Business Audit Report: Vegan Food Start-up, BUS0001 Module

This report provides a comprehensive business audit of a vegan food start-up, examining various critical aspects. The report begins with an introduction outlining the scope of the analysis, followed by a PESTLE analysis to assess the external market environment, including political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors influencing the vegan food industry in the UK. The report then evaluates the legal frameworks available to individuals starting a business, such as GDPR and consumer rights, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, it explores different sources of raising finance for a plant-based food start-up, including commercial finance companies, bank loans, private investors, and venture capitalists. The report also investigates the sectors in which a new plant-based food start-up can operate, emphasizing its value to the UK economy, specifically the food and manufacturing industry. Finally, the report identifies and explains the importance of HR policies within a workplace, completing the business audit. The report concludes with a reflective section and a list of references.

BUSINESS
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TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
Question 1........................................................................................................................................3
Pestle Analysis of the market......................................................................................................3
Question 2........................................................................................................................................5
Range of legal framework available to individual to start their business....................................5
Various sources of raising finance...............................................................................................6
Question3.........................................................................................................................................7
Sector in which new plant based food start-up operate and its value to UK economy...............7
Importance of HR policies within workplace..............................................................................8
Reflective.....................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCE................................................................................................................................10
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INTRODUCTION
The business ideas are the key behind identifying the existing opportunities that can be
tapped in the current trends prevalent in the environment. In the current report, the idea of vegan
business plant will be evaluated and business audit report will be prepared accordingly where
the different aspects will be evaluated starting with the pestle analysis to map the external
environment. This will be followed by the evaluation of different legal frameworks in support of
the vegan food industry and then the potential sectors in which the plant based food start- up can
operate will also be illustrated analysed.
MAIN BODY
Question 1
Pestle Analysis of the market
The tool of pestle analysis is critical in analysing the different factors that are present in the
external market and it also helps in evaluation of the impact that such factors can have on a
particular industry or business (Marangon and et.al., 2016). The evaluation of pestle analysis
helps in further identifying what are the different favourable factors that can create a positive
impact on the business leading to its growth and further success. It consequently also determines
which are those negative factors that can affect the business in an unfavourable manner as well.
Collectively, this helps in critically analysing the potential market an this can be dine in
following manner:
Political Factors: The political factors of UK have a wide set of regulations in the food industry
where there are multiple quality standards that have been set which can affect the performance of
a business overall (LUQUETTA PALLARES, Bostwick and CLER DELGADO, 2019). These
standards are required to be met necessarily so that it can be ensured that whatever products a
company is preparing are fit for consumption. In case of Vegan food industry as well, the
compliance to various regulations and standards that have been set up by the political system in
UK is necessary. The compliance to such standard can become extremely favourable for a vegan
business because when the food products are produced and sold after meeting all the criteria that
have been set, then the attractiveness of the product in the market and its preference by the
targeted customer segments will increase significantly.
Economical Factors: At present, the current economic position of UK and its customers are
very stable and strong where the purchasing power of such consumers, the GDP of the country
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etc. is improving and they are willing to spend more for the products or services that cater to
their specific needs (Szalay, 2017). As a result of this, the number of innovative products
especially in the food industry has grown significantly so even if the products that are included in
the vegetarian diet are comparatively expensive i.e. costlier to consumer, the customers of UK
can prefer to buy them thus influencing the business positively.
Social Factors: The people in UK have increasingly become health conscious where they are
extremely aware about the ingredients of the products that they are consuming, the kind of food
that they are in taking etc. (Smith and et.al., 2019). All these factors point out that the consumers
now intend to develop a balance between the healthy and unhealthy food that they are eating so
that the better lifestyle practices can be adopted. This factor is especially in favour of the
vegetarian i.e. vegan food industry as the increased inclination towards healthier food items over
the unhealthy ones is a good signal. This shows that this market is already a favoured one and if
targeted correctly the benefits that they can reap are immense by greater revenue generation as
well.
Technological Factors: The food industry especially the vegan sector is not just limited to
serving plants and leafy vegetables but there are much technological advancement in the art of
cooking and serving food (Vieira and Martins, 2017). The techniques such as using lab produced
meat in burgers that is not made form animals but form the plants and is even tastier and healthy
than the normal animal meat, using advanced technologies to grow plants and raise cows,
chickens etc. all are integrated towards the overall improvement in the variety of food that s
served in the vegan food category. Collectively thee development in the technology can act as
favourable aspects but the investment that they would require is also much more than a normal
food store serving non- vegetarian food.
Legal Factors: The legal restrictions in case of vegan food industry are comparatively lower
because there is not much risk of the consumption of contaminated or diseased food as plants are
being used rather than animals (Goethals, 2018). However, there are certain compliance
standards and acts such as food and safety act etc. that govern the quality of food that is being
served. Therefore, it is better to comply to the legal statute so that no problems can arise in the
future and the vegan food industry can operate without any restrictions. Therefore this factor can
become unfavourable if non- compliance is ensued in the business practices.
Environmental Factors: The environmental factors includes the manner in which the existing
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environment is protected and nurtured by the existing business practices and the vegan food
industry is a big step towards conservation of the nature (Masih and et.al., 2019). There have
been regular protests and rallies that have been encouraging the abolishment of consumption of
animal meat so that the nature and its wildlife can be protected. Along with this the increase
towards the consumption of plants and veggies is encouraged by the support of the fact that the
diseases rising from the consumption of stale or unhealthy meat are also tremendous and this
problem cannot be faced under vegan food category.
Question 2
Range of legal framework available to individual to start their business
Legal frameworks define various parameters onto which companies have to address
functionally various compliance ethics while starting an individual business for gaining higher
profits and long term business goodwill. Consumers whose preferences are functionally
programmed with proper business ethics and feedbacks, grievances addressed enable to be large
part of company consumer market. The plant based start-up have to actively look forward to
various parameters of compliance of relative synergy through which stronger consumer loyalty
can be attained on longer term.
General data protection Regulation (GDPR)
General data protection Regulation (GDPR) has been recognised as an innovative
framework to enable business to undergo largest change for consumer data protections
effectively for long term viable term. The GDPR sets out 7 effective principles for lawful
processing of personal data where processing includes collection, organising, structuring,
storage, alteration, consultation, use, communication, combination , restriction, erasure or
destruction of personal data. These principles enable companies to functionally keep consumer
data safely and legally abide to law term where constructional planning and reinforcement works
as an asset if programmed effectively onto working fundamentals. The strength of this
framework is that all principles collectively formulate various paradigms onto which consumer
loyalty can be developed effectively and plant based start up will be able to formulate strong
goodwill upon them. The model also enables to keep important details of consumer networking
chains which will enable in gaining higher strength and forwarding best fundamentals onto
which higher strength can be built. This will also formatively strengthen sales management
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structure also. The weakness assessed under this framework is that the framework lacks any
pace for building dynamic functioning which may be needed to induce to keep high viable
business demands under analysis. The rigidity may affect company operations if not planned
properly and actively steps taken with constructional planning (Yeh, 2018).
Consumer right framework
Consumer right framework is an innovative framework where consumers have various rights of
getting information of all products, quality parameters check and choosing power from various
portfolios of brands, consumer representation and satisfaction of basic needs. The legal
framework enables to program all details onto various products variety which company is
selling and also effectively build their choice of purchase. Plant based company being start-up
has to follow legal compliance of consumer right framework and should provide all necessary
services which shall be built towards various keen strategies to built consumer satisfaction. The
legal compliance by company will enable in getting set target production arenas and technically
spread high potential strength among consumer market share. Strength of this framework can be
analysed by the fact that it allows company to build strong consumer market image and
represent various business ethics onto set targets for higher creativity and business goals.
Weakness can be analysed with the fact that it do not give any pace for bringing dynamic
changes to company, plant based food start-up which need to focus towards building various
new paradigms for keeping up with law compliance and also innovatively building their
strengths of consumers market share (Adler, 2016).
Various sources of raising finance
Plant based foods can obtain capital from commercial finance companies which provides
loans or funding to the business on the basis of the project report or planning report of the firm.
These commercial finance companies gets the interest as the return over the principal amount as
agreed between the parties. Plant based foods is the individual company in the market which can
also use bank loan to raise capital of the firm. Bank loans are being provided to the business
ideas which are to be implemented in the market to achieve the objective of profits (Schaltegger,
Hansenand Lüdeke-Freund, 2016). Amount or funding of the bank depends upon the
requirements list of the business to execute the plan in the market. Private investor is also used to
create the capital for Plant based foods. Individual company may get investors easily in the
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market as investors provide the funding on the basis of owner reputation and skills and ability.
Private investors provide capital to run the activities of the company to achieve the objective of
the firm in the market. Venture capitalist can also be approached by plant based foods to raise the
capital for generating the business activities in the market. As venture capitalist are the experts of
the market in providing capital to the individual firms for achieving their motive (Seibert and
DeGeest, 2017). Plant based foods needs to create action plan for achieving of goals so as to
create capital in easy way from various sources of the finance to have the activities in the market.
Question3
Sector in which new plant based food start-up operate and its value to UK economy
There are various sectors in UK such as hospitality and tourism, food and manufacturing
industry and healthcare are some of the main industry that are growing at fast pace to render
better and qualitative services to customers. Food start-up operates in food and manufacturing
industry which is rising at 3-4% every year making values of more than £113bn. It is one of the
largest industries that employees 400000 people thus contribute in high growth rate and
economic development of UK economy. As per report FMDP sector include 8000 companies
among them 85% are small business that making number of people self employed. Various
companies that are included in this sector are restaurants, fast food outlets, cafeteria and places
where food products are sells to its customers (Alpar and Schulz, 2016). FMDP is generating lot
of opportunity in UK by providing qualitative and organic food products to customers for better
health and wellbeing of individual. Meat processing, bakery production and dairy enterprise are
one of the most growing segment in manufacturing food industry. Total investment in Food and
drink manufacturing industry has grow in couple of years thus contributed in overall growth and
development of UK economy and enhancing living standard of people. Growing manufacturing
food industry reflects optimism in wider economy and increase in food products between three to
five per cent in coming years (Maier, Meyer and Steinbereithner, 2016). This industry is
continuously brining innovation in the economy in order to satisfy needs of large number of
customers and earn maximum amount of profitability. Hospitality is another industry that is
growing rapidly in UK which involves different business such as food and beverage business and
accommodation services so that people can easily utilise their time and money by spending their
vacation at UK. Many foreign investors are looking for different opportunities to invest their
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capital in hospitality industry as it generates more revenue. Hospitality industry has also reduced
employment rate and have make better living standard of people in UK. There are approximately
127000 businesses that are providing employment to 1.6 million people thus it has also
contributed to economic growth of country. As per various report it is expected that tourism
industry will rise in few more year which will lead to generation of numerous employment
opportunities for people (Priem, Wenzel and Koch, 2018). Foodservices industry is equal to food
retailing as there are $731 billion supplies by foodservice facilities so it helps in effective
growth of firm. Therefore FMDP in which plant based food operate has numerous opportunities
for company to easily expand its operation and earn maximum amount of profit by satisfying
needs of customers.
Importance of HR policies within workplace
Human resource management is one of the important departments that is responsible for
managing different individual that work in company to accomplish particular task. HR manager
understand view, problem and grievance or challenges that are faced by each individual while
operating their function. Thus, have to recommend various solutions so that employees can
effectively perform various functions and contribute in overall growth and success of enterprise
(Urbinati, Chiaroni and Chiesa, 2017). HR manager of Plant based food also responsible for
making effective policies and standard so that maximum output can be gained and standard,
qualitative products can be delivered to customers. Therefore, importances of various human
resource policies in modern workplace of plant based food are as follows:
Health and safety policies: HR manager is responsible for making effectively policies to ensure
better health and safety of employees so that they can effectively work within organisation. HR
manager of plant based firm has to implement health and safety in order to motivate and inspire
employees to enhance their performance so that overall goals of company can be gained. It also
helps in creating a sense of belongingness among employees as they feel happy and satisfied
when company takes initiatives to take care of their health and security (Cravino and Levchenko,
2017). Another advantages of health and safety policies is that HR can effectively take care of
its most valuable resources that is human by incorporating various safety and security measure.
Such policies motivate employees more than compensation benefits as they are happy to know
that firm think them as a crucial part of organisation. Thus, invest their large amount of money,
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efforts to ensure better health and well being of people so that they can grow and enhance their
knowledge to perform particular task.
Equality and diversity: It is other policy that is incorporate by Human resource department to
ensure that equal opportunities are provided to all individual within firm. There are numerous
employees with different culture, tradition, caste, preference and taste so HR has to manage them
effectively so that company can gain competitive advantages. Human resource manager of Plant
based food by incorporating equality policies provide friendly and supportive environment to all
individual and thus contribute towards improvement in their overall performance and
productivity. HR by providing equal opportunities to employees is able to select appropriate
individual for particular position within firm so that they can help in maximising profitability of
organisation (Peng and Lebedev, 2017). Implementation of diversity helps in bringing new and
innovative individual that have different skills, knowledge and experience to perform particular
task. Employees within organisation can easily learn from each other as they have different
skills, knowledge which will helps company to face different challenges and effectively utilise
available opportunities so that it can gain competitive advantages. It can also be stated that
equality and diversity helps in inspiring individual of plant based food to work hardly to deliver
qualitative products and services to customers thus goals of firm can be gained. Human resource
need to be equal while selecting individual at time of recruitment, selection and promotion so
that other can be motivated to work in same manner so that optimum result can be gathered
(Seibert and DeGeest, 2017). Therefore it can be stated that there are various advantages of HR
policies such as equality and diversity, health and safety of employees to company. So, all such
policies need to be implemented by HR manager of plant based food so that organisation can
expand its market share and earn maximum amount of profitability.
Reflective
As per my view I have learnt lot many things while making report or in other words it has
contributed towards overall development of myself and enhancing many skills that helps me to
get numerous opportunity in future career. I have learnt about various macro factors such as
policies of government, economic condition, social preference, technological development and
environmental issue that impact adversely on overall performance and establishment of
enterprise such as plant based food. I have also learn about some of the legal frameworks that
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need to be considered by individual or entrepreneur while deciding to start new business or
enterprise (Alpar and Schulz, 2016). Many more things that I have learnt from above research
such as different sources of finance that can be used by entrepreneur in order to run and establish
particular business. It helps me to know about real facts of life the way business can be started,
what types of research, method that need to be followed so that effective outcome can be gained
and business can grow within limited time period and efforts. Above report has also Enhance my
knowledge regarding roles of HR and importance of HR policies in long term growth and
expansion of enterprise in industry. I also get to know about contribution of different sectors of
economy in enhancing living standard of people and employment opportunities. Therefore it can
be stated that various skills, knowledge have been improved through this particular report which
I can use to get different opportunities in future career.
CONCLUSION
On the basis of the research conducted in the report above it can be concluded that the plant
based industry is indeed the trend of today’s market. The pestle analysis showed that most of the
factors were favourable and the legal frameworks such as Consumer right framework or GDPR
framework showed that the legal support to this industry is also extensive. Lastly the sectors
were identified and HR policies that could be adopted were also suggested in the report.
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REFERENCE
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transmission. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 132(2). pp.921-962.
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pp.282-292.
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