Performance Analysis of Montana Bakery: A Small Business Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Montana Bakery, a small UK-based bakery, examining its business performance, strengths, and weaknesses. The report begins with an abstract outlining the scope, followed by an investigation into the bakery's strengths, such as its personalized approach and employee feedback, and weaknesses, including a limited customer base and dependence on a single director. A comparative analysis with Cooplands bakery highlights the competitive landscape. The report then proposes changes for improving management and performance, including recommendations for overcoming weaknesses through online marketing, improved hygiene, and staffing. Strategies for strengthening existing performance are discussed, such as training programs, new ingredients, and technology adoption. Finally, the report recommends new areas for business expansion, including product diversification and exploring new markets. The report also includes business objectives, plans for incorporating proposed changes, and an action plan to manage the changes and monitor improvements.

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Abstract:
The primary light falls on the business performances of small business enterprises like
Montana Bakery. The analysis of strength, weakness of the business process along with
necessary improvements is put forward at the initial stage. Later, change management, and its
implications are discussed along with monitoring process and plan development. Changing
scenario of small enterprises with the comparison is brought forth in the report.
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Table of Contents:
Contents
Table of Contents:......................................................................................................................3
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................4
Task 1: Investigating the performance of small business enterprise..........................................5
1.1Identification of the strength and weaknesses.......................................................................5
1.2. Comparative analysis of the business.................................................................................6
Task 2: Proposing the changes for improving management & performance of the business....8
2.1. Recommendations of appropriate actions for overcoming the weakness of the identified
business......................................................................................................................................8
2.2. Analysing the existing performance and strengthening it...................................................9
2.3. Recommendations for new areas to expand the selected business...................................10
Task 3: Business Objectives and plans to incorporate proposed changes...............................12
3.1. Assessment of existing business objectives and plans......................................................12
3.2. Revision of business plan to incorporate appropriate changes.........................................13
3.3. Preparation of an action plan.............................................................................................13
Task 4: Examine the impact of change management on business operations (ppt).................14
4.1. Impact of the proposed changes on the business and its personnel..................................14
4.2. Preparation of business plan to manage the changes........................................................15
4.3. Monitoring improvements in the business........................................................................16
Conclusion:..............................................................................................................................17
Reference list............................................................................................................................18
Bibliography:............................................................................................................................19
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Introduction:
Small businesses have fewer employees, few revenues and one person to control their whole
business. The start-up is a cost is lesser in small industry. In 1997, Montana Bakery came in
UK market and the industrial estate of the enterprise was in Colnbrook. In the industrial
estate more or less 270 employees work and they produce nearly 1.3 million unit products.
Piero Sccco is the director of the company. The vehicle operator business is medium sized.
There are two centres that operate transport of the firm.
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Task 1: Investigating the performance of small business enterprise
1.1Identification of the strength and weaknesses
For a small industry, business operators do not have to invest huge money, and with a little
investment, a small business can be started as said by Carland. and Carland (2015, p.8).
When the start-up money is little, the chances of facing loss are also slim. Montana Bakery is
medium sized, and so the operator did not have to invest a huge amount of money for start-
ups. There are only five machines in company's subsidiary.
Getting active workforce for starting a business is like stirring up a hornet’s nest for a
company star-up. As Montana Bakery is small industry based enterprise, it was started with
the little workforce. More or less £17500 is given to employees annually in this company. Job
flexibility is one of the company’s strength as the number of employees in the enterprise is
little. It faced turnover up to 8% recently. The business performance of such enterprise can
give satisfaction to the directors of the company during the trading period (Schutte,
2016,p.56). As a result, the turnover is seen. Montana Bakery has a small number of
employees, and so it gives proper focus on the skill base and knowledge of employees.
The mission of Montana Bakery is to reach the dynamic needs of customers by producing
Artistan bread, garlic bread, pizza based bread. The company is aimed to supply bread in
foodservice shoppers, clients, retail of UK including Waitrose and Marks and Spencer. As the
company is medium sized, the approach of the enterprise is more personalised than large
sectors. The company is thinking of increasing its innovation. More innovation in 65,000sq ft
can be called as their strength. By upgrading equipment and plan, the company can increase
the variety of products.
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As the number of employees is less than 50 in the enterprise, there is an openness to
employees' feedbacks about their work satisfaction, flexibility and all. The company can
develop products in accordance with the feedback reports taken from retail shops and clients
of UK. As the company does not deal with a large number of retail and clients, it is easier to
take feedback from all of them. For the same reason, i.e., as the company deals with only UK
clients, their tastes are known to the company, which helps in product development. But this
strengths often comes in the form of weakness for this company;
As the company deals only with UK retail and clients, the number of customers is small.
Very few customers is a weakness that can lead the company towards low-profit bar (Dunne
et al. 2016, p.5480). Scacco has been the director of the company for many days, and Fit flex
Baba is the current corporate director of the company. The company is solely dependent on
this single person, and this is one of the weaknesses of such small business. As such small
companies are being started with very few employees; talent shortage comes as a bottle-neck
of organisational success.
1.2. Comparative analysis of the business
Montana Bakery has experienced a fall from £1.3- £1.2 in 12 months duration. A bend in
the profit margin is evident in 2014-2015 from 0.4% - 48.9%. The company is thus aimed
to develop product development strategy and to launch a variety of products to meet
customers' needs. The fall has increased the consciousness of the business operator to
develop some strategies and to upgrade plants as well as equipment. The director also
focuses on the skill development of employees. Many small business enterprises face loss
at certain phases, but they try to overcome the loss and to raise its profit bar is greater
than other companies.
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Cooplands is the bakery enterprise that faced £18.6 m turnover in the year of 2011
starting from 1933, whereas Montana Bakery experienced £19.6m to £21m within 12
months. Cooplands failed to offer the flexibility Montana Bakery offers. For Twenty
years, Montana Bakery is running successfully without any obstructions and still envy
companies fear its success level, but 39 stores were closed of Cooplands in the year 2015.
Cooplands got National Training Award as it provided best training and knowledge to its
staffs. Montana focused on staff training after experiencing a bend curve in profit graph.
Cooplands moved its IT support to the Practical Networks, and thus the company never
looked back. But the use of Sottoriva technology makes the company's success to the
benchmark, and it makes the use of technology of this company incomparable. Cooplands
does not use this. The taste that comes with Sottoriva use makes the products of Montana
unique.
Sales are increasing on a regular basis in Cooplands, but Montana Bakery suffers the loss
of profit in recent days. Gross profit has been decreasing from .4- 48% in Montana
Bakery, but in Cooplands, gross profit is increasing.
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Task 2: Proposing the changes for improving management & performance of the
business
2.1. Recommendations of appropriate actions for overcoming the weakness of the
identified business
It is observed that the respected bakery is confined to limited customers. Therefore, the
products are not being sold properly, and thus wastage of products is encountered.
Furthermore, this weakness could reduce the amount of popularity which the bakery has gain
over the years. Thus, the proper action is required to be taken up by the respected bakery
namely Montana bakery to earn a more competitive advantage in the marketplace. Therefore,
this weakness could be overcome through proper advertisement of the bakery not only in the
local areas but also through online marketing. The usage of social media could act as a handy
platform to overcome the weakness that is encountered by the concerned bakery.
Advertisement of the bakery products would not only cause the bakery to achieve its target or
goal. It has to pay a little more attention towards the hygiene and the quality of the product
that is served to its customers (Schaltegger and Burritt, 2014).
Moreover, proper staffing of the employees in the organisation is required to be taken care of.
It is with proper staffing; the respected bakery could restore its superiority, which it held
before. On the other hand, the growth opportunity and the success factor could be determined
by the proper pricing of the product. The bakery needs to keep the customers satisfied with
the pricing and the quality of the product. The needs and the demands of the customers must
be fulfilled by the bakery to achieve the loyalty of the customers to increase their profit bar.
To pick the interest of the customers the concerned authority of the bakery needs to adopt a
better way to serve their product. Thus, use of proper transportation becomes a very
important factor when the delivery of the product is taken into consideration. Along with that,
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the adaptation of cleanliness and proper operations are to be undertaken by the concerned
bakery to obtain their hygiene status in the market. Together with this, friendly behaviour
with the customers would further make an exposure of the company to its customers such that
the customers would purchase more products from the bakery (Arnett and Wittmann, 2014).
2.2. Analysing the existing performance and strengthening it
The existing performance of the bakery could be strengthening through the possible methods
adopted by the respected bakery. It is witnessed that training programs serve a vital medium
to strengthen the performance activity of the employees in the concerned work place.
Therefore, it is with proper training programs organised by the organisation the employees
would be able to develop better skills in their performance activity. Together with this, the
development of the quality performance could be ensured by the organisation in their baking
process. Moreover, through the proper training classes, the employees would be able to give
their best performance in their work so that the company could gain the maximum
competitive advantage. On the other hand, they would further know the exact methodology to
overcome any disruption in the product and bring about an alternative to finishing the order
of the product on time (Schaltegger and Burritt, 2014).
Moreover, the use of new ingredients in the product making would further develop the
number of products that are made by the organisation. The incorporation of new ingredients
that are mostly preferred by the customers such as caramels and use of blueberries and red
berries would help to give a god taste in the products that are manufactured by the respected
bakery. The increase in the number of products would further cause the bakery to maximise
their business in a larger scale. The customers would be delighted to obtain new taste in the
product, and the income of the bakery would maximise in the following years (Jeston, and
Nelis, 2014).
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Moreover, the strengthening of the existing performance of the company could be done in a
better way with the utilisation of technology. The use of modern tools and machines would
help to make the work of the employees easy. The modernisation of the banking machine
along with the use of good quality tools would help to give a good shape to the cakes and the
bread that are baked by the respected bakery. Furthermore, the increase in the pay scale of the
employees would further cause the interest of the employees to be uplifted. Hence, the
motivation effort of the bakery would cause the bakery to obtain quality work from the
employees of the company. It is because, if the employees are served with the proper salary
that includes high salary, then the employees would be satisfied and therefore, the work
would be done on time without any delay in the work sector (Vukšić, Bach, and Popovič,
2013).
2.3. Recommendations for new areas to expand the selected business
The new area that the organisation would choose should comprise of proper accessibility
facility so that the transport through which the product would be delivered to the customers
could reach the customers on time. Moreover, the use of good transportation is required to be
done by the bakery so that no distortion of the product could take place while delivering the
product to its customers. On the other hand, the market where the new outlet would be open
should be situated at such a place where there is a maximum number of availability of the
customers so that the income level of the organisation could be maximised in a proper
manner. Thus, the market where the outlet would be situated should consist of proper
development so that people do not have to focus only on the local shops but could purchase
the product from the respected bakery also. The organisation also needs to focus on the
demographic factor of the area such that the population of the children are more in the area so
that the sale of the products could reach a maximum bar to upgrade the performance of the
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Montana bakery. Therefore, with the incorporation of these mediums, the bakery would be
able to expand its business in a successful manner to upgrade the competitive advantage.
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Task 3: Business Objectives and plans to incorporate proposed changes
3.1. Assessment of existing business objectives and plans
Key-Performance Indicators evaluates the organisational performance level using supply
chain and scopes (Hayes, 2014. P.45). Packaging cost has been reduced 18% in this
company. The loss of profit that the company suffered in 2015 indicates that the company
lacks training for staffs and the company needs product development. The company is
standing in UK's competition market for twenty years, and the rivals still fear the company.
This indicates the performance level of Montana bakery. Meeting the goal of Asset
Management is one of KPI for the bakery industry. The company has met the targets of
product cost successfully. The company has successfully filled the orders of UK clients and
retails. M&S and other retails are indeed happy with the order delivery of Montana Bakery.
Employee turnover has been increased up to 8% in Montana Bakery. Production time has
been decreased by the use of Sottoriva technology. Products and flour variety has been
increased. Flatbread, Pizza bared, garlic bread, ciabattas are there in the variety of Montana
bakery’s products. The company is aimed to increase product ranges within 2017. The
company has faced a loss as per the report of 28th March 2015. T6he profit bar went down
from £1.3m-1.2m just within 12 months time. The4 turnover has been increased to 8%. The
decline of GPM has been seen to 48% in the year of 2014-15 and from 49.3% in the year of
2013-14. The profitability of the company is also reduced to £1.26m, by 6.1%. Mortana
bakery intends to take some bakers and part-time service providers for giving more quick
delivery to the customers. The company provides fresh bakery products and the variety of
products. More or less six batches bakery products are made throughout the day for ensuring
that they can supply goods at any times and all products are available daily. The target
audience is the local people of UK to ensure healthy revenue that will make the business
stable. The company focuses on competitive prices and the best quality products to get a
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