Business Environment Analysis Report for Primark Retail Company

This report offers a comprehensive analysis of Primark, an Irish fast-fashion retailer, examining its business environment and strategic operations. It begins with an introduction to Primark, its products (clothing, accessories, and home goods), and its market position. The report then applies Porter's Five Forces model to assess the competitive landscape, evaluating the threats of new entrants, bargaining power of suppliers and buyers, threats of substitutes, and the intensity of rivalry among existing competitors. Furthermore, the report analyzes Primark's inbound and outbound logistics, and operational processes. The report also explores two support activities within Porter's Value Chain. Finally, it discusses the application of information technology to improve business processes and provides concluding remarks on Primark's strategic approach to the competitive fashion market.

Business
Environment

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Introduction about Primark.........................................................................................................3
Background.................................................................................................................................3
Products and services of your chosen business...........................................................................3
Porter's 5 Force Analysis of Primark..........................................................................................4
Analysis of inbound logistics, outbound logistics and operations..............................................6
Analyse any two support activities in Porter's Value Chain of your chosen business................7
Summarise ways in which information technology can be deplotyed by firm as well as make
use of innovative ideas for improvisation of business processes................................................8
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Introduction about Primark
Primark operate their functioning as Irish fast retailer with having headquartered in
Dublin, Ireland. Company operate their operating in retailing sector and offer their services
worldwide. it was founded in the year 1969. Main products of company include cosmetics,
housewares and clothing, accessories and more. In addition to this, it has been identified that
company offer their services with high quality and as per according to current trend of fashion
market. Further this has been evaluated that, Primark offer their products in an affordable price
range as to satisfy customers of every income range. Further this has been evaluated that, in
order to serve their customers at best company offer their organisational offerings in an
affordable price range.
Background
First store of Primark was established in Dublin in 1969. Initially this retailing entity
opened by using name Penney's. After expansion outside Ireland company re-brand their product
to Primark. In addition to this, this company was established by Arthur Ryan. By gaining
significant success entity expand their business services to United Kingdom. Company believes
to serve its customers with high quality products and services as to gain their loyalty at great
extent. Different types of commodities has been offered by company. Along with this, it has been
identified that by offering high quality services company aim to expand their services through
out the globe. In addition to this, it has been identified that Primark is having more than 370
stores in 12 countries. Largest store of company opened in Brimingham in the year 2019. Further
this, has been evaluated that entity rapidly expanded their business in UK-2000s.
Products and services of your chosen business
Primark is acknowledged to be one of the most prominent and leading brands operating
within the confines of fashion industry. This is an top notch organisation have an extensive
product portfolio. It offers a wide range of products to customers prevailing in market place so as

to retain them for a long period of time in the future context. In this regard, it has been identified
that Primark makes available products belonging to categories such as apparel for men, women
and children; footwear; accessories; lingeries; home ware, hosiery and many more. A large
proportion of the customer base for this brand is determined to be women. This is why the prime
focus of the entity is solely levied upon making available apparel for women of different sizes,
styles and patterns. In this regard, it is seen that women are not the just focus for this company's
product offerings but also for floor space assigned and marketing efforts taken up by this well
renowned corporation in market place. The offerings of this brand also consist of technological
offerings and beauty items. Furthermore, the brand also holds some of the sub brands such as
Cedarwood estate, Opia, Atmosphere and so on. This company also has a separate section
allotted for New Arrivals which provides assistance to the respective brand in gaining the
attention of large number of individuals and persuading them to make a purchase. This section
even instils a sense of curiosity within the customers as the most trendy and latest patterns of this
respective fashion brand are kept under this section. Besides this, Primark holds a limited edition
stock whose main target is certain selective bunch of customers. This tends to inflate the
perceived value of the company as this brand gives a sense of exclusiveness to people prevailing
in market place.
Porter's 5 Force Analysis of Primark
Competitive force are describe as the external environment in which firm have to focus
on managing the work effectively. In the present scenario there are different rivals present in the
market so this made environment more competitive for organisation to sustain for a longer time
period. Primark is the fashion giant which provide different variety of product and services to
consumer as per there need and want(Asongu, Anyanwu and Tchamyou, 2019). The company
market position itself as marketing fashionable company for the competitive price. The
management of Primark must follow all the rules and regulation as to compete in the market. As
to figure out the competition firm have to make use of porters model as to determine the level the
competition in the specific sector through which company operates in a well define manner.
Here is the detail explanation of this model and its implementation briefly:
Porter's Five Forces Analysis
This is the model was mainly given by Michael Porter in 1979 to observe the level of
competition and find the solution for the company to expand and explore the business

effectively. It is also known as the framework which is used by many organisation to track and
monitor different factor and make changes for profitability and growth. For the PRIMARK it is
essential to focus on each and every aspect which is going in the organisation as sustain and
create an effective business model for the company. This consist of different forces which
company must attain to achieve desire aims and objectives effectively.
Threat of new entreats: It is first stage of where the management of PRIMARK have to
to focus on innovation and as to minimize the impact of new entrants. As there are different
organisation present in the similar industry which make difficult for the company to survive so
management have to focus on achieving high quality commodity as to capture large market share
effectively. Along with this the management of PRIMARK can bring down the price as to lower
down rival competition present in the market. However innovation leads to success and company
can hire expert designer and fashion enthusiastic to bring new product in market as this strategies
will assist firm to expand the business at a larger platform.
Bargaining power of suppliers: Almost all the company in the industry purchase the
raw material from the different supplier. In result they have dominated the position which is an
concerned factor for the company (Benckendorff, Xiang and Sheldon, 2019). So PRIMARK
have to focus on different supplier as this will help in negotiating from them and which will
directly bring down the cost of product. The overall impact of the higher supplier bargaining
power tend to slow the production which can create a loss for firm. In order to avoid such forces
firm have to build an efficiency supply chain and distribution of raw material from suppliers as
to reduce the cost and profitability for the company. However company can choose a dedicated
supplier as this provide timely services to PRIMARK as to maintain demand and supply
effectively.
Bargaining power of buyer: In this present world the buyers have become more
demanding through which it has put lots of pressure on the company to avail better clothing and
accessories to customer. As there are option present in the market which provide more option for
the buyer to choose from. So the management of PRIMARK can build huge customer base it can
be beneficial for organisation to minimize the bargaining power and also increase the sales along
with production process. By rapidly introducing new product to consumer will aid organisation
to create monopoly. As buyer have become more price sensitive so company must provide
discount and in order to retain them for a longer time period.

Threat of substitutes: This is one of the most essentials factor for the company where
the customer needs different ways to reduce the rivals and capture larger market share in less
time. As to manage threat of substitute the firm have to focus on differentiating the product as
this will ensure the buyers and sees it product as the unique method to fulfil the needs and
requirement of the user. PRIMARK manager have to focus trends and adopt the changes as will
provide opportunities for organisation to understand the customer and bring out best high quality
goods and commodity for the customer.
Rivalry among existing competitors: As there is an intense rivalry present in the market
which makes firm more difficult to survive for the longer time duration. As there are various
company present in the business as which tend to increase competition in the marketplace. So
organisation like PRIMARK have to conduct research and development as to figure out the
possible outcomes as to minimize the impact for expansion the increase the profit revenue for the
company (Bruss and Leuchs 2019). The management of the company can merger with the other
company through which it will develop niche market for the buyers. It also aid firm to reduce
rivalry and will create a sustainable model through which firm can operate at higher level.
From the above state point this has been concluded that forces must be taken care the
management as this reduce risk and uncertainty present in the market. A powerful force means
lower profitability, and a anaemic force means greater profitability. Based on this a opinion of
the industry's profit can be made and used in strategic planning. Secondly the firm have to put
emphasis on market research and must adopt the change to overcome the challenges and hurdles
present in the market. At last organisation have to improvise there pricing policy which help in
gathering larger audience for the company.
Analysis of inbound logistics, outbound logistics and operations
Inbound logistics- Inbound logistics is related with the activities of supply chain. It takes
into consideration the transportation of raw materials or goods that comes to company. It seeks
its focus on how to make a company's supply chain more efficient and fast. Efficient inbound
logistics of company saves its cost. It also makes the transportation process of transferring the
good and raw materials to the company very fast and effective. During transportation of goods it
is very necessary to understand that in case of any mishap who will be liable for damage of
goods. Now-a-days the companies are taking help of Information technologies to maintain their
in bounds. The management information system synchronizes the activities of inward coming of

goods. From such advance information technology system, the managers can monitor a close
view at fleet vehicles, drivers, agreements related to prices, volume contracts and delivery terms.
With respect to Primark, the company introduces management technology system in the late
1970's. The company paramount objective was to streamline the supply chain process and to
make efficient and effective supply chain by using Management information Technology. With
the usage of MIT the sharing if information with the people involved in inbound process makes
the whole chain very transparent. MIT helps the company in quality control by detecting any
fault into transactions or materials in order. This process also helped in cutting of cost for the
company.
Operations- Converting raw materials into finished goods is the process undertaken in
operations. Companies choose that operational process which yield them profit, saves cost and
time for organisation. Operations are very important area for any business for regular and proper
functioning, and so for Primark. The task includes management of inventory or stocks,
displaying of products at shelf and proper management of finished goods to gain competitive
advantage.
Outbound logistics- It refers to a process in which the final product reaches to its final
customer. This includes storage, transportation and distribution of goods to final customers.
Outbound logistics starts with placing orders of customers, then packaging of product and then
finally it ends with the delivery of product. Primark is a huge retail line which does not offers its
products. It only offers its products at retail store so customers has to do transportation for their
products. With the help of MIT, the manager has to analyse the faults and need to make change
accordingly to improve the capability of organisation to its maximum. This is a complex process
to manage and control the operations which requires depth knowledge to pursue the position of
the operation management.
Analyse any two support activities in Porter's Value Chain of your chosen business
In support activities in Porter's value chain there are 3 components, they are as follows-
Technology- It refers to the technology used by the organisation in its operations. It is
said that more advance the technology used, less will be the cost.
Human resource- It is a team which helps the organisation in hiring and managing the
staff.

Infrastructure- It includes the firm's finances, legal structure and management structure
which helps it in driving the organisation forward efficiently. All these department likely to play
equal role in organisational working.
As in case with Primark, analysing of 2 support activities is as follows-
Technology- In this support activity the role of information technology and technology
used by the company in its operations are included. In information technology the data and
information saved into system in accordance with the proper method. From the stored data, the
managers analyse that data and come out with decisions which are very necessary to take for the
organisation. They say that information is the key, from that data managers analyse and evaluate
the true and fare position of its organisation. And accordingly, the manager has to calculate the
difference between the standard and actual performance. In today's world the technology is
taking its advancement very fast. The company faces such a heavy competition from the industry
and to survive and gain competitive advantage the companies has to strive for technological
change. For the organisation like Primark management has to use advanced technology in
keeping and monitoring of inventories ( which includes both finished and semi- finished goods).
In the recent times the industry of retail have seen huge change so the firms are implementing AI
technology for tracking the inventories and operations. Proper inventory can fulfil the time and
product utility to customers.
Human resource- Human resource department major objective is to fill the vacant
spaces for the organisation. It conducts the recruitment process by inviting the applications from
people. The HR sends invitation through do advertising about the vacancies at number of
platforms such as at company's site, through newspapers, by contacting to consultancy and so
forth. The HR task is not limited to hiring of work force but also retaining them into the work
place is their job. It is said that hiring a new employee is more costly than retaining it. As in
regard with Primark, the HR department need to send invitations to all the prospect for
vacancies. They hire the talent by taking interviews and knowing their future career goals. The
task of HR is also to align the employee personal goals to organisational goals. They need to
acknowledge them about how their company will help them in attaining their career goals. The
HR also needs to make sure that that employee is gaining some advantage from his current
position.

Summarise ways in which information technology can be deplotyed by firm as well as make use
of innovative ideas for improvisation of business processes.
Information technology is defined as usage of storgae, networking, computers and
physical devices, processes and infrastructure for creating, processing, storing, securing as well
as exchanging of all kinds of electronic data. This is being utilised by firms like Primark to carry
out their operations in an impelling manner. An instance can be taken into consideration like
executive department of organisation can make use of executive support system as it will provide
trhem with exact information associated with different departments of firm and accordantly
formulate decisions in accordance to that.
Primark have their own website through which they make their employees aware about
services which are being delivered by them. This aids them to reach maximum number of
customers towards their services by still there is scope for further improvisation. In context of
Primark, the innovations which can be utilised by firm are illustrated below:
Robotics: Firm can have their own robots through which they can maintain their
warehouse, along with all kind of delivery processes can be carried out in an trenchant manner.
The reason behind this is that it minimises probabilities of errors which will lead to minimised
waste and productivity can be enhanced.
Application: Firm can develop their application which will enable them to reach ample of
customers by making few clicks and ensuring that on time delivery is done. As robotics will also
be used its efficiency will also be improvised.
Cloud computing: This is the paid platform which can be used by Primark for delivery of
various operations. An example can be taken to understand this aspect like firm need to process
lots of information and for this adequate space is needed to have a lots of storage space is not
practicality feasible as this is costly and to deal with this, cloud computing will be apt option as
this provides firm with an alternative in which they can extend as well as shrink the space as per
what is being required by them.
Few innovative options have been illustrated above through which there positioning can
be enhanced as maximum people will get aware of what is being done by the organisation and
brand image will also be amplified.

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