Strategic Business Analysis and Expansion Plan for Malaysia Hut Restaurant

Question

Task: How can Malaysia Hut Restaurant develop an effective strategic business plan to address current concerns and support future growth and expansion in Rockhampton, Australia?

Answer

Introduction

The Malaysia Hut Restaurant is a small restaurant located in Rockhampton, Queensland Australia. The business specializes in serving Chinese and Malaysia food and has been operational for the past 25years. The business operates two shifts from Tuesday to Friday, lunch shift is 12.00PM to 2.00 PM and Dinner is 5.00 PM and 9.00 PM. On Fridays and Saturdays the business only opens for dinner between 5.00 PM and 10.00 PM and on Sunday Malaysia Hut Restaurant only serves between 5.00PM to 9.00PM.

The Malaysia Hut Restaurant has been in operation over the past 25 years and has invested little towards its expansion and marketing campaign. The businesses have been registering a stable income and operations but there is scope for the business to improve and expand across the state and Australia as a whole. This report shall analyse Malaysia Hut Restaurant’s current situation and propose marketing strategies the business can adopt in future to improve its operations and growth (Clarke, Friese, & Washburn, 2016).

Internal Environment Analysis

A businesses internal environment refers to factors which are governed and can be controlled by the businesses owners to determine performance. Human resource management, resource management, innovations, and product diversity are some internal environmental factors which can be used to perform an internal environment analysis (Ogidefa, 2015). These factors influence a business’s internal environment making it a primary requirement businesses must focus one to manage their operations.

Company background and history

The Malaysia Hut Restaurant is a business in the hospitality and catering industry making it one which would always remain in high demand among consumers. The business has enjoyed stability over the past 25 years in operations but has also been noted to remain stunted and has not grown.

This may be due to the business failing to consider market expansion thus limiting the business to one location and branch. Recently the business hired two new managers opening up the opportunity for the business to focus adopting new marketing and expansion strategies. This will help brand the brands reputation across Queensland and allow the business to gradually expand its operations across Australia (Bertuglia, Lombardo, & Nijkamp, 2012, p. 282).

Internal resources assessment

The main internal resource associated with the businesses is being part of the hospitality and catering industry. The industry being highly demanded by people ensuring continued sustainability. During lunchtime hours the businesses focus on serving lunch to the local business staff, employees, students and visitors who may be in the restaurant's locality.

In the evenings the business focuses on serving dinner to families, friend groups and visitors in the locality. By limiting the number of hours the business remains open, the Malaysia Hut Restaurant is able to utilize its employees to multiply-task which help reduce operational costs and improve on quality delivered to the consumer (Stead, 2014, p. 99). But this also limits the businesses capability to expand its operations and increase sales thus requiring closer investigations to determine a more profitability approach.

Overview of current (or previous) marketing mix strategies (4Ps)

order to improve a business’s market position and success rate, it is vital for the business to evolute the 4P’s in its marketing mix strategies so as to determine the businesses current position and future goals (Minutes, 2015).

Product

The Malaysia Hut Restaurant specializes in serving Chinese and Malaysia dishes and cuisine which are popular food items across the globe. This delivers an advantage to the businesses where customers are likely to build a connection with the restaurant if it serves good food that meets customer satisfactions levels (Kahn, 2014). This has won consumer confidence and loyalty and sees them returning to the business on a regular basis.

Place

Malaysia Hut Restaurant is located at Rockhampton, Queensland Australia which is a suburb with a dense population of middle-income group’s earners. This delivers a constant flow of clients visiting the restaurant from both the local businesses as especially from the local residents who mainly visit the restaurant for dinner with their families and friends. Strategically positioned close to the Rockhampton airport and Rockhampton show grounds, Victoria Park, Southside United sports club, and the Rockhampton rugby sports club helps improve the businesses performance (Kocialski, 2010).

Pricing

The Malaysia Hut Restaurant offers a wide variety of food items each falling under a different price range. Products fall under a wide price range allowing the business to target multiple consumer groups which help increase the number of sales made during the short working hours (Schindler & Schindler, 2011). The restaurant also offers 4 Combo family pack meals which allow a family to order several dishes at the same price thus reducing the expense.

Promotion

The business does not depend on external marketing campaign and has adopted an internal marketing business strategy assignment whereby the business depends on its customers to advertise by word of mouth. This is the long process but also results in securing a steady and reliable flow of customers. It also allows for gradual expansion thus reducing the strain on the business to invest aggressively towards promotional campaigns and marketing (Cummins & Mullin, 2010). Most of the advertising and promotion is done on the businesses signboard and Menu cards which limits offers to customers who visit the restaurant.

External Environment analysis

Political

Australia offers a stable political environment for businesses which has allowed Malaysia Hut Restaurant to adopt a long term expansion approach (Hitt, Ireland, & Hoskisson, 2016, p. 43). This has allowed the business to focus more on delivering quality and meeting customer satisfaction as opposed to adopting an aggressive approach to maximize profits and regain investment capital.

Economic

The Malaysia Hut Restaurant is strategically positioned in a well-established middle-income group suburb which gives the business access to a large number of middle-income earner clients. This stable environment allows the business to focus on developing a stable future growth plan and approach.

Socio-cultural issues (trends)

Australia is made up of a multicultural sociality with people from across the globe evenly distributed in Australia. This delivers a diverse cultural blend who all shares the love for Chinese and Malaysian cuisine. This results in the Malaysia Hut Restaurant tapping into a huge clientele from all social, cultural and religious backgrounds.

Technological

Technology is an aspect which can help a business’s either register huge growth and popularity or tarnish the brand's reputation. Malaysia Hut Restaurant has not been adopted any form of technology to help improve its operations or marketing (Cadle, Paul, & Turner, 2010). This makes it important for the restaurant to consider adopting modern technologies for production, marketing, and communication process so as to remain competitive on the market.

Natural environments

The restaurant is located in Rockhampton, Queensland Australia which offers a moderate and pleasant climate. Located close to the Fitzroy river and just 20km from the Coral Sea ensures the region gets a cool breeze even during the summer months. This encourages customers to venture out and enjoy the natural environment which is an added benefit for the Malaysia Hut Restaurant.

Customer Analysis

Malaysia Hut Restaurant is located in a middle-income group residential suburb which ensures the restaurant taps into a stable customer market. This is very important towards the businesses long term operational stability as it is strategically located in a prime location which offers a stable client who lives in the location permanently (MicroStrategy, 2015).

The restaurant's location also has some prominent attractions besides the local residents such as the sport and rugby clubs, Rockhampton shows grounds and parks which attract visitors to the locality. During the day hours visitors to the Rockhampton show grounds, Victoria Park and local shopping centre and schools will visit the restaurant for lunch and many of the regular lunch clients come from the local businesses and Rockhampton state high school.

Competitor Analysis

In order to perform a detailed competitor’s analysis, it is vital to search for competitors in the Rockhampton locality using Google search and Google maps which would deliver an approximate number of competitors in the regions and a vision of where the competitors are located (Fleisher & Bensoussan, 2015). This would help identify several aspects linked to the number, locations, and specialty of the competitors thus allowing a more detailed situational analysis to be conducted for Malaysia Hut Restaurant

Number of Reputed Restaurants in Rockhampton

Figure 1: Retrieved from Google Maps – 31/Aug/2017

Performing a search on Google maps helps to secure important information related to the number of reputed competitor’s restaurants in the Rockhampton locality. The results of the search show approximately 20 registered restaurants, bars, and grills in the locality. This is quite a high number of competitions but closer analysis helps identify some additional important information related to the competitors which can be used to perform a closer analysis.

Location analysis of competitors

From the aerial survey, it can easily be identified that the 20 identified competitors are all located in South Rockhampton and they are concentrated along the Fitzroy River bank and around Central Park Rockhampton. The closest competitors are located approximately 1.5Km from the Malaysia Hut Restaurant which is located in the far north of Rockhampton.

The aerial survey also reveals that the Malaysia Hut Restaurant is the only restaurant located in the northern part of Rockhampton which gives the business the competitive advantage in the region (Porter, 2009). This can also be viewed as one of the main reasons linked to the business maintaining its success without advertising and marketing due to their not being competitors in the immediate locality. This makes it the monopolizing business in the area but also makes it important to develop business expansion business strategy assignment to expand quickly before competitors identify the stable conditions and begin expanding to the region.

Cuisine specializations

Surveys show that Australians would rather dine at a restaurant which offers traditional Asian cuisines as opposed to western cuisine and dishes. This makes Asian food a popular dish among Australians today thus reducing competitor pressure on the business. Once again Google maps play an important role towards identifying competitors that are offering Asian cuisine in Rockhampton locality (Chee-Beng, 2012).

This helps identify competitors and their products and services thus allowing the Malaysia Hut Restaurant modify and improve its services and meals. According to the data collected from the survey, there are one Malaysians, one Irish, one Punjabi Indian and two Thai Restaurants in the Rockhampton Locality. The rest of the restaurants do not mention their specialty thus allowing for presumptions the restaurants serve western style dishes.

SWOT analysis

To better improve the Malaysia Hut Restaurants situation analysis, it is important to also perform a SWOT analysis which helps identify important factors which can be used to improve the businesses operations (Minutes1, 2015).

Strengths

The Malaysia Hut Restaurant is located in a strategic position in densely populated residential areas which helps reduce competitor pressure and ensures a constant supply of customers from the locality. The restaurant offers meals at an affordable price which also helps attract working professionals and students from the locality during lunch hour.

Weaknesses

The business has failed to adopt modern technology to assist with improving its operations. Cost cutting and advertising& marketing. This has resulted in the business failing to reach out to the masses which is likely to have also affected the businesses operations, growth, and profitability.

Opportunities

Hospitality and catering industry has always been an industry which remains its high demand among people across the globe. Good food is one aspect which brings all people together irrespective of their gender, culture, age or religion. This also makes it an industry which offers huge opportunities if entrepreneurs are willing to invest their time towards expanding the operations and business.

Threats

The main threat facing the Malaysia Hut Restaurant is competitors encroaching on the locality the business are currently situated. Till date, there is no major restaurant established in the region but one comparing the attractions in Rockhampton it’s only a matter of time before competitors begin establishing their restaurants. This makes it important for the Malaysia Hut Restaurant to rapidly expand its operations and identify other prime locations to expand before competitors tap into the businesses current market.

Conclusion

The Malaysia Hut Restaurant has been unable to enjoy market dominance and monopoly due to other businesses focusing on setting up their operations along the Fitzroy River and Central part but they will also gradually consider expanding and will identify public attractions such as the Rockhampton Showgrounds before expanding to the locality. This makes it important for the Managers are Ly and Paul to develop an urgent strategic expansion plan and begin diversifying and expanding their operations so as to maximize turn over and profits and ensure the business develops a stable working environment.

Bibliography

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