Gardner Distributing Company purchases, sells, and distributes Iams premium pet food products (68 percent of sales), pet supplies (14 percent of sales), and lawn and garden supplies (18 percent of sales). The management team has developed a purpose, mission, and objectives; but the strategies of the firm are not clear. Defining the firm 's strategies will require an understanding of the business and the two industries in which the firm operates. It will also require a synthesis of the manager 's dialogue on the strategic options of the business. To find out how a strong strategic plan for this company will look like let’s do the SWOT analysis and illustrate all the sides of the business.
Strengths
Gardner Distributing Company is one of the largest distributers in both of its markets: premium pet food and lawn and garden supplies. The company has a well-organized management structure, which helps to control all the steps of distribution. Management department successfully combines distributing Iams’s products with other lawn and garden supplies. Many other Iams’s distributors aren’t that good in doing that.
Gardner has developed a great customer relationship service. It seems to do pretty good retaining its current accounts and acquiring new ones. Moreover, Gardner’s managers divided its customer into 4 categories by annual contribution to gross profit. This allows Gardner to deal with each group separately and assign different number of sales contacts. They are also becoming more of a consulting firm to its customers, which creates long-term relationships. It helps Gardner promoting their products and building customer base.
Gardner is also doing quite solid financially. During the last four years it has increased its sales by 3 million and also increased its profits by almost half a million.
Weaknesses
Despite that the company has some significant strength; its weak points are taking away the potential