Pret a Manger: Analysis of Competitive Advantage and Business Strategy

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Pret a Manger's competitive advantages within the fast-casual restaurant industry. It begins with an introduction to business essentials and a brief background of Pret a Manger, highlighting its global presence and product offerings. The core of the report focuses on the company's competitive advantage, utilizing Porter's Five Forces model to assess the threat of new entrants, bargaining power of suppliers and buyers, competitive rivalry, and the threat of substitute products. The analysis reveals Pret a Manger's strengths and weaknesses in each area. Furthermore, the report examines the role of human resources and marketing in Pret a Manger's success, emphasizing employee motivation, customer focus, and effective marketing strategies. The report concludes with recommendations for Pret a Manger to enhance its competitive position, particularly by leveraging its natural ingredient focus and refining its marketing campaigns. The report aims to provide a deep dive into Pret a Manger's business operations and strategies.

REPORT
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Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
BRIEF BACKGROUND................................................................................................................3
Competitive advantage............................................................................................................4
Human resource and marketing.............................................................................................6
CONCLUSION...............................................................................................................................7
RECOMMENDATION..................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................8
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INTRODUCTION
Business essentials are the combinations of different elements that are designed in
a way that the overall growth of the organization can be ensured. It introduces
management with the distinct concept with the help of which future planning for the key
operations of the commercial unit is done (Ebert and et.al., 2011). Pret a Manger is a
private chain which has its origin from United Kingdom. It is having its outlet in more
than four hundred locations. The following report will discuss the competitive advantage
of the firm and how it is applied in the business. Different aspects of the company will be
explored in a way that how they are assisting in the positioning of the business in the
market. Finally, the work will be concluded with some recommendations that will be
based on how Pret a Manger can improve or sustain their existence in the industry.
BRIEF BACKGROUND
Pret Manager is a part of fast casual restaurant industry which was founded by
Jeffery Hyman 1983 and Julian Metcalfe and Sinclair Beecham in 1986. It is serving in
many areas starting from United Kingdom to U.S, Hong Kong, China, Germany etc. It is
specifically known for the variety of Burgers it serves and other products like
sandwiches, salads coffees and many more. The vision of the organization is to deliver
personalized services to the customers and for same it focusses on its recruitment
process and hire those candidates who are passionate for their job. Training and
development of the work force is done to keep the employees motivated and hence
effective delivery of services is ensured. It has displayed the mission of the company
that they deliver the hand made products and do not take use of the various unhealthy
obscure chemicals and other addictive’s that further add value to this brand. Also it
avoids using the preservatives in its final food items which is one of its unique feature
and makes it more preferable by the customers.
Instead of just focusing on making profit the firm give equal emphasis on raising the
satisfaction level of the customers and market its products focusing that the life should
be enjoyed in sips and not by gulping. It shows the importance of giving good
experience to the customers by the team of chosen company and reflect another
positive fact behind the success of the firm. Pret's idea is to invite to the time-crunched,
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fit, value-driven urban customer with a choice of products in the $3.89 to $6.99 price
range. Another interesting fact about this brand is that it gives the receipts of its different
food products by displaying them on their official websites and through printing them on
their bags. It feels so prestige in sharing it with the public which shows that the
organization is concern much from the outside rivalry. It believes in developing every
day and keep on improving its present working buy adopting innovation with maximum
zeal. Apart from this it is also socially active which is evident from the Pret charity which
is running from 2006. With its fleet distribution vans, it delivers those products which are
left unsold to the places where people are in need. It may include the charity homes,
road side beggars and also student hostels in some cases. This is a great fact about
this company which creates a separate image of it in the food industry and in front of its
customers.
Competitive advantage
In every industry there are many companies who operate and in order to succeed
they have to establish their brand in a way that it can be recognized from the bunch of
organizations. Therefore, for same superiority is gained by the firms through which
either they maintain quality on reduced cost or can deliver unique or differentiated
products to the customers (Jamaludin, 2011). To deliver such results Pret Manager
makes sure that while planning the operations the core strong points of the business are
matched with the possible chances of growth. Once the competitive advantage is
achieved by the firm the overall strength of the shareholders increases and it creates a
problem for the rivalries enterprises to compete.
Porters five forces is a common tool that can be used in order to measure how
competitive a particular firm is. Same model is applied in case of Pret Manager which
will help in determining how effective it is in the restaurant industry.
Threat of new entrant (Low) –This is the first factor in which the degree of risk is
measured in terms of the level of risk of new unit opening in the same sector. Pret
Manager operates in the city centers where the cost of capital is very high. This way it is
not very easy for other to operate their business at same level (Bowie and et.al., 2016).
Thereafter also the referred to brand is known for its controlled price products supported
with equal level of quality therefore it is again a great milestone for a fresh brand to
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achieve and this way makes it less prone to completion from a new entrant. It is evident
that who so ever wish to compete with this firm will have a tough time in establishing
itself in the center. Also much efforts are required for the potential investors to take to
identify the best route to the market as losing of any relevant criteria may lead to failure
for the upcoming business. Thereafter the most important element to analyses the
success for any business is evaluate its customers (Meek and Meek, 2012). In case of
the chosen enterprise it has its regular and loyal buyers who are satisfied with the
services of same and hence are difficult to be influenced to switch to a new option. It will
cost much to the business as to create awareness among the public needs much of
marketing and other promotional activities which demands excess of cost. This way it
becomes another aspect through which it is clear that for Pret Manager threat of new
entrant is low.
Bargaining power of suppliers (Low) – Another study of the total competitive
advantage where the dependency of the company on its suppliers are evaluated. In
context of the chosen enterprise the again the dominance of the dealers is low. It is due
to the fact that there are many options available for the company to buy its raw material.
Because the food industry is continuously growing the total vendor to supply the product
is increasing as people are attracted by the high opportunity of earning revenues and
profit margins that it offers to them. Apart from this the products which are offered by the
organization to the final costumers are made up of such ingredients which are available
at huge scale. It shows that there is surplus of raw material in the market and suppliers
has no choice of keeping control on the supply chain and hence maintain continuity in
the flow products to the brand. One of the major factor which has given more power to
the buyer i.e. Pret Manager in comparison to the suppliers is that there are low forward
integration choices for the brokers which ultimately brings the buyers at power (Hess,
2010)
Bargaining power of buyer (High) – This is one of the most crucial element of
this analysis and as similar to other business cases the power is high and more in the
hands of the costumers. There are many food outlets and joints which are offering
almost similar products i.e. which gives many options to the buyers to choose the best
options for themselves. There are different variety of buyers in the market among which
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some demand quality food, some give preference to the ambience and other may like
trying new options every time. This way more hold is in the hands of the customer and
they can directly affect the overall business profitability.
Competitive rivalry (High)– There are a number of huge firms which are
operating in this field and have established their names. It increases the completion
among eth existing brand and as the switching cost is low it can create a great threat to
the Pret Manager as any small mistake may lead to loss of potential buyers who have
many options to try new.
Threat of substitute products (Moderate) – It is difficult to say that weather the
threats from substitutes are high or low because it highly depends on the current trends
in the market. There are plenty of options which are available and costumers may get
influence easily as the cost of witching to another brand is not much. But as the referred
to brand has the goodwill of being cost effective and also created good corporate image
in the market by fulfilling its social responsibilities people might not prefer to choose
other food joint over it. This way the threat of substitution is moderate for Pret Manager.
Human resource and marketing
In order to further analyze the capacities of the firm the core functional areas i.e.
human resource and marketing will be analyzed in a way as how through same
company is achieving the success.
People at Pret Manager are the key to their development. Much importance is given
to the work force and it is ensured that the employees feel motivated and comfortable at
the work place. They are involved in the important decision making of the company
which gives them a feeling of belongingness and hence the personal work with their
maximum efforts (Jung and Subramanian, 2013). As the company believes in adopting
to change this is required that the work force supports the same else the application of
innovation is difficult. Company establish the link between the personal and organization
objectives which create a common vision for the work force and hence it further raises
the chances of accomplishing the goals. Right person is made to work at the right
position which helps in getting the right work done in the first attempt.
Thereafter, comes the marketing. It is a process through which the costumers are
made aware about the products and services that are offered by the company. Pret
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marketing manager has an appropriate understanding of how to promote its product in
order to attract maximum buyers. It focuses on highlighting the core values of the firm
and also advertise how this brand is producing its product (Bowie and et.al., 2016). As
the offerings of this brand are produced totally manually with no preservatives it high
point this practice in a way that it influences the particular segment specially those who
are cautions for their health. Pret leans on all basics of its marketing mix, avoiding big
budget advertising campaigns in courtesy of investing in the in-store experience and
social media to speak frequently with regular buyers.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it is concluded that Pret is having a significant position in the
market as it is giving a tough competition to other in the same field. With the help of
porters five forces it is analyzed that costumers have immense power in hand to affect
the total sales as business has much dependency on them. It is also identified that how
through planning proper in marketing activities and balance in the personnel the chosen
enterprise has achieved the competitive advantage.
RECOMMENDATION
After analyzing the business process of Pret Manager it is suggested to them that they
should focus more on producing the products which are totally made from the natural
ingredients as it is their key advantage and can establish a separate image in front of
the buyers. Although it is doing good without investing much on the marketing activities
but some changes in this section should also be made. Designing of the promotion
campaigns must be done in way that helps in attracting new customers too to the brand.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ebert, R.J. and et.al., 2011. Business essentials. NJ: Prentice Hall.
Jamaludin, Z., 2011. Developing a “tough to copy” competitive advantage (organizational
commitment) through perceived organizational justice. Journal of Global Management.
1(1). pp.56-69.
Bowie, D. and et.al., 2016. Hospitality marketing. Routledge.
Meek, H. and Meek, R., 2012. CIM Coursebook 03/04 Strategic Marketing Management.
Routledge.
Hess, E.D., 2010. Smart growth: Building an enduring business by managing the risks of growth.
Columbia University Press.
Online
Pret a Manger case study, 2019. [Online] Available through <https://www.theguardian.com/uk-
news/2018/oct/03/pret-a-manger-to-bring-in-full-labelling-teenagers-death-natasha-
ednan-laperouse>.
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