Strategic Management Report: Countdown Supermarket's Business Strategy

This report provides a strategic management analysis of Countdown Supermarket, the largest supermarket brand in New Zealand. It begins with an overview of Countdown, including its mission, vision, and objectives, emphasizing its customer-centric approach and sustainability goals. A SWOT analysis identifies Countdown's strengths (extensive distribution network, ERP integration), weaknesses (EFTPOS issues), opportunities (online market growth, health-conscious consumers), and threats (counterfeit products, competition). The report then details corporate, business, and functional level strategies, including growth and diversification strategies, along with the resources required for implementation. Recommendations are provided to ensure effective strategy execution, business model sustainability, and revenue growth. The report utilizes secondary research, including industry reports and journal articles, to provide a comprehensive overview of Countdown's strategic position and future direction.

Strategic Management- COUNTDOWN
Executive Summary
The report titled strategic management is an over of Countdown which is the largest
supermarket brand of NZ and operates over 180+ stores with a strong team of 18000 people.
The report here provides the long term mission, vision and the objectives of Countdown,
which is primarily linked to company’s aspiration of being customer centric and creating
solution to achieve the goal of sustainability. A SWOT analysis of Countdown is provided
which help in understanding the strength the company will can leverage to retain its position

of leader in the highly competitive retail market. The report also entails the corporate,
business and function level strategies along with the resources required to implement those
strategies. Towards the end, a set of recommendation is provided to ensure the
implementation and execution of the strategies and to bring sustainability in its business
model and revenue growth.

Table of Content
Terms of Reference....................................................................................................................4
Procedure....................................................................................................................................4
Findings......................................................................................................................................5
Strategic Analysis: Assessing Competitive Position..............................................................5
Overview of the Organization.............................................................................................5
Mission of Organization.....................................................................................................6
Vision of the Organization..................................................................................................6
Objectives of the organisation............................................................................................6
Strategic Analysis: Assessing Competitive Position..............................................................7
SWOT Analysis..................................................................................................................7
Findings of SWOT Analysis..................................................................................................9
Strategy Formulation............................................................................................................10
Business Level Strategies.....................................................................................................11
Resources for implementing strategies.................................................................................14
Conclusion................................................................................................................................15
Recommendations....................................................................................................................16
References................................................................................................................................18

Terms of Reference
Source 1: The New Zealand Company
The report titled Strategic Management- Countdown is intended for the board of
directors and the senior management to provide them an overview of the current state of the
organization and how else the organization can benefit by applying various strategic
frameworks and business strategy for growth and development. The report at length will
discuss the overview of the organization, its mission, vision, goals and objectives.
Additionally, the report will also do a strategic analysis of the organization using the SWOT
analysis; this will help the organization to assess the environment of the organization. Besides
this corporate level, business level and functional level strategies will be created for
Countdown organization. The last section of the report will mostly focus on the strategic
implementation, which is basically putting the strategy into action. A set of recommendation
will be provided at the end to help COUNTDOWN to achieve its end goal of sustainability.
Procedure
The report titled Strategic Management utilizes and relies mostly on the channels of
secondary research such as industry reports, journal articles, internet reading, company
background and more so. Rest of the report will be based on the understanding of the key

strategic issues and how different models helps in understanding the issues whilst helping in
strategic formulation to do over with the issues faced by Countdown.
Findings
The section here will be divided into three sub-sections, namely, strategic analysis,
strategic formulation and strategic implementation and resources.
Strategic Analysis: Assessing Competitive Position
The section here will throw light on the overview, mission, vision and the objectives of
Countdown organization.
Overview of the Organization
Source 2: Alamy
Countdown is a New Zealand based full service supermarket chain which is a subsidiary of
the retail giant Woolworths NZ. The Countdown supermarket is in existence ever since 1981,
and the stores of Countdown are generally bigger and larger than any other average NZ
supermarket (Countdown, 2018). The 37 year old Countdown at present has over 184 stores
and employees roughly around 18,000 People. Countdown is one of the leading supermarket
chains of NZ and serves approximately 2.5 million customers every week (Countdown,
2018). The team at Countdown is committed to provide its customers with surplus choice,
value and convenience so that the customers have a great overall shopping experience at
Countdown. The in store team at Countdown is ably supported by four dry grocery
distribution centres, two meat processing plants, one seafood processing plant, a central

support office and three fresh produce distribution centres to meet the store requirement
(Vandevijvere et. al., 2018). The leadership of Countdown is in able hands of Natalie Davis,
who in the capacity of Managing director looks through the organization.
Mission of Organization
At Countdown the company believes in people first approach that is it places its customers at
the top and designs policies and procedures to benefit the customer. AN extension of its
mission statement is linked to the workplace safety, wherein the organization believes in
working together in a safe environment to do a great job and feel valued (Chepulis, Hill &
Mearns, 2017). The team and the management is extremely passionate about what they do
and they want to keep serving the community better and better with each passing day(Zhu &
Xie, 2018).
Vision of the Organization
The vision of Countdown is in sync with the vision statement of its Parent organization
Woolworths, as its vision statement Countdown wants to be one of the world’s most
responsible retailers reflecting its commitment and passionate side to do good business for its
people, customers, community and the planet (Chepulis et. al., 2018).
Objectives of the organisation
Defining and identifying clear cut objectives help the organization to stay focussed on its
goals, even in the times of uncertainty. Some of the strategic objectives of Countdown can
be:
 Countdown wants to encourage gender diversity in its stores and to provide for at
least 40% of the executive and senior manager position for the women (Countdown,
2018).
 Another objective is to move towards a circular economy, which is zero food waste
going to the LANDFILL.
 Sourcing environmentally sustainable commodities.
 Responding towards the climate change by focussing on how to curtail the destruction
to the environment (Parsons & Wilkinson, 2015).

 Increase its revenue, profitability and provide a seamless experience to both its online
and offline customers.
Strategic Analysis: Assessing Competitive Position
The section here will discuss and ascertain the environment in which Countdown is
operating, on the basis of which it will provide an internal assessment of the firm. SWOT
analysis which is a micro environmental strategic framework helps in identifying the
strength, weakness, opportunity and threats for the organization. This further helps the
organization to create a proactive strategy to avoid or minimize the threat and leverage on the
strength to maximize the opportunity.
SWOT Analysis
Source 3: BPlans
Before delving into the strategic analysis of Countdown, it is advisable to have an overview
of the retail industry in New Zealand. The retail industry of New Zealand during the year
2014 employed just 186,000 full time employees, the figure of which has gone up by leaps
and bounds (Countdown, 2018). Additionally, the retail contributes over $ 20 Billion to the
GDP making it accountable for 8% of the country’s GDP. The NZ retail sector has potential
challenges in the form of development of the online channels by established retail players and
also the threat of emergence of other local players to further squeeze the retail market.

The SWOT analysis will help in identifying the strength and weakness which are internal to
the firm and also help in identifying the opportunity and threats which are external to the
organization.
Strengths
 The biggest strength of Countdown Supermarket is based on its operations which are
carried out through a large number of distribution centres, supply chain units and
outlets.
 It is due to such great distribution channels Countdown is effectively able to manage
its customers (Bailey et. al., 2015).
 Integration and usage of ERP, RFID Tags, Self Serving Kiosks to implement an agile
supply chain system.
 The company has gone a step ahead in fostering a culture of innovation at its stores
and in its online foodbank at Auckland, it also provides its esteemed customers with
an iPhone application to create convenience for its customers (Devi et. al., 2014).
 Strength of Countdown is its focus on conducting retail operations in a customized
manner through the generation of customized product offering and loyalty cards.
 Strength of the organization is its focussed efforts on preserving and sustaining the
environment, through the usage of plethora of environmental protection practices and
also as a part of its CSR (Day, Pearce & Pearson, 2015).
Weakness
 The operations of Countdown faced a lot of challenge in the recent years due to the
failure of its EFTPOS machine which created troubles for the customers in checking
counters and also during its billing process (Port, 2014).
 This problem went to a whole new level, when the agitated and frustrated customer
took to social media and ranted a lot about the organization. Besides this some other
weakness identified at Countdown are related to its inefficiency at work and some
incidents of poor customer service.
Opportunities
 Some of the major reasons or drivers which open the avenues of opportunity for
Countdown are related to the increase in the online market, development of emerging

markets, new products introduced at the organization and persistent innovation in the
retail sector (Collins, 2016).
 Along with this, the organization has gained momentum to diversify its audience base
by new product offering on the likes of divisions such as insurance and pharmacy.
 Additionally, the target audience of NZ is becoming more and more health conscious
which is another opportunity for Countdown to stock up its product in health and
nutrition divisions (Zhu & Chan, 2018).
Threats
 The threat of Countdown is related to counterfeit products. For instance, one of the
biggest threats is the problem with incidents related to Baby food poisoning; this
removes the faith of the customers in retail organization (Brooker, 2018).
 Another threat is related to emergence of other players which can further shrink the
profit margins for Countdown.
Findings of SWOT Analysis
Countdown which is one of the largest full service supermarket chain and subsidiary of
Woolworths has the largest stores than any other supermarket in New Zealand. The
supermarket chain’s biggest strength lies in its ability to manage its distribution networks and
channels effectively which ensures that the supermarket chain is able to manage its customers
effectively. The biggest weakness the company encountered was with the failure of its
EFTPOS machines which made it cumbersome for the customers during its check out
process. The company is seen expanding and diversifying its business in NZ to gain and
attract new customers, this is a big opportunity for Countdown to expand its customer base
and create supremacy in the market. NZ in the recent years suffered threats regarding the
poisoning of infant milk and dairy products, this is affecting the sales of the organization
(Farouk et. al., 2018)
Strategy Formulation
Corporate Level Strategies

In the simplest of words corporate level strategy can be seen as the top most level strategy or
the strategy which helps in driving competitive advantage in the market and establish its
supremacy over its competitors. This type of strategy creates values for its business units by
conducting various multi market activities, promotion, customer loyalty and many more. The
ultimate objective or the aim of creating corporate level strategy is to ensure that it meets the
aims, objectives, mission, and vision of the organization and contribute to reach towards its
end objective of sustainability while meeting the needs of the business and customers at the
same time. There are three different types of corporate level strategy; Growth, Stability and
Diversification, lets study each one in context of Countdown organization.
Growth Strategy: As the name reflects Growth Strategy is related directly with the
increasing of revenue through the sales and products of company’s existing product and
services. Thus, growth strategy of Countdown is:
 The company ensures that it remains the number one player in NZ by offering good
quality products to its customers, every single time.
 Countdown has a large range of product offering and it makes sure that its entire
product line is set according to the needs of its target audience.
 The company uses both Vertical and horizontal strategy to take care of its supply
chain operation and also extending the reach of its product and services to other
geographical markets(Adams, 2013).
Diversification Strategy: The understanding of the diversification strategy is created by
looking at the company’s product and services then creating strategies through the use of
sales and marketing. The diversification strategy for Countdown is:
 Foray into segments such as Pharmacy and insurance gives company a chance to
serve a whole new customer segment which it can leverage to bring into its retail
business (Countdown, 2018).
Stability Strategy: Once the company reaches its market share goals, the company then
instead of scaling up its operations focuses on it existing business and retains its market
share. Countdown is focussing on stability strategy by opting for cost efficient measures,
however, the company is in a space which is not saturated, and hence overall growth strategy
is the one making more sense for it (Countdown, 2018).

Business Level Strategies
It is no brainer that the organization’s core competencies should be focussed on satisfying the
needs of the customers in order to extract return from them. Also, business level strategies are
closely related with corporate level strategies with the customers at the locus of interest for
the business organization. Business level strategy becomes more important as it is also related
to the position of the firm in the industry. As mentioned earlier that Countdown is the largest
supermarket in NZ in comparison to all its competitors. The company has achieved this
position owing to its different business level strategies which goes on as:
Cost Leadership: Cost leadership in the simplest of words is offering lowest/ best prices
every single time. Countdown as an organization has been practising cost leadership as a part
of its Business level strategy since its inception. Some of its new initiative in this direction is:
 The company has a “Price Down” programme in place which is broken down in 2
parts: “Price Lockdown and “Price Drop”. Price lockdown implies that items stay low
in price for the longest term whilst price drop mean savings on the items customers
buy most often (The Register, 2016).
 The company has also created an algorithm by which it finds out the basket of
products customers purchase more often, and Countdown reduces the price of such
items to pass on the maximum benefits to its customers.
 Countdown is the second cheapest supermarket in NZ, the first one being Foodstuff’s
Pak and Save.
Differentiation Strategy: This type of strategy is used when the product isn’t the least
expensive in the market; hence the organization tries to add certain differentiation into its
product line to engage with the market audience.
 Countdown with its innovative product pricing, bundle packaging and lock down
pricing adds differentiation to its product line.
 Additionally, the loyalty cards of Countdown also help in creating a differentiation in
comparison to other loyalty cards and benefits of other supermarkets.
 Furthermore in order to support the corporate level strategies Countdown ensures the
same through the fine quality of selected product line features and services it provides
to its customers at an affordable prices.

 The business level strategy which can be effectively incorporated at the Countdown
Supermarket is two faceted in nature. At one shot the company can focus on the
development and the incorporation of its multichannel marketing and retailing
network and on the other it can focus on the use of agile supply chain
strategy(Hathway & Maibach, 2018).
 Development of retail kiosks for making its branded products available to a wide
range of audience.
Functional Level Strategy (Operational Level Strategies)
Functional Level Strategy can be seen as a response to operational level strategy and it is
used to back up both the corporate and business level strategies of the business organization.
This strategy aides the implementation of corporate and business level strategy by focusing
on the human and the marketing resources of the organization. The functional level strategy
of Countdown is:
 In order to support the low cost business strategy of the company, Countdown has to
ensure to a large extent that it reduces the input cost of all its products either through
strong partner channel, local sourcing or own labels.
 In order to serve the customers to the best of its needs, Countdown has to ensure that
it expands its horizon of customer feedback and take it more seriously to hear out the
good and the bad things customers have to say about the brand. Accordingly the
feedback can be used to bring improvements in the company’s offering and its
services(Woolworths, 2012).
 The company is keen on its corporate responsible strategy as well, in which it has
moved to a circular economy. It implies that Countdown has moved towards zero
food waste going to landfill and it has improved recyclability of its own brand
packaging as a step towards the circular economy.
 As a part of its human resource strategy, the company is ensuring gender diversity in
executive roles at the organization. At least 40 % of the executives and senior
management positions are to be held by the women and it has also removed any kind
of wage gap between its male and female employees.
 The company is spending big bucks towards its marketing initiatives and coming up
with catchy campaigns to lure the audience into the store.