weetabix protein and protein crunch in order to meet the
consumer’s needs. It is observed that the company provide the different product but as
per the demand of consumers due to which it satisfies the consumers and also gain the
competitive advantage (Wheelen, Hunger, Hoffman, and Bamford, 2017).
Stakeholder Analysis
Stakeholders are the people or the organization that have an interest in the success of a business.
After the acquisition, the stakeholders of both the companies have been affected and it also
observed that the stakeholders of the company are also increases. There are two types of
stakeholders of the companies such as primary and secondary. The primary stakeholders are
those who directly affects the business and secondary are those who have the stake and interest
in the company but it does not affected more. The primary stakeholders of Weetabix and Post
holding after the acquisition
 Customers,
 Employees,
 Investors,
 Suppliers
 Partners.
The secondary stakeholders of the company are

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 Government, councils, counties
 Competitors
 Media and journalists
 Public
Primary non-social stakeholders:
 Breakfast Cereal Industry
 Environmental Groups
Secondary Non-social stakeholders
 Regulator, CSR charities
It has been analyzed that the stakeholders of Weetabix also became the stakeholders of Post
Holding after the acquisition. The stakeholders have been affected in both the aspects such as
positive and negative. It has been seen that the customers of China always prefers the Weetabix
cereals for breakfast due to which they are also switch towards the Post Holding company for
breakfast cereals. The negative aspects are for investors as they invest in the companies but after
the acquisition their market price of shares has been affected due to which their interest is also
affected. Employees are also affected as they face the challenges while launching the products of
the company in the market (Desai, 2019).
The map of stakeholders has been developed which represents the position and their impact on
the company.

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Power High Government
Regulators
Owners
Investors
Customers
Competitors
Low Media
CSR charities
Trade Unions
Breakfast cereal
industry
Employees
Low High
Interest
External Analysis
PEST Analysis
Political Factors
It is observed that Weetabix faces the challenges while enter the China market due to which Post
Holding also has the chances of faces the issue after acquisition of both the companies.
According to the determination, UK wage bill has been increase since 2010 to 2019 due to which
the profitability of Weetabix has been affected as it has to pay more to its labor. The value of
British Pound has been increases after Brexit due to which the demand of Weetabix has been
increases in board in UK. But the demand of US has been decreases just because of high cost of
the product (Govt. UK, 2018). As per the case study, it has been seen that Weetabix operates in

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different places or countries due to which Post Holding have to regulations, laws, standards,
taxes and controls those are set by government.
(Source: Govt. UK, 2018)
Economic Factors
After the acquisition of Weetabix with the Post Holdings, the company expand the business at
the global level such as China, US, UK and East Africa. These regions are different at the
different level of economic growth as per the specific area such as US was unaffected at 2.2% in
2017 as compared to 2.3% in the year 2018 and it also forecast that 6.8% in the year 2018.It is
observed that acquisition with Weetabix, the companies has the opportunity to implement the
strategies. Research, innovation and product development are the factors that can be affected due

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to economic growth. The global nature of acquisition, US inter trade and the other countries will
come into play.
Social Factors
Social factors describe the norms, values, customs and the population in which it operates the
business (B2U, 2019). It has been seen that population trends, age distribution, income
distribution, career attitudes, health consciousness, growth rate, lifestyle attitudes, safety
emphasis and cultural barriers are the key driving factors of Weetabix’s strategy. As discussed
above, it is observed that the Weetabix operates the business in different regions due to which
Post Holding also has to implement all the cultures and traditions according to its all
stakeholders in order to satisfy their all demands and desires. As discussed above, Weetabix
operates the business in China with the double sales dye to which Post Holding has to implement
the culture and tradition.
Technological Factors
Technological factors define the innovation and technologies. It provides the opportunity for
research and development of new products, enhancement of existing ones and marketing
strategies. Online and e-commerce are the main trends for every country as it helps to enhance
the sales volume. In the case of Weetabix, the investment in innovation helps to increases the
volume of sales. The investment in e-commerce platforms and technologies helps the consumers
to buy the product quickly and easily. Post Holding has to invest in e-commerce in order to
satisfy the demand of consumers as they can easily purchase the product without visiting the
stores (Food Processing, 2017).

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Industry Analysis
Porters Five Forces Model
The threat of new entrants
The threat of new entrants is high as there are many companies in the consumer’s good industry
that provides the consumer goods to consumers. After acquiring the Weetabix, the company
threat for new entrants has been increases as now it sold the product of Weetabix due to which
seller of breakfast also increases. It be said the threat of new entrants has been increases after the
acquisition of Weetabix (Mathooko, and Ogutu, 2015).
The threat of competitors
The threat degree of competitors for the company is high. The consumers are the main key
drivers of the industry as the companies offers the similar services to them with the different
discounts, and the others facilities. After the acquisition with the company, the competitor of
Weetabix also becomes the competitor of Post Holdings. Nestle, Weetabix, etc. hold 78% of the
market share at the global level while its market share in USA is low. The cereal industry of
USA is high focused on the top players and these are like Post Holdings and Quacker those who
have 85% market share. Although, there are also other competitors of Weetabix in the market
such as 2 Sisters, Premier Foods, Greencore, United Biscuits, Alvarado Street Bakery,
Warburtons, Associated British Foods and Samworth Brothers and these competitors give the
competition to Post Holding as it buy Weetabix. Although, it has an advantage for the company
to gain the competitive advantage in the market by selling the goods of both the companies and
due to which the competition is also decreasing as Weetabix remove from competitors list.