History and Economy of Grimsby - Essay Example

1. HISTORY AND ECONOMY OF GRIMSBY Grimsby is a seaport town located on the Humber Estuary in England. The townnyy was established by Grim, a Danish fisherman in the 9thcentury AD. The name of the town originated from his name – Grim and By means village. With a population of over 88,564, the seaport town is connected to the nearby areas of Cleethorpes. Located on the river Haven, the town offers a suitable place ships and ports. The adjoining North Sea also provides great fishing opportunities. Grimsby has soon developed into an important business town in terms for tax collection during the 12 century. King John granted the sea town its charter in 1201 and the first city mayor was selected in 1218. During the 15th century, the river Haven had spit up in two parts, as a result of which most of the ships were not able to dock in theHumber. Consequently, the town – Grimsby faced a long period of decline in business till the 18th century. However, during the 19thcentury, the business redeveloped. A number of new ports were built and the other were redeveloped which was essential for the expansion of the business of Grimsby. Import and export activities boomed with the arrival of railways in the year 1848. Being constantly linked to the sea fishing business, the seaport town of Grimsby was once known as the “Food Town” of Europe. It was the busiest and the wealthiest seaport town around the world during the 1950’s, and is still the home to the largest fish market industry in England. However most of the fish that is brought at the port now comes from nearby ports or Iceland. With over 500 seafood processing companies and 100 local companies set up in Grimsby, it has become the largest seafood processing and distribution centre in Europe. The largest sea food production house in the city is theFindus Group, consisting of Youngs Seafoods and Findus. Young’s seafood is the largest employer of Grimsby and adjoining areas, with a total strength of 2500 employees at the headquarters in Grimsby. Young’s seafood outsources its global operations with over 60 species on its menu cards to over 30 countries around the globe. The seaport town of Grimsby is also known for its operational excellence in the production and preparation of frozen seafood and also has the largest of the cold storage facilities across the continent. The port business and activities are executed through the Associated British Ports (ABP), which is the UKs largest ports group. Grimsby andImmingham, along with other ABPs 19 other ports, form the largest network capable of handling every feasible kind of cargo. Together, the Port of Grimsby and Immingham are the largest in terms of tonnage capacity. The deep waters of the Humber offers the shipping companies direct access to Europe Mainland, thus playing a significant role in the shaping the economy of the region. 2. YOUNG’S REPUTATION With a turnover of more than £300m, Young’s Seafood has become the leading seafood manufacturers in the world. The company has always maintained its high quality standards, as a result of which has gained the trust and confidence of the industry and its customers over the period of time. As the major employer in the region, the company has maintained its reputation as the best employer. The management seeks to work in harmony with its employees and society. Effective communication strategies, transparent management and working policies have brought about a huge commercial change in the workforce of the company. Employees are offered fair wages with good career promotion graphs, as a result of which the business has been evolving and offering profits every financial year. As the largest food manufacturer in Europe, the company enjoys the repute of employing best quality standards. Legally sourced products and ingredients, appropriate production techniques, latest technology, hygiene and best hand craft cooking skills have let the company achieve its reputation. As a member of the community and the leading employer in the region, Young’s seafood has been working with the societies in a constructive manner and has become a significant contributor to the wellness of the social life. Engaged in a number of fund raising and community projects at the local level, the company has set up the Football and the Yatchet Clubs to promote sport activity in the society. Seafish Award for Outstanding Achievement, Major Commendation in the Business Commitment to the Environment Awards is the major milestones for the company, which has exhibited quality and good practices in its business. With over 5000 employees and 11 centers in UK, the company has done many acquisitions in the past owing to its fair reputation in the business. Young’s continues to put together on its legacy, leading the market with exhilarating new traditions to help out people enjoy more fish. BENEFITS TO YOUNG’S SEAFOOD There are a number of prominent benefits to the company for being the biggest frozen food business in the region. This section studies some of those advantages. 1. Increased consumer awareness – with the increase in the awareness of the environmental issues, the general public has now become more conscious and is demanding accountability from the companies on the quality of seafood products. Being the top leaders in the region, Young’s seafood has gained public recognition on being a leader in the field of seafood sustainability. Reviewing this, a number of small companies dealing in sea food have joined the group and a number of independent retailers are also looking forward to join hands with the top business seafood company in the region. 2. Enhanced profit margins – with the growing market demands of organic and natural food industry, the experts have found out that consumers are now willing to pay more for legally sourced sea food products. It has been noted that sea food products from certified fisheries receive better acknowledgement from the customers and are able to command a better price value in the market than other products from non certified origins. Being the leaders in seafood business in the region and offering products that are certified, Young’s seafood products have higher prices as compared to other market products and therefore offer better price margins to the company. 3. New Markets – Young’s seafood growing reputation in the region has encouraged the company management to take on new markets in the near by regions. New investments are on the line for the company management who is also looking for some acquisitions in the region in order to support the ever increasing demands of its customers. 4. PR Benefits – Being a leader in sea food business, Young’s seafood has been able to create loyalty of their customers and in turn attract a new customer base for their business through their existing clients who promote and appreciate the products of the company. At the same time, the company along with its brand value has associated itself with some conservation organizations that increase the credibility of the company by a large extent. Moreover, the company with a tag of being the best in the industry has been able to recruit the best people in the industry and thereby generating better results. 5. Reduced Risks – Being a leader in the frozen seafood business, Young’s seafood has been able to remain away from the various business risks that small seafood companies have been facing. Unpredictable demand and supply, illegal procurement due to shortage, changing customer preferences and new competitors are some of the risks that many companies are facing. However, Young’s seafood has been able to avoid these risks until now. GLOBAL LOGISTICS AND STOCK MANAGEMENT Successful trade thrives on information. Any industry that cannot boast of a strong information system for the Supply chain Management will never render the desired results. The section intends to address the importance of an efficient logistics and stock management for Young’s Seafood and how it works to improve the performance of all its outlets, thereby giving a substantial improve in productivity and saving money by utilization of specific applications involved within the operations of the company including the receiving, production tracking, quality control, production, and transport operations. In order to remain competitive within the industry, Young’s seafood required to implement some major changes within its global supply chain and buffer stock management. With better supply chain and logistics strategies, Young’s Seafood has been able to remain a prominent market player in the sea food market. Here are some of the measures that were taken up by the company’s management to enhance its global supply operations and stock management. • Demand Prediction - The long term visibility of customer (ST) demand within each period needs to be predicted with highest possible accuracy by setting up a demand-driven supply chain which looks out for real time client orders. This real time tracking of client orders within a supply chain driven system is known as Kanbanconcept. The suppliers need to efficiently manage and implement this system successfully within their distribution system. This system helps to transmit the point-of-sale (POS) data from the cash registers at the outlets back to company headquarters many times a day. This information related to the demand by the customer, helps to queue shipments to the various store distribution centers. This way an enhanced inventory positioning helps to lower costs and better forecasting of demands. • Order Batching – The supplier needs to realize that when larger orders exist, there is more variance. If order batching process is followed, then this reduces order costs, and offers more transportation economics, reducing costs and increasing sales benefits. The suppliers should be encouraged to take order frequently in smaller batches which will lead to smaller variance. • Batches and Cycle time - Use of reduced batch sizes and decrease in cycle time go together. A decrease in cycle time will offer the supplier to automatically reduce the batch sizes, as a result of which the inventory will be reduced. If the production batch sizes are small, the procurement process can also be optimized by reducing batch size but increasing the frequency (if it makes economic sense), thereby reducing inventory in the entire supply chain. Therefore, reduced batch size and low cycle time helped the management to obtain higher service deliveries, and supply chain response times. • Better Distribution Network - A problem with the Distribution network of the ST Company has been cited at many instances, causing difficulties with suppliers, production facilities, and distribution outlets. At the same time, the inefficient data distribution has been identified as a cause that leads to loss of integration of various processes and causes the inability to predict demands, forecasts, inventory and transportation needs. The use of management data in the form of OLAP cubes (Knowledge management technique) can help to sort out the errors and analyze the losses and its causes in an effective manner, (Scheer,Abolhassan, & Kirchmer, 2003). THIRD-PARTY LOGISTICS Since the city possesses a good demographic position, it can achieve to become an important logistics base for transportation of goods internationally within the region. Seeing the number of advantages within the region, a number of international companies have decided to penetrate the logistics market in the region, by either setting up their offices, or creating joint ventures for logistics firms with other companies. The regulations for setting up logistics businesses by international companies have also been eased up so as to promote more business and opportunities for the economy of Grimsby. The Grimsby authority responsible for the shipping activities is also set to privatize the rights for the seaport operations with the help of public tendering, which will offer more professional approach to the shipping transport industry in the region. These recent initiatives (privatization of seaport rights) by the government were backed by political and economic support. The increase in the logistics and transport capacity through the seaports will ultimately promote more exports and international business opportunities for the region’s economy. New agendas for the privatization of road networks, which can offer better service to the logistics sector and to the population of the region is also underway. Apart from this, there are hidden opportunities in the logistics sector for the air transportation which is still not utilized to its full capacity. Apart from the regular business for the logistics and transport sector, logistics outsourcing is fast gaining grounds in the shipping business. A large number of big sea food and shipping companies are outsourcing their logistics jobs to smaller companies in order to better manage their international supply chain and strive for the cutting competitiveness.These companies require proficient, low-cost and internationally incorporated logistics services, and the fastest-growing segment of the industry is trying to meet their demand for outsourcing by providing third-party logistics (3PL). The new regulations have also proposed forward to consider third party logistics as a policy concern. In this regulation, 3PL training is provided to the small logistic companies to help them enter the shipping industry without apprehensions. The shipping industry has also enthusiastic about the promotion being given to the 3PLbusiness, which they believe will lead to higher efficiency in logistics. CONSUMER CONFIDENCE In order to maintain the sustainability of the business, Young’s Seafood has laid stress upon increasing customer satisfaction every business year. In order to meet the consumer demands and satisfaction, the company lays down rules without negotiating with the needs of the customers. The company has strive hard to maintain its targets along with following new promotional and improvement plans. Among the many programs aimed to increase customer faithfulness and satisfaction towards the company products, the Company has successfully implemented its sea food traceability program, wherein a validation model has been developed to obtain efficient traceability of the seafood within all the productions chains of the company. The aim of the traceability system is to basically deal with the traceable data and other information management systems for Young’s Seafood. Further, with the ever increasing interest of the consumer in sea food and health related information, the company has also taken up a number of Consumer oriented educational programs. These programs offer a wide variety of literature related to the company and its products to its health conscious consumers. Moreover, the company management also decided to launch new variety of consumer materials. Point-of-purchase recipe cards, menu, home made recipes; health benefits placards are available at almost every outlet of Young’s Sea food. These placards and cook-booklets give the clients necessary information on purchasing and preparing fish and seafood along with delicious recipes. Another strategy to boost consumer satisfaction about the choice of seafood they are purchasing is that the company has decided to make use of new logos on all its products. Uses of this logo will assist in enhancing the visibility and client awareness for the seafood product along with offering the assurance that they are paying for high class seafood that has been made in an environmentally-friendly manner. The company has also laid down some guiding principles which are meant to address the issues of fisheries and other important environmental, workplace and social concerns, both locally as well as internationally for Young’s Seafood which in turn enhance the product quality thereby raising customer satisfaction levels. The guidelines are as follows: • Legitimacy The company takes all precautions to avoid purchase of illegal or poor quality fish and other sea food. Only those suppliers are dealt who exhibit observance with all the applicable countrywide and global fish catching regulations. • Procurement procedures The company follows a strict fish procurement routine which is based upon a selective and responsible criterion. Consistent scientific development within the process and supply chain based on the most current information helps to company to perform better. • Efficient Management Communication Transparency amid communication and processes involved in the company’s business chain support the client’s right and further helps the consumer to make informed decisions. The company also makes a point to highlight the fish obtained from independently-certified dealers. • Process enhancements The company actively promotes the supply chain managers and its suppliers to endeavor for upgrading and development in the application of best practice and the execution of new expertise to gradually decrease the ecological impacts of business fishing and fish farming. • Business Ethics In the context of rising awareness on the part of the consumer, the company does not trade with any of the other companies that are not careful of their moral, communal, ecological, monetary and humanitarian responsibilities. Also, the company takes care not to follow practices that hurt the sentiments of the local community. Read More