Case 4: Kingsford Charcoal Essay

It is my understanding that Westlake Lanes is considering the following three options for its

Sparkle Company is a Nigerian diamond mining company. Sparkle is a joint venture, 50 percent owned by Shine and 50 percent owned by Brighten. Both Shine and Brighten are U.S.-based companies with their functional currency being the American dollar. Sparkle Companies functional currency is that of Nigeria, being the Naira. During 2009, Sparkle had several transactions with its joint venture owners and outside parties. The details of Sparkle’s transactions are three loans, three expenditures, and one revenue stream. The loans the company took out were $1 million from Brighten, $1 million from Shine, and 300 million Naira from a local Nigerian bank. The expenditures

ASC 320-10-35-33F: “Changes in the quality of the credit enhancement should be considered when estimating whether a credit loss exists and the period over which the debt security is expected to recover.”

This case is talking about an executive retreat. It was introduced by John Matthews who was a executive had been selected to attend the two-and-a-half-week retreat. The retreat was more like a competition about academic and athletic. The team members should not only get know each other and cooperate with teammates but also need to compete with others. The whole participants were broken into five groups and their aim was to win the competition. There are several sessions about academic and athletic that the participants should complete. After the introduction part the case showed the experience of John. Before the group meeting John was wondering and worried about this retreat. When he was taking the first group meeting, he tried to learn

Grilling is engraved in American culture as well as a highly seasonal activity. Kingsford Charcoal is in the business of selling charcoal for grills. Even though Kingsford increased its market share in 2000, their forecast indicates they will not reach the initial revenue mark. With the charcoal market’s growth slowing, and the gas grill market gaining market share, Kingsford needs to revise its strategy, and their marketing mix to meet original expectations for itself and Clorox. The following report will identity the issues Kingsford faces in the market place and recommend actions to take to resolve these problems. First we will examine

On a snowy January evening, the Midwestern Medical Group (MMG) management team held a retirement party for Judith Olsen, MMG president. During the evening, Olsen reflected back on the years she had worked for MMG with mixed feelings about her experience. Over the course of their eight-year integration

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.

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.

Shakespeare Inc., a private publishing company issued its F/S on March 20, 2012. There were several accruals and events that the management of Shakespeare is considering to determine if they should be recognized or disclosed in Dec 31, 2011 F/S. In my opinion, the important things to focus on subsequent events are the period they effect and if their influence is material or not, so that in conclusion, the F/S are fairly presented.

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.

Over the last few decades, American culture has been forever changed by the huge amount of advertisement the people are subjected to. Advertising has become such an integral part of society, many people will choose whether or not they want to buy a product based only on their familiarity with it rather than the product’s price or effectiveness. Do to that fact, companies must provide the very best and most convincing advertisements as possible. Those companies have, in fact, done

Pricing: It would appear that Kingsford has, from CY99 – CY00 experienced the lowest percentage increase in price on a weighted average basis (see exhibit 4). Coupled with the concerns from Smith Boyle that “retailers inevitably resist” price increases, a 3% price increase per year seems a reasonable standard that the team should avoid exceeding.

Young Professional magazine was developed for a target audience of recent college graduates who are in their first 10 years in a business/professional career. In its two years of publication the magazine has been fairly successful. Now the publisher is interested in expanding the magazine’s advertising base. Potential advertisers continually ask about the demographics and interests of subscribers to Young Professional. To collect this information the magazine has commissioned a survey to develop a profile of its subscribers. The survey results will be used to help the magazine choose articles of interest and provide advertisers with a profile of subscribers. As a new employee of the magazine, you have been

Jules Kroll is planning to enter into the ratings industry. To determine whether it is a good idea and a good time for him to enter into the new business, we project the 5-year NPV for KBRA and apply SWOT analysis to KBRA. The 5-year projected NPV is $341.1 million, a positive number. It is a good time and a good idea for KBRA to enter the business. However, through our SWOT analysis, it would be difficult for KBRA to become competitive in a short time. Thus we suggest it add a credit rating division into the company to make attempts to it but not start up a

Handle the situation and do not let it get any more out of control than it currently is. This sounds the brewing of a perfect storm for customer service and relations. It is ultimately reflecting poorly upon the company. The V.P. should make the distributors and retailers know that this behavior is unacceptable and Handy Andy does not endorse this kind of business in relation to its valued customers.