SWEETBAY SUPERMARKETS

Marketing plan outline for Sweetbay supermarkets



Marketing Plan Outline for Sweetbay Supermarkets

Company Summary

Sweetbay Supermarket is a chain of American supermarkets located entirely in Florida. The first Sweetbay Supermarket to open was in Seminole, Florida, in November 2004. The company is headquartered in Tampa, Florida, and is a part of the Belgian Delhaize Group. Supermarket News ranked Delhaize America No. 10 in the 2007 "Top 75 North American Food Retailers" based on 2006 fiscal year estimated sales of $17.3 billion. Supermarket News ranked Delhaize America No. 9 in the 2009 "Top 75 North American Food Retailers" based on 2008 fiscal year estimated sales of $19.2 billion (Rejer, 2007).

Fast Facts

Number of stores: Over 106

Number of associates: Over 8,500

Service area: West Central Florida - north to Gainesville, south to Naples, east to Lakeland Affiliation: Sweetbay is owned by Belgium-based Delhaize Group. One of the world's largest food retailers, Delhaize Group owns and operates more than 2,500 stores globally, including U.S. supermarkets Food Lion, Hannaford, Bloom, Bottom Dollar and Harvey's. Distribution: Sweetbay operates a modern distribution center in Plant City, Florida.

Brief description of products, goals, sales figures and strategic goals Products

Products

Meat

Seafood

Bakery

Home Needs

Deli

General Grocery

Beverages

Dairy

Health & Beauty

Frozen

Meal Solutions

Baby

Pet

Goal

The goal is to create value for their customers to win their loyalty for life.

Strategy

Generic strategies are characterized by the response of an individual retail industry structure. For retail giants such as Sweetbay, in order to obtain a competitive advantage that can be sustained and must follow either one of the three generic strategies, developed by Porter. The strategy focuses on the ability of Sweetbay to control the cost of its operations as well as the price it has to pay for its products competitively and hence it would be in a position to be able to produce high margins of profits and, therefore, have a significant competitive advantage. The final strategy approach may be a differentiation or cost leadership strategy deals on a centered narrow market. To execute cost leadership strategy that Sweetbay focuses on in order to create effectiveness internally that will help them to resist pressures externally (Lowe, 2009).

Sales Figure

While much focus has been on the recovery stories and bid speculation at Sainsbury's and Morrison, Sweetbay continues to grow ahead of the market. Forecasts suggest that Sweetbay Extra will account for 110% of net space addition to the United States: Sweetbay currently has 147 Extras (Sweetbay's hypermarket format), representing 37% of U.S. space. With an average size of 70,000 square feet (versus 31,000 square feet for a superstore), the Extra format creates space for a credible range in non-food categories. Forecast suggests that Extra will account for 110% of net space additions in the United States over the next five years. The majority of new hypermarkets planned for this year (19 out of 28) will result from the extension and conversion of superstores (Palmer, 2005).

Finally, customer satisfaction with range, convenience and pricing has improved across categories. We expect the continued roll out of the Extra format, combined with the successful execution of the ...