Waitrose Expansion into Malaysia: A Competitive Analysis

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RESEARCH PROJECT- WAITROSE
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RESEARCH PROJECT - WAITROSE
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Background of the study..............................................................................................................1
Rationale of choosing the research topic.....................................................................................1
Research Aim...............................................................................................................................2
Problem statement.......................................................................................................................2
Research Objectives.....................................................................................................................2
Research Questions......................................................................................................................3
Literature Review............................................................................................................................3
Factors for the growth and survival of Waitrose.........................................................................3
Challenges faced by Waitrose while expansion..........................................................................5
Possibilities where the company can outperform while competing in the international market. 7
Research methodology.................................................................................................................9
Introduction..................................................................................................................................9
Research philosophy....................................................................................................................9
Research design.........................................................................................................................10
Research method....................................................................................................................10
Data sources...............................................................................................................................11
Method of data collection..........................................................................................................11
Sampling and sample size..........................................................................................................11
. Time Table...............................................................................................................................13
References......................................................................................................................................15
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Introduction
Background of the study
Waitrose & Partners popularly known as Waitrose has its head office in Bracknell, Berkshire
England and is a chain of supermarkets in Britain, which forms the food retail division of Britain.
It has its branches over various parts of the world. Waitrose and Partners have 353 shops across
the United Kingdom, which includes convenience shops. It holds a share of 5.1% in the present
market and it is the sixth largest grocery shop in UK. The company export products to 52
countries and have expanded their businesses to even middle East. Recently, it has aimed to
expand its market in Malaysia, for which it has to adopt new and innovative strategies to
compete with the local companies emerging in the local market of Malaysia. Waitrose is a brand
name in production and distribution of grocery items. Therefore, its policies and principles are
different from those in the Malaysian market (Giachetti, 2016). Better understanding of the
relationship between the company’s assets and the industry in which they operate helps to get a
clear picture about what to do when multinational or branded companies enter into the local
markets.
Rationale of choosing the research topic
The reason for choosing such research study is if survival strategies of each company
participating in global expansion can be understood, the need and demands of the consumers can
be analyzed aptly. The researcher has also a strong liking for the new companies that are
emerging day by day in the global marketing scenarios and how they are increasing their power
and customer bases in the long run. The researcher has chosen the topic as he uses his personal
interests to analyze the market of Malaysia if Waitrose enters there.
Research Aim
The main aim of the research project is to focus on the case of Waitrose expanding itself into
Malaysian markets and how they can compete with multinational companies and can adopt
survival strategies to compete with local companies emerging in Malaysian markets.
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Problem statement
Waitrose is aiming to expand its business in Malaysia and is adopting strategies for the same.
The main obstacle that can be faced by the company is threats from its competitors in the local
markets. Besides, multinational companies present in the Malaysian market can provide a barrier
for its proper growth and expansion (Parkinson, 2018). Such a crisis can be combated by
focusing on supplying local assets, using competency strategies, focusing on creating synergy
and improving the company’s ability and resources so that they turn out to be superior to its
competitors. The marketers of the company will find it difficult to earn profit while selling in the
international market. The tariff and the taxation policies followed in international scenario will
prevent the company to sell their products efficiently. Antidumping duties are also imposed on
raw materials imported from other countries; thereby the company must choose defensive
strategies to remove the problems that will be arising to the company in the long run. Language
and diversities related to religion are also some of the important challenges for a company while
entering international market. The political and legal laws and regulations imposed by the
country on the new entrants to trade are also a cause of concern for the company. The company
should follow those rules and adopt diversified strategies to avoid any problem in the marketing
scenario.
Research Objectives
Based on the research aim of the study, the following objectives of the study can be thought of:
 To identify the factors contributing for the growth and survival of the company
 To investigate the challenges faced by the company while expanding its market base
 To examine the possibilities where the company can outperform while competing in the
international market
Research Questions
Based on the above-mentioned research objectives, the following research questions can be
framed by the researcher:
1. What are survival strategies that can be adopted by Waitrose to compete in Malaysian
market?
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2. How Waitrose can compete with its local competitors in Malaysia so that it can attain
profitability in the market?
3. How to overcome the challenges faced by Waitrose in the international market?
Literature Review
Factors for the growth and survival of Waitrose
According to the reports of Emilian and Jönsson (2018), Waitrose is one of the most prominent
retailers in the UK. It deals with the customer experience management of retails, which has
landed in the seventh place with a CEE score of 8.00. Several factors have driven the company to
its success and survival. One of the most important reasons behind its success is the company’s
virtues. As opined by Kumari (2019), most of the prominent retail companies in the modern
market have been building themselves to grow bigger and bigger but Waitrose, on the contrary,
has given preference to build its strength. From the research works of Luk (2015), it is seen that
Waitrose listens to their customers for each every queries, complaints and demands and tries to
deliver them the best quality of product and service. This quality makes them unique and builds
up their brand image. Waitrose, according to Dalli et al. (2017), continuously tries to analyse its
strengths and weaknesses in order to improve with time. This is a key reason why Waitrose has
intensified from the tenth position to the seventh position in the UK Customer Experience
Excellence rankings.
As opined by Mitroulis and Kitsios (2015), Waitrose takes their customer service very seriously,
due to which they continuously make rigorous efforts to deliver a smooth and effectual retail
experience to their customers. Waitrose also gives a proper attention towards its staffs and
deliver them with training from time to time, which enables the staffs to provide the maximum
customer satisfaction. The continuous enhancement of technologies and development of the
staffs allow them to provide the customers the most efficient service possible. According to
Shearman (2016), the online shopping experience at Waitrose has also gained a lot of popularity
due to the many facilities and services that are provided to the customers through the online
portal. Even the employees convey the best possible personal experience when delivering goods
to customers.
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Waitrose has also initiated a new development programme, which the employees have to
undergo in order to train and develop them. As opined by Emilian and Jönsson (2018), the
development programme not only enhances the development in employees but this in turn helps
them to provide the best customer service possible. This enhances the customer satisfaction in a
significant level that is an important aspect in the growth and sustainability of Waitrose. As per
the research works of Mitroulis and Kitsios (2015), the development programmes also enhances
the job satisfaction of the employees as they are able to work with full efficiency. According to
Kumar (2019), Waitrose also organizes several seminars for the managers and directors in order
to develop their credentials and knowledge about the retail industry. There is some information
also given about how a retail company can improve their operations. These seminars also play a
significant role.
In addition to selling products of different brands, Waitrose has their own brand collection as
well. These products are also sold in the retail shops with the different products. These products
are relatively cheap in price. Hence, customers with low income prefer buying such products at
the reasonable rate it offers. This helps Waitrose to gain some additional revenue and enlarges
their growth. The quality of these products is checked from time-to-time, which ensures the best
quality of the product. On the contrary, from the research works of Quinlan, et al. (2019), it is
found that the products manufactured by Waitrose are not promoted properly due to which not
much people are aware of the products. This has a negative impact on the company.
From the above review, it can be concluded that Waitrose has been a success at retaining
customer satisfaction and loyalty due to its exquisite customer service. Due to this reason,
according to the reports of Tench and Topić (2017), Waitrose has been regarded as one of the
most customer friendly retail store in Europe.
Challenges faced by Waitrose while expansion
As opined by Shaw (2016), Waitrose has been quite successful in the retail industry all over UK
due to its service and product quality. However, this is not the same when it comes to venturing
into the foreign market. The expansion of the company has faced numerous challenges in the
market. According to Hughes, et al. (2019), the overexpansion of the company has resulted for
them in incurring a lot of cost that is not being able to meet by the revenues generated. From the
research works of Tench and Topić (2017), the condition revolving around the Brexit condition
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has led to numerous possibilities of rising inflation due to which it is becoming difficult for
Waitrose to analyse the break-even point. This is one of the biggest challenges that they are
facing which has led to numerous outlets being closed. As per Mason (2019), Waitrose had been
losing the competitive edge over its counterparts due to the pricing structure. Waitrose then
decided to match the pricing structure of TESCO. However, when TESCO brought down their
price Waitrose had to follow the trend, which led to the decline of sales by 1 %. Waitrose has
been continuously figuring out the right pricing structure for them in order to sustain in the
expanded market.
From the opinions of Edwards-Jones, et al. (2018), the online market has rose to prominence in
the recent years due to which Waitrose has seen a growth of 4.3%. On the contrary, according to
the research, online shopping is more expensive to the brand than selling their products offline.
The reason being, the cost incurred during packaging and delivery. This has increased the cost of
the company. Waitrose also do not have the online portal in many countries due to which it loses
the competitive edge. Waitrose are still in the process of self-analysis that has made the company
quite unstable. On the contrary, its competitors have a steady business structure and gaining a
competitive edge over Waitrose.
According to Mackey and Gass (2015), the Waitrose Retail Company is having a huge problem
in the export and import of raw materials due to the new government tariff law. The tariff rate
has seen an increase in the recent years after the Brexit condition. The exchange rates also vary
from time to time. This acts as a challenge to the company as it is quite a difficult task to
calculate the exchange cost due to the changing exchange rates in the global market. As opined
by Johal et al. (2017), Brexit has also led to many political changes due to which expansion of
the companies in the global market has been quite difficult.
As perLuk (2015), the cultural variations in the global market have been a huge challenge for the
company that they are not being able to tackle easily. The language, preferences and background
of the customers vary from market to market. From the research works of O’Higgins and Zsolnai
(2018), it is seen that Waitrose are unable to tackle the cultural variations due to which they are
incurring a huge loss in the international market.
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From the above research, it can be seen that even though Waitrose is one of the successful
retailers they are facing many challenges in expansion due to their increase in cost, pricing
methods, online portal and increasing competition.
Possibilities where the company can outperform while competing in the international
market
According to Mahajan et al. (2017), the company, Waitrose, has not been doing that well in the
international market as compared to its competitors. However, this does not mean that the
company does not have the potential to grow and outshine its competitors. From the research
works of Anderson (2017), it is analysed that even after incurring loss in the international market
the market in UK has been growing. This has led them to have a good financial stability. The
company has been closing many outlets due to the increase cost and has stopped its business in
some countries but, on the contrary, they have been facing a good inclination in revenue in the
United Kingdom. As stated by O’Higgins and Zsolnai (2018), the company is investing in many
structural changes and plans that might incur loss in the short run but may be fruitful in the long
future. As opined by McDERMOTT and Scrimgeour (2016), the company has been continuously
trying to innovate cost effective measures that can help them enhance their efficiency and give
large discounts to customers in the new market.
Some solutions Waitrose can undertake to outperform the various challenges in the market.
Waitrose are struggling to establish their brand in the international market. Nevertheless, this
does not mean that the company’s brand name is not strong enough to make their products
accepted in the global market. The company must try to analyse their opportunities and threats in
the global market in a more stringent way in order to strategize their operations in a way that
counters the problem. The company of Waitrose, according to Walliman (2017), has the financial
backup to overcome the structural hindrances that might prevail in the market. The company
must make an efficient and effective use of their finance in order to be accepted more in the
international market. The company can invest more on research and development programmes
that will help them to research the market in order to gain more knowledge about the expertise of
the international market. A proper research and development will have many advantages to the
company and Waitrose can make applicable strategies. As opined by Mahajan et al. (2017), the
cultural differences can also be mitigated by diversifying the employment base. It will be very
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beneficial for the company if they employ individuals of the local culture, as these employees
can understand the customers more. One of the weaknesses of Waitrose in the global market is
the lack of promotion in the local market. According to Parkinson (2018), if Waitrose invests in
promotion in the local market, the company can see a 20% growth of sales by the next year.
Hence, Waitrose must invest more on the advertisements with the help of media and journals can
help them enhance their sales. Since, Waitrose is known for their quality service hence, they can
be strongly benefited if the company follows a stringent strategy of growth and expansion.
From the above analysis, it can be concluded that Waitrose is a financially strong company that
has the potential to invest for the future. According to Johal, et al. (2017), the potential of
Waitrose must not be ignored as they have the financial strength and experience to outperform its
competitors.
Research methodology
Introduction
For understanding the research, it is required to develop the proper framework that would help
the research in developing according to the stages. The research methodology section would help
in identifying the stages included framework that is included in it. The main insistence of the
research philosophy is to highlight specific factors of the research work. The thoughts and ideas
of the researcher will be explained easily based on correct and exact lucidities.
Research philosophy
The philosophy of research helps in the development of the obtaining the details of the research
topic in the appropriate manner. It can be stated that for this section, some predefined concepts of
philosophy helps. Philosophies like positivism and Interpretivism are mostly used for research
projects (Kumar, 2019). For this specific research, positivism would be selected as the research
philosophy. The reason behind choosing this concept is the implementation of logic. It has been
seen that the development of the detailed observation of the research topic and justifying it with
coherent logic can be considered as the result of implementing positivism. Moreover, the
manipulation of data by the researcher can be restricted with the positivism.
Based on this research topic, a proper affiliation of the philosophy can be done. The positivism
philosophy will enlighten the topic chosen in an effective manner. In case of positivism, to
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define the theory with a structured methodology, the development of hypothesis will be
analyzed. The positivism concept will deal with analysis of the statistics and deal with important
areas. The researcher did not choose Interpretivism concept as this would provide results of
qualitative nature because it will have its own set of meanings and outlook. The researcher will
make sure to prevent data manipulation to avoid data errors (Beins, 2017).
Research Approach
Research approach is of two kinds- Deductive and Inductive. Research approach is commenced
to develop the prerequisite format for the study in a constructive way. This is done to prevent the
reputation of the project from being delayed. In the research, a speculative approach like the
deductive approach will be taken for the analysis of the chosen topic. Initially, the deductive
approach will be useful for the collection of the data in order to the prevailing literature can be
inferred easily without any felony. Hence, the approach will be in such a way that will aid the
investigator to commence the study in an appropriate way without any obstacle. This will help in
enhancing the quality of the research study. The deductive approach followed here will help to
understand the consumer decision-making process and help the company to take efficient
decisions (Silverman, 2018).
A specific format, which is required to be followed by the researcher so that the data collection
and the other stages would be developed accordingly, is referred to as research approach. The
deductive and the inductive approach are to be used mostly for all the researches. The researches
that contribute to develop any new theory or path of research need to follow the inductive
approach and the rest would follow the deductive approach (Walliman, 2017). Here, the
researcher would follow the deductive method as no new path or new theory would be used here.
Rather the predefined theory and data has been used for developing the research.
Research design
The framework, which is used for the research project, can be defined according to the design
framework and the efficiency of the data collection would be depended upon the proper research
designs used in the project. In most of the researches, the use of explanatory and descriptive
research projects would be used. The exploratory designs helps to investigate the different
though process used by the researcher, whereas the explanatory design helps to define the cause
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and effects of the events (Mackey and Gass, 2015). The descriptive design helps in describing
the details of the research. For this present research, the descriptive research has been selected. It
has been stated that the descriptive research would help in explaining the steps that are included
to conduct the research. On the other hand, the details regarding the research would also help to
conduct the research.
Research method
Research method is one of the most important characteristics of a research, which helps in
improved findings, and analysis of the project. The quantitative method of data analysis will be
followed in order to progress with the research because it includes in collecting and converting
data for obtaining numerical results. The researcher has chosen the quantitative method. This
defines a relation of casual nature (Quinlan, et al., 2019). The researcher has taken the method of
deductive approach, which is focussing on the specific conclusions. The deductive approach is a
superior approach as this is based on realistic thoughts rather than imaginary conclusions. The
researcher did not choose qualitative research, as this concept is interrelated with an
Interpretivism phenomenon. The primary data used for this research topic will comprise of a
sample size of 25 customers and 2 managers who will be collected by random sampling. This
method will analyze the mentality of the consumers present in the market and their present likes
and preferences for the product in the market.
Data sources
For developing the research, the data and information to be used should be relevant. However,
these data and information are to be collected from the primary and the secondary sources. The
primary data is to be collected through the personal questionnaire and interactions and the
secondary data is to be collected from the books, journals, published and written sources (Flick,
2015). In fact, in this research, both the primary and the secondary sources of data have been
used.
Method of data collection
The method of data collection is of 2 types: Primary and Secondary.For collecting the data, the
data is to be collected through the particular method, so that the authenticity and the validity of
the data can be maintained. In order to conduct this particular method, it is required that mixed
method, that is, the qualitative and the quantitative method should be used by the researcher. The
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qualitative data is to be collected from the interview and the quantitative data is to be collected
from the interview (Ghauri and Chidlow, 2017). The researcher uses the idea of effective pricing
strategy, as this will be formulated on Waitrose’s strategy of loyal pricing by attracting
consumers on a large scale. In this respect, the questions that will be framed will be tricky in
nature and this will improvise on the customer’s decision-making process in the long run. For
this reason, some questions will also be framed based on the options that will be marked on 5 =
strongly Agree to 1 = strongly Disagree whereas many others will be given option to select their
choices. However, the questions prepared by the company will be done through efficient and
effective analysis and will be framed based on the international strategies applied by the
company in the Malaysian market.
Sampling and sample size
Sampling is of two kinds: Probability and Non-Probability. In this research project, the
Probability Sampling method is chosen by the researcher, as this will help the researcher to
analyse the method by selecting a random number of individuals. Besides, this method of
sampling provides the fact that every individual in the population will get a chance thereby
aiding equal probabilities (Chatterjee and Diaconis, 2018). Further, the researcher did not opt for
the non-probability sampling because the researcher has chosen numerical sampling data for the
analysis, which mainly focuses on the personal experiences and expert opinions and thoughts.
Thus, the sample size that the researcher chooses is 25 people of Malaysia and 2 managers of
Waitrose to analyse the approach they will undertake to frame an appropriate strategy of pricing
to attract the customers in Malaysia. The specific numbers of respondents are to be taken for
conducting the research. It can be stated that for conducting the survey, 40 people were
approached and among them, 25 people agreed to participate, whereas, 2 managers are selected
for the interview process.
Data Analysis technique
Data analysis is the route by which the results of the survey can be determined. The process
helps the researcher to draw a conclusion over the research study (Silverman, 2018). There are
chiefly a couple of data analysis procedures namely the quantitative and qualitative approaches.
Out of which the student will take the quantitative data analysis method, as their will only be a
survey for the analysis. In order to proceed with the quantitative data analysis there will be the
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