Kingsford Charcoal Case

You have recently been hired as the HR manager responsible for two separate Ontario locations belonging to Wilson Brothers Limited. You have been asked by the HR Director at the head office in Brandon, Manitoba, to quickly provide a report on any initial HR issues related to Recruitment and Selection, Compensation and Benefits, Health and Safety, Training and Development and Labour and Employee Relations that are affecting or will affect the Cambridge operation and the new plant in Scarborough. The HR Director has made it very clear that Wilson Brothers would like both the Cambridge location and the new plant in Scarborough to remain union-free and are willing to offer very competitive wages and benefits

Expand Product Line: Kingsford has the option to set the pace for charcoal innovation by expanding product lines to generate additional interest in charcoal grilling. Engineering more environmentally friendly, flavor imparting and scented charcoals such as vanilla or mint flavored charcoal may do this. In response to the trending up of gas grill usage from previous years, Kingsford could consider entering into wood chips production for gas grills. Additionally, to prevent seeing charcoal as a seasonal product, awareness could be drawn to other uses of charcoal, such as an odor remover in the home or a type of soil amendment by gardeners to improve crop growth. Education on these other uses will increase demand for charcoal all year round and not just during the warm months when grilling is prevalent.

On the other hand, the company’s products would be more seen by consumers, which means the demand for their products probably increase.

A second alternative could be to increase their advertising budget because it has been the only brand within the charcoal industry that has been advertising. Their advertising budget is currently very low so with an increase in spending it could definitely generate more attraction and promote Kingsford charcoal as the better alternative.

Currently, it has 2 products marketed under “Kingsford” brand name; Regular – “Blue Bag” and Instant – “Red Bag”. It enjoys steady revenue growth since 1980s, but sales statistics for FY2000 shows that there would be a drop in volume growth, which will have a major impact in its net profit. As a market leader, Kingsford maintains its market share, but the main concern will be the performance of entire charcoal category which declines in terms of shipping and penetration trends (Figure 1). The company has been practicing sales orientation, focusing to sustain market share within charcoal category and has been reducing advertising budget.

I prepared an analysis of several marketing strategies that can be used by executives at A.1. Steak Sauce. This case analysis will provide a summary of A.1.

Although charcoal had trended down since 1997, Kingsford reduced its media spending from over $6 million to $1 million, making the situation even worse. In the other side, the substitute product increased their media spending from $4 million in 1998 to over $10 million in 2000.

As the day-shift supervisor at the ISG Steelton steel plant, you summon the six college students who are working for you this summer, doing whatever you need done (sweeping up, sandblasting the inside of boilers that are down for maintenance, running errands, and so forth). You walk them across the plant to a field where the company stores scrap metal. The area, about the size of a football field, is stacked with organized piles of metal. You explain that everything they see has just been sold. Metal prices, which have been depressed, have finally risen enough that the company can earn a small profit by selling its scrap.

Strategy & Key Success Factors: Birch Paper (BP) company is structured in such a way that it is decentralized, and each division acts as a profit centre. Furthermore, it uses vertical integration with examples such as Timberland division supplying pulp, and the Thompson Division (TD) providing printing and colouring. This strategy, which composes of decentralization along with the design of profit centres indicates a profit maximization strategy, which involves keeping costs low through obtaining multiple bids. This strategy is reliant on several key success factors: goal congruence among all divisions. Although managers from each division have the right to choose

The main threat comes from gas grilling, which has several advantages like convenience and fast setup. Gas grilling has massive media spending, which increases customers’ awareness. Therefore, marketing strategies must focus on “attacking” gas grilling and improve the overall performance of charcoal category.

1. Consider Dunlap’s statement on page 3 of the case: “Stakeholders! Every time I hear the word, I ask how much did they pay for their stake? There is only one constituency I am concerned about and that is the shareholder primacy? Do you agree or disagree with Dunlap’s view of shareholder primacy? Explain

They have focused on building brand recognition and profitability by growing the business gaining assets to grow the company and products for greater customer satisfaction (About GMCR, 2004-2009). GMCR’s strategy to incorporate current large brands, such as Tully’s, Diedrich, and Keurig has helped to expand their customer base and satisfaction as well as the markets for their products (Phillips, 2011). Their focus on increasing their market shares in other companies will facilitate their expansion into new geographical markets and promote the brand. GMCR’s partnership with Keurig creates a larger consumer choice and the addition of agreements to create portion packs for the Keurig with companies such as Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, and Newman’s Own helps set them apart from the competition (Invest in the Markets, 2011).

As marketing manager of the RBG business, Ivan Guillen must propose a solution to repair Pillsbury refrigerated baked goods (RGB)’s business performance. Since the refrigerated-cookie product line consisted of 62% of RBG’s unit sales and over 75% of the company’s profits, Guillen found it appropriate to alter this segment in the market. Proposing this idea to GMCC would require Guillen to consider all the challenges he faces. Guillen will have to discover a strategy to increase household penetration since it has fallen to 24% in the past few years. The lack in market penetration has

Introduction Kohler Company was faced with a very tough decision of whether or not to settle outside of court or go to court to settle with the dissenting shareholders. We will take you through the history of the company and why they recapitalized. Also, we will touch on some of the risks of going to trial to have the courts set a price. We have also broken down the numbers and found many different prices found by using the dividend growth model and the multiples approach. We will also show how different outcomes will affect Kohler’s retained earnings and cash standing. In the end, we believe we have chosen the best possible price to make everyone in the case happy without much sacrifice from either side and without having to go to court.

Indonesian government is embarking in a new economic project that is changing its current fuel consumption (Kerosene) by liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). Due to the low quality of life, Kerosene is widely used as cooking fuel by Indonesians household and commercial sector. It is a major subsidized fuel where its usage is over sixty per cent of the 230 million populations. Therefore, this kind of announcement can be the appropriate spark for BlueGas Company to think how this declaration can be a lucrative investment for the organization in the Indonesian market. BlueGas is a leading global player for LPG with the presence in 80 countries, so it is very obvious that this company’s management promulgates an intensive market study by developing