The Strategic and Operational Aspects of Spice Village Restaurant - Case Study Example

SPICE VILLAGE RESTAURANT Executive Summary The report will primarily highlight the strategic and operational aspects of Spice Village. During the course, the study will shed light on the customer base of the restaurant, market share and also the competitors. The coverage area of each of the branch will also be discussed. The products and services offered by the company will be also emphasized. The second part of the report will illuminate the manufacturing process, service delivery and the infrastructure to manage the delivery System. In addition, the problems of the case will be addressed and recommendations will be also provided. Finally the report will conclude highlighting the important findings of the study. Table of Contents Introduction 4 Customers 5 Markets Supplied 5 Market-Order Winners and Order Qualifiers 6 PART II 8 Manufacturing Process and Service Delivery 9 Infrastructure to manage the delivery System 9 Conclusion 10 Bibliography 11 Introduction Spice Village is a Pakistani restaurant which is located in Upper Tooting Road in London. The restaurant is considered as one of the most authentic Tandoori restaurants of UK. The restaurant was opened in the year 2004 and has its branches in Southall and Tooting (Spicevillageltd, n.d. (a)). Initially, the restaurant was operated from a small shop, but the rising popularity and demand of the customers has allowed the company to expand its branches in 2008. It is known for offering unique dining experiences to the consumers. Some of the noteworthy dishes of Spice Village are Kebabs, Nihari, Chops, Biriyanis, Karahi and few other dishes from fish. Apart from these dishes, the restaurant also sells chicken dishes, vegetable dishes, soft drinks and deserts, and some other special dishes. From the time of its inception, the company has witnessed tremendous successes. Based on high success rate, the company has also carried out expansions to the other parts of London. The particular area where the restaurant is situated comprises many other restaurants. Spice Villages has almost 25 competitors. Nevertheless, Spice Village is the largest among the existing players of the market in which it operates. With stylish and elegant setting and astonishing store ambience, the company has been able to attract many customers. It has a seating capacity of 220, which acts as a competitive advantage to the firm (Spicevillageltd, n.d. (b)). Spice Village has also achieved various other credentials to its name. For example, the restaurant has won Tiffin Cup award and was also declared as ‘the top nosh” restaurant by The Guardian (Khan, n.d.). Such achievements and good market reputation have helped the company gain substantial market share. The next half of the report will shed light on the strategic context of the company. PART I Customers Spice Village sells a wide range of products to the customers. The primary rationale behind adopting a differentiation strategy is to cater to a large customer base. The special dishes include Kebabs, Nihari, Chops, Biriyanis, Karahi and dishes made of fish. In addition, the restaurant also sells chicken dishes, vegetable dishes, soft drinks and deserts, and some other special customized menus. Thus, from the strategy it is clear that the company tries to cater to a diversified group of customer. Nonetheless, as the menu is basically Pakistani, the restaurant mainly targets Pakistani population and other Asians. The company does not prefer catering to the Chinese, Scandinavians and African customers for some specified reasons. For example, the Chinese people are not targeted as the employees, and the owners of the restaurants do not understand the Chinese language. On the other hand, the restaurant owners think that Scandinavians eat extremely slow and can block the places of other potential customers. Finally, regarding the Africans, the restaurant owner perceives that Africans want the food to be served as soon as possible and cheap. The restaurant also does not sell any sort of alcoholic products, which restricts them to cater to large base of customers. Studies reveal that Spice Village looses around 30 % of its customers for not selling alcohols and thus remains a family oriented restaurant. The customers of the restaurant are either Pakistani or from Asia. The case reveals that around 40% customers are Pakistani, and the rest are from Asia and the subcontinent. Markets Supplied The company at present has two branches, namely, Southall and Tooting Road. The markets that are supplied or catered by the operations of Spice Village (Southall branch) are mainly Southall and its neighbouring places such as Northolt, Hanwell, Greenford Hayes, Heston Yeading, and Hounslow. The Tooting road branch caters to the south London and its adjacent market. A wide range of products and services are supplied to them. In addition, the restaurant also sells chicken dishes, vegetable dishes, soft drinks and deserts, and some other special customized menus. Market-Order Winners and Order Qualifiers Order winners and order qualifiers are crucial to the upmarket of the supply-chain system. It is responsible for creating a link between the marketing and operations. In the process of creating a link between the two factors, it identifies the customer’s voice and also responsible for delivering these attributes. Furthermore it is also important to note that order qualifiers and order winners are dynamic in nature (Tan and Mathews, 2009, p.56). Hence, any changes in the technical infrastructure and changes in the market place will also change market winners and market qualifiers (Rangaraj, Raghuram, and Srinivasan, 2009, p.68). A successful and important way of examining the success possibilities of a firm in the market place is to underpin the order winners. An order winner is, basically, the criteria or standards that are used by customers in differentiating the services and products from one company to the other. In this context of the project, the order winners for Spice Village are as follows: Quality of the food. Store Ambience. Wide range of menus. Large seating capacity. Figure 1 (Source: Unescap, n.d.) On the other hand, market qualifiers are the factors or resources which a company must possess at least at a minimum level in order to compete in the market place (Farahani, Rezapour, and Kardar, 2011, p.63). In order to cite an example, for a soft drink company, bottlers are obligatory and can be termed as the strategic inevitability. Hence, market qualifiers are those factors without which business operations becomes impossible (Christian, 2003, p. 2). Now in this context, the market qualifiers that have been identified from the case are presented below: Location: the restaurant is located at a good place and thus gives a chance to cater to a large number of customers. Atmosphere: the restaurants are very comfortable and cosy. According to the manager, the stores are spacious, well designed and intelligently lighted. Delivery speed of the food: the delivery of the food is extremely quick. It only takes 5-15 minutes. Price: the dishes are intelligently priced and remain affordable for the customers. In general, order qualifiers and order winners are imperative in gaining competitive advantage. The achievement of an organization is highly dependent on the factors pertaining to order winner. It is also responsible for driving the customers to buy the new goods and services of a company. Although order qualifiers are not as important as order winners, they play a major role in drawing the attention of customers towards the products and services of the company. Hence, Spice Village must have order qualifiers and order winners to survive in the market place. PART II The management structure of the company comprises owners, floor managers and kitchen managers. Having supervisors at every operation level allows the company to offer superior product and services to the customers. In the context of the project, to support and satisfy the needs of the market, the company mainly relies on the store ambience, product quality and also the service quality. Furthermore, the company also makes 3 special dishes that no other players make. Hence, it gives the company a competitive advantage. Also, another way to support the market is through customized dishes. Some of other important factors include: The company offers customized dishes to the customers. The company keep up the quality of food, and the service offerings are at a high level. Since it mainly targets Pakistani population, it does not consider selling alcoholic items. The primary rationale behind not selling any alcoholic product is that the company feels that by selling alcoholic products they may lose customers. In addition, Pakistani people usually do not prefer alcohol. Furthermore, the company strives to develop an alcohol free environment. To maintain the quality, the internal staffs taste the food before serving it to the customers. Manufacturing Process and Service Delivery In order to deliver the service, the company mainly relies on in-store dining of the customers and order taking through telephone. The services offered by the company are superior. The services start as soon as the customers enter the restaurant and continue till they leave. Services such as cleanliness, restrooms, and payments are all carried out in a flexible manner. The manufacturing process of the company is also very simple. The company purchases raw materials from suppliers, but sometimes it also buys from supermarkets in bulk to avail discounts. Once raw materials are bought, the company waits for the order of the customers, and then the chef makes the foods which are then served to the customer. Infrastructure to manage the delivery System In order to deliver the service properly to the customers, the company has a well developed infrastructure. The orders of the customers are taken via phone, and it also has a well designed website from where the customers can get information related to the products and services. The staffs are also well trained to provide superior quality services to the customers. The problem which is faced by the company is the unavailability of qualified employees. The staff need a huge amount of training, and even after the training some of them leave the organization. Along with this, there are other issues as well. For example, there are situations when customers do not want to pay for their food as they pretend they do not have any money. Similarly, some customers intentionally complain about the food after eating the most and do not pay. For this reason, the company is losing resources as well as time. Hence, in order to rectify the issue, following are the recommendations to the company. Standardising the job specification criteria. Advance payment should be taken in order to avoid situations when the customer does not want to pay. Improving the receivables management of the company. Conclusion The report was about addressing the strategic and operational aspects of Spice Village. Spice Village operates with two branches and mainly caters to the Pakistani and Asian customers. The study revealed that factors such as quality of the food, store ambience, price and location among others act as market order qualifiers and winners for Spice Village. From the points discussed above, it can be concluded that order winners and market order qualifiers play an important role in the achievement of success of a company. Bibliography Barringer, A., 2002. Grassroots Marketing for the Restaurant Industry. Lincoln: iUniverse. Bozarth, C. C., and Handfield, R. B., 2006. Introduction to Operations and Supply Chain Management. New Jersey: Pearson Education. Christian, R., 2003. Key Success Factors — A Cornerstone of Strategy. [online] Available at: [Accessed 01 November 2012]. Farahani, R., Rezapour, S., and Kardar, L., 2011. Logistics Operations and Management: Concepts and Models. London: Elsevier. Khan, S., n.d. Spice Village is the best curry house in Tooting. [online] Available at: [Accessed 01 November 2012]. Rangaraj, N., Raghuram, G., and Srinivasan, M. M., 2009. Supply Chain Management for Competitive Advantage. New York: McGraw-Hill Education. Spicevillageltd, n. d. (a). Contact. [online] Available at: [Accessed 01 November 2012]. Spicevillageltd, n.d. (b). Welcome. [online] Available at: [Accessed 01 November 2012]. Tan, K. H., and Mathews, R., 2009. Operations Strategy in Action: A Guide to the Theory and Practice of Implementation. Massachusetts: Edward Elgar Publishing. Unescap, No Date. Strategic Practices in Business. [pdf] Available at: [Accessed 01 November 2012]. Read More