Strategic Management at Kepak Group
Write a 9 pages paper on strategic management at kepak group. Kepak Group is a dynamic and young business that has become a leading company for food processing in Europe. Their success has been informed by their belief in pursuing a partnership approach through the development of customer relationships.
The company is dedicated to consumer focus, brand management, innovation, as well as an unwavering commitment to ensuring food safety. Because of volatile market requirements, Kepak Group continues to provide its consumers with quality products at prices that are competitive. Their operations are divided into three business units that comprise of Agra Trading, Kepak Convenience Foods, and Kepak Meat Division. Each of these division plays a crucial role in the expansion and growth of Kepak Group. The group processes more than 25,000 tons of consumer foods, 1.5 million lambs, and 30,000 cattle every year and has more than €750 million in turnover, employing in excess of 2,000 people. They have nine facilities for manufacturing across Ireland, as well as the UK, with sales presence in major countries in the EU and globally and a South American operations office. Kepak’s Business Environment PEST Analysis Political factors: With regards to the WTO, the lift from a successful DOHA Round deal would have to be balanced, as well as take Ireland’s agricultural interests into account. Ireland’s Department of Agriculture continues to show strong reservations concerning current agricultural proposals in agricultural, particularly its potential effects on the Irish beef industry (Garavan, 2011: p43).
It is estimated that Irish cattle prices could drop by 9% with an output value of Irish beef dropping by €120m. A tariff reduction of 23%, furthermore, under the sensitive designation of products would see beef imports increasing in the EU by 30%. Alternatively, if beef is not designated as a sensitive product, its negative impact on agriculture in Ireland could be higher. These circumstances, which would lead to a 70% tariff cut, would result in a drop in price for Irish beef, by more than 28% before the year 2017 and an annual beef output fall of €380m every year. Economic factors: recent years have seen fluctuations in commodity prices, especially for beef and cereals. The medium-term products concerning agricultural commodities, despite the economic crisis, are promising (Garavan, 2011: p45). Changing dietary patterns, improved living .standards, and rising population levels in Asian markets have contributed to increased demand for food. There is also a threat from outside lower-cost producers. Given low costs of production and scale of operation, beef production from South America poses a threat to the Irish beef producers if they are given unrestricted access to the EU market. .Social factors: Concerning demographics, specialist production of beef is dominant and accounts for about 68,000 farms. 60% of production in specialist beef farms in 2010 occurred in the Western, Midland, and Border regions. (Jutzi, 2011: p54) The scattered nature of these holdings leads to poorer use of modern methods of management and extra costs with little holding consolidation taking place in the recent past. Specialist beef producers are also at a higher than average age with less than 30% being below 6%.
