Competitive Status and Performance Study of the UK Apparel Retailer Industry - Example

The paper "Competitive Status and Performance Study of the UK Apparel Retailer Industry" is a great example of a finance and accounting capstone project. The UK apparel industry is one of the important industries of the economy with the existence of a large number of big and medium-sized domestic and international market players. As a result of operating for a very long time, though the market has been saturated, the intensity of competition is still very high among the retaining companies.

The paper will analyse the present status of this industry and the scope for contemporary brands to establish and expand business in this competitive market segment. Therefore, the degree of competitiveness of the UK apparel retailing industry will be evaluated by examining the financial and non-financial performances of three promising apparel companies such as JD Sports Fashion Plc, Sports Direct International Plc and Next Plc. For the purpose of evaluation, strategic management techniques of PEST, Porter’s Five Force model and SWOT analysis will be incorporated in order to assess the nature and capacity of this industry and how the firms operate in such a competitive market segment.

After analysing the external environment, the internal environment will also be examined. This will be done through the comparative analysis of the financial and non-financial performances of the three companies over five years’ time period. Suitable recommendations will also be suggested on the basis of the outcome of the analysis in order to assist the companies to operate more efficiently in the industry segment and evolve over time. The apparel retailer industry of the United Kingdom is one of the strongest industries of the sovereign state.

In this paper, the competitive status and performances of three distinct companies in the UK apparel retailing industry viz. JD Sports Fashion PLC, Sports Direct International PLC and Next PLC will be analyzed. 1.1. Research Background The apparel retailing industry is one of the most powerful industries in the UK, contributing approximately $57.3 billion in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country as of 2013 (Key Notes, 2014a).