Retail Zoo Group - Business Developed by Entrepreneur Janine Suzzane Allis - Case Study Example

Topic: Entrepreneurship (Janine Suzzane Allis) Name: Course: Instructor’s Name: Date: Introduction Janine Suzanne Allis was born in the year 1965 in Melbourne Australia. After leaving school, she started working at early age of seventeen, in thirty different jobs. Allis worked at McCann-Erickson as a marketing assistant and later on went to modelling as well as working as an assistant gym manager. This also saw her work as a nanny in France, promotion executive in Portugal in addition to working as camp councillor in the United States of America. Allis is also known for working as a Stewardess on David Bowie’s cruiser, an author, a publisher just to mention a few. Following her time spent cruising with the affluent and famed people; Janine together with her husband came up with the iconic Australian juice brand Boost. It is on no account that it is easy to start a business and Allis knew that. It was during her trip to the United States in 1999 that Janine observed the juices in addition to smoothie grouping grow progressively. After she returned to Australia, Janine analysed and evaluated the home retail industry and she came to the realization that there was a distinctive deficiency of healthy fast food options (Boost, 2016). Subsequent to wide-ranging study, she started developing a business model that was unique and quite different from the rest of the business models known globally. Her idea was to carry on the retail industry differently, offering quality services to her customers, and that is how she came up with Boost in 2000 (Cavusgil, Knight, Riesenberger, Rammal, & Rose, 2014). Janine faced numerous challenges in forming Retail Zoo ranging from rapid growth, developing and analyzing business course, in addition to responding to unnecessary disparagement of her products. Retail Zoo embraced franchising and all its brands make use of a group effort of combined support that ensures that all a retail business requires to be successful is provided. Socio-Cultural Background Janine understood the hectic urban life in Melbourne and the first hand life demands. Also being a mother of four kids and a believer of healthy eating and living, she and her husband Jeff developed the Boost business model. Hence, Boost Juice was established in 2000 as a healthy alternative. At that point, in time, obesity was on the rise in Australia as well as in other parts of the world. Most of the fast food consumers were seeking a healthy alternative since there was none in the market. Janine Allis recognised this need given that she also struggled in finding anything healthy to eat and drink for her family. Hence, she developed her Boost business model and raised two hundred and fifty Australian dollars through friends to invest in it. The company developed the first juice bars that offered a healthy alternative and the brand was viewed as cool by most of its young customers. The company offered a variety of products such as freshly extracted juices, smoothies and crushes that were developed with the help of nutritionist. These products are at least ninety eight percent fat free and complimentary of any synthetic zest or colour as well as preservatives. Janine worked with an Australian manufacturer to come up with a range of exquisite products such as low fat frozen yoghurts that is used in the production of the smoothies. These yoghurts contained live cultures that added to the dietetic benefits. Ten years later, Boost became tantamount with the word Smoothies in Australia. Janine’s enthusiasm to start up her own business very high and this led to her being hands-on from the outset of the business, development of structures, company plans and ethics. Janine not only did she work on the strategy but also she opened the initial shop in Adelaide. She did everything from blending of juices and smoothies to serving her customers as well as cleaning the floors. The decision of Janine to start her initial store in Adelaide was a sensible one since it was a small market and there was a lesser amount of financial risk involved (Buchan, 2012). Businesses Developed and the Competitive Advantage The biggest challenge for a company’s approach is to unearth a method of realizing a competitive advantage over its competitors’ products. As defined by Cavusgil et al., (2014) competitive advantage is a benefit over a competitor achieved by presenting consumers with bigger significance in terms of products or lower pricing. Michael Porter provides business strategies that can be used by companies in attaining competitive advantage. These strategies point the level of business performance as well as how it can differentiate its products. Janine and her husband Jeff were in search of new ways of expanding their business in Australia and globally. Their business strategy was to make use of the strong foundation that had been established by Boost juice building on their Retail Zoo Company brand (Zoo, 2016). This strategy would enable them in coming up with new and innovative products in order to capitalize on their expansion potential. The company embraced franchising and in March 2007, diversified to Salsas Fresh Mex Grill, which was the first franchise, and in the same year, Retail Zoo purchased more stores and now they have more than fifty stores in Australia. Retail Zoo further acquired CIBO Espresso, an Italian themed espresso bar brewing coffee Italian espresso bar and was based in Adelaide at a cost of $10.6 million. The CIBO brand shares the uncomplicated delight of the Italian way of life which includes a superb coffee and good food all in chic bar set up. There are twenty-one stores in Adelaide and three in Brisbane. Under the management of Retail Zoo, expansion is in the pipeline. The Riverside Company, which is a private equity group, acquired a seventy percent stake in Retail Zoo in 2010 paying more than seventy million dollars. In totality, Boost has over hundred numbers of stores in eleven states; Salsa’s has around fifty stores and the recent acquisition Hatch has a huge potential of growth in the Australian market. Retail Zoo boast of employing more than seven thousand employees working across its four brands. Janine serves as a director and the group has over four hundred stores globally and has an estimated turnover of around two billion dollars since its inception (Boost, 2016). Retail Zoo group is founded on strong marketing strategies and has seen it grow its revenue to an estimated $360.7 million. These strategies have also positioned Boost as a global brand having found its niche and the brand continues to capture more customers around the world. Janine is a strong willed woman and her obstinate dedication and persistence in addition to her tough internal locus of control have added to the success of Retail Zoo. Proceeding to the establishment Boost Juice, Janine had not done any course pertaining business nor did she run a company. Despite this, she was confident of her abilities and her business concept and was ready and willing to invest her family’s outlook in her business idea. On the other hand, Janine also recognized her need to shift the risk of operating a business to counterparts and this saw her selling a seventy percent stake to Riverside Company, which is a US private equity company for seventy million dollars. Based on these characteristics, Janine Suzzane Allis should be considered a thriving Australian industrialist. Future Progression Janine leadership style is known to be instinctive, affectionate, benevolent and very demanding. This has led to a high performance corporate culture in her company, hence, realizing tremendous results. These traits have seen Janine presented with business awards such as Exporter of the year, Telstra Business Women of the Year, Amex Retailer of the year, as well as being named among the people who have changed how Australia carry out business in the preceding thirty five years just to name a few. It is obvious that Janine’s zeal continues to flow throughout the Retail Zoo brand and her enthusiasm at intensifying into new regions is still the same as the time she set up her first store in Adelaide in 2000. Boost continues its growth under the management of Scott Meneilly who is the Chief Executive Officer at an impressive rate (Zoo, 2016). It is said that boost is opening a store somewhere in the world every one and half weeks. Boost Juice has seen its growth expand to over one hundred and eighty stores in Australia, fifty stores in Singapore, Britain and South Africa. In 2014, it was rumoured has it that Janine together with her husband were in talks with Asia Pacific group Affinity equity for the sale of either Boost Juice or Retail Zoo and the deal would cost two hundred million dollars. It was reported in the smart company website that Retail Zoo, Boost Juice’s parent company, was in private sale dialogue with the private equity company. At that time, it was indistinct as to whether Boost Juice otherwise Retail Zoo could be put up for trade to Affinity Equity. Conclusion Through her zeal and desire to build her empire, Janine Allis has become one of the astounding entrepreneurs in Australia. As shown in retail zoo website, the method and technique Janine took in establishing her own business reflects the true definition of an entrepreneurship. Proceeding to the development of her products, she critically analysed and evaluated the retail market in order to identify her niche, which was providing a healthy alternative option to the unhealthy alternatives being offered in the market at that point in time. Subsequent to wide-ranging study, she started developing a business model that was unique and quite different from the rest of the business models known globally. Her idea was to carry on the retail industry differently, offering quality services to her customers, and that is how she came up with Boost in 2000 producing healthy options for the Australian market. Janine idea and business model resulted in the formation of Retail Zoo which has seen tremendous growth attaining four brands namely Boost Juice, Salsas, Cibo coffee and Hatch. References Boost Australia. (2016). Boostjuice.com.au. Retrieved 28 August 2016, from http://www.boostjuice.com.au/about Buchan, J. (2012). Franchisees as Consumers: Benchmarks, Perspectives and Consequences. New York, NY: Springer. Cavusgil, S., Knight, G., Riesenberger, J., Rammal, H., & Rose, E. (2014). International Business. Australia: Pearson. Zoo, R. (2016). Our Team | Retail Zoo. Retailzoo.com.au. Retrieved 28 August 2016, from http://www.retailzoo.com.au/our-team/ Read More