Business Opportunity Project: Waitrose Vertical Garden Expansion Plan

This business opportunity project analyzes a potential expansion for Waitrose into the vertical garden market. The project addresses the growing concern of air pollution in the UK and proposes the launch of vertical garden products to diversify Waitrose's offerings and reduce institutional risk. It details product specifications, including various types like pocket plans, bloom walls, and green walls, tailored to customer needs. The project also examines market trends, highlighting the increasing focus on environmental sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR), with examples of companies planting trees for every product sold and public awareness campaigns. The project references academic journals and books to support its findings, providing a comprehensive overview of the business opportunity and its relevance to current environmental and market dynamics. The project showcases Waitrose's potential to capitalize on the growing demand for eco-friendly solutions.

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY
PROJECT

Table of Contents
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RESEARCH DIARY
Product Details
Pollution is one of the main problem which is faced by every individual in the world as it
is affecting the health of human being in a negative way. To cope up with that, Waitrose can plan
to expand their product range in the market through diversification of products so that
institutional risk would be reduced to a certain level. They will launch a vertical garden products
in their store which is a technique used to grow a plant on a vertical stand using hydroponics
(What are vertical gardens?. 2019) Main problem which UK is facing is increase in the air
pollution due to industrialisation and usage of personal vehicles as compare to public transport.
All these factors are increasing quantity of methane, CO2 and other dangerous gases in the
environment which makes the breathing process harder and complex. UK government is trying
to cooperate with it by launching various schemes which promotes less usage of vehicles as due
to less space for plants and trees, it wont be possible for government to grow more. Beside this,
they are also motivating companies to increase their CSR activities so that society conditions
would become better (Fuentelsaz and et. al., 2015). Vertical garden is alternative to plants and
trees in the road and potted plants in home.
There are few requirements which needs to be asked by Waitrose to their customer is mentioned
below,
 Almost every type of flower can be put in the vertical garden product, so choices and
preferences of flower would be asked first.
 After this, employee of Waitrose will visit the home or office of the clients and then
check the wrongness of the wall where plant is going to placed. As it will be fill with
sands, plants, water etc so it would be fixed on those wall only which can hold the heavy
weight of it (Milosevic and Martinelli, 2016).
 There are different types of products which are provided in the vertical garden product
range i.e., pocket plan in which plant will be placed in the pocket made with the cloths.
Main aim of using the cloths is to make the flow of water smoothly. Other product is
Bloom wall in which plant is fixed on the wall to make the environment of room prettier
and attracted. Green wall is another type of product in which plants are placed on the
whole wall. So it can be said that Waitrose has different range of products which would
be helpful for them to attract various types of customers.
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 At last, whole project will be set according to the customers needs and that's the USP of
the product is (Sadgrove, 2016).
Trends in the market
 Most of the companies are trying to grow more trees and plants in the society so that
environment will get better. There are various companies like Tentree, WeWood, etnies
etc which has a rule that they will plant a tree for every product they sell in the market.
(10 Companies That Plant A Tree For Every Product You Buy, 2019)
Whole world is concerned about the global warming effects because every individual plays their
part in it. So to overcome it, everyone should plant a tree as it decrease the emission of CO2
from earth. For instance, recently thousands of kids have conducted the rally regarding the global
warming issue in UK (UK pupils to join global strike over climate change crisis, 2019). So it can
be said that now people are taking the above mentioned problem seriously.
INFOGRAPHIC
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Fuentelsaz and et. al., 2015. How different formal institutions affect opportunity and necessity
entrepreneurship. BRQ Business Research Quarterly. 18(4). pp.246-258.
Milosevic, D. Z. and Martinelli, R. J., 2016. Project management toolbox: tools and techniques
for the practicing project manager. John Wiley & Sons.
Sadgrove, K., 2016. The complete guide to business risk management. Routledge.
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