然而,“莫里森”并不像其他那些全国性连锁超市那样被我们所熟知, “莫里森”由威廉?莫里森创立于1899年。当时,“莫里森”只在布拉德福德的一个小市场摆摊卖黄油和鸡蛋,但就是这样一个不起眼的小摊位,他能够专注于做一样事情,才能更好地抓住机遇,扩展自己的市场,这也就为威廉·莫里森有限公司在未来20年内市场业务继续繁荣打下了坚实的基础。在1920年代,莫里森在布拉德福德开创了第一家柜台服务型商店。就这样,莫里森一生致力于这个商店的发展,直到1956年,他的儿子肯?莫里森接替他出任公司董事长。
莫里森打算收购家族企业,因为他认为这样更有利可图,他试图发展一个全新的超市行业,单独定价,开通付款专线,虽然只是一些微小的变化,但在布拉德福德,这些都是首次出现的。“莫里森”于1967年上市,它建立了一个框架并保持持续增长的趋势。
The Industry Trends Regarding The Markets Marketing Essay
However, ‘Morrison’s’ has not always been the nationwide supermarket retailer with which we are now familiar. Originally founded in 1899 by William Morrison, ‘Morrison’s’ comprised of a single market stall in Bradford selling butter and eggs. The stall was a successful venture for Morrison who was subsequently able to focus on expansion to other local market stalls, thus marking the beginning of William Morrison Ltd. Over the next two decades the market business continued to prosper and in the 1920s Morrison opened his first counter service shop in Bradford making the transition to a more recognisable fixed abode (Ref). It remained as such throughout William Morrison’s lifetime until his son Ken Morrison succeeded him as company chairman in 1956.
Ken Morrison’s acquisition of the family business saw an upturn in its profits as he sought to direct ‘Morrison’s’ into the newly developing supermarket industry by pricing all goods individually and opening checkout lines – a pioneering action in the Bradford area. These small changes led to the Morrison family opening their first supermarket store in Bradford in 1961.
With an established framework for continual growth, ‘Morrison’s’ went public in 1967 and began to expand out of the Bradford area in 1978 when it took over Lancashire’s ‘Whelan’ stores. This would mark a turning point for ‘Morrison’s’ as it was followed soon after by the erection of a distribution center, warehouse, and factory for fresh produce, thereby laying the framework for UK-wide expansion, a goal achieved in the 1980s when ‘Morrison’s’ became a national supermarket group with over 50 stores in the UK, a feat repeated in the 90s with the 100th ‘Morrison’s’ supermarket opening in Nelson in 1999.
The new millennium saw further store growth with the acquisition of other businesses such as ‘Kepak Buchan’, ‘Rathbone Bakery’, and the ‘Safeway’ supermarket chain – the largest retail group conversion ever undertaken in the United Kingdom – which has resulted in ‘Morrison’s’ current position as the nation’s fourth largest grocery retailer.
At present, Wm Morrison Supermarket PLC is still headquartered in Bradford and currently operates over 475 stores nationwide. The combination of their unique sourcing and processing of fresh produce and a workforce of over 132,000 employees ensures that ‘Morrison’s’ are able to serve in excess of nine million customers every week in the UK (Morrisons, 2012).
竞争与市场份额--Competition and Market Share
With a market share of 11.1% Morrison’s is currently the smallest of the ‘Big Four’ UK supermarket and grocery chains behind Tesco, ASDA, and Sainsbury’s. Tesco are the current market leaders, with a market share of 17.5%, followed by ASDA (Wal-Mart) with a market share of 17.5%, and Sainsbury’s, with a market share of 16.7%. Competitors with smaller market shares also include: Waitrose (4.3%); Iceland (2.1%); Aldi (3.5% of market share); and Lidl (2.5% of the marketshare) (BBC, 2012).
产品和服务--Products and Services
‘Wm Morrison Supermarket PLC’ currently offers a range of branded and private label offers various categories of products, including groceries; fresh and frozen food products; beers, wines, and spirits; health and beauty products; household products; baby products; entertainment products; garden furniture; automotive services and fuel; and pharmacy products. It is also involved in the manufacture and distributor of food products; processing of meat; and property development activities (Bloomberg, 2012). They also provide a range of services, including photo printing, dry cleaning and cafeteria services (Morrisons, 2012).
市场的行业趋势--Industry Trends Regarding the Markets
In their 2012 annual business report, Morrison’s identified several factors which were bringing continual challenges to the UK grocery market including: the state of the economy, uncertainty regarding the Eurozone, high levels of unemployment, and the erosion of disposable income. With the slowing rate of CPI growth offering some indication of economical respite, consumer confidence has nevertheless remained low, shown by reduced basket spend across the entire grocery sector. (Morrisons Annual Report, 2012).
In direct reaction to the current economic climate consumers can be seen to have adapted their buying styles to suit their new needs. Those with more disposable income are not spending in the way they once did, choosing instead to avoid unneeded debts by focusing on consuming products which are deemed good value. This renewed emphasis on value has seen customers avoiding wastage by putting less into their baskets and buying only what they need. It has also been observed that consumers are now more willing to ‘buy out’ of established brands and instead try supermarket own brand products in order to remain within their budgets As a result of this shift, supermarkets’ own brands are gaining share in 63% of categories, up from 46% in 2011, with economic ‘value’ own label ranges seeing the fastest growth at 13%.
Indeed, the most recent grocery share figures from Kantar Worldpanel (8 July 2012) show that the grocery market growth rate has fallen to 2.1% compared to 4.2% in 2011. Grocery price inflation is now 3.8% ? a substantial fall from the 6.2% observed in November 2011.
According to Kantar Worldpanel (2012), while Tesco, ASDA and Sainsbury's have seen increases in their market share from July 2008, Morrison’s have seen a comparable decrease of 0.2% in the same time period.
近期的发展和竞争优势--Recent Developments and Competitive Advantage
However, despite this comparable lack of growth, Morrison’s retain a comfortable grip on their fourth place spot among the supermarket giants, perhaps due to the effort which they invest in their workforce. Indeed, Morrison’s employ more specialist bakers, butchers, and fishmongers than any other UK supermarkets, reflecting a business model focused on skilled recruitment and training. In 2010 more than 131,000 people were employed by Morrison’s, with a multitude of different career opportunities available to them in a variety of areas including manufacturing, logistics, specialist trades, marketing finance, and I.T.
It is clear that Morrison’s prides itself on this committed approach to career advancements through its ‘shop floor to top floor’ ethos. Their aim to attract 1000 young people to join their team in 2013 reflects a passion for creating careers and opportunities for new employees. Incentives such as this won Morrison’s the Employer of the Year Award at the 2011 Grocer Gold Awards.
With four new senior management appointments, ‘Wm Morrison Supermarket PLC’ continue to seek to expand their market share, with plans to open 70 smaller ‘M-Local’ convenience stores across the United Kingdom by the end of 2013. Morrison’s also hopes to differentiate this convenience chain by placing focus upon fresh produce, sourcing, and product quality, with all M-locals keeping 100 lines of fresh fruit and vegetables as well as an emphasis on fresh meat, poultry, fish, and bakery.
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