Research Topics: Woolworths Limited

The company is high when it comes to leveraging it’s debt as well as it’s equity

The Current Capital Structure of Woolsworths Limited   Executive Summary             Woolsworths Limited is one of the huge companies in the Australia. Having the sufficient number of employees and the better image to customers, there is high risk debts behind these successes. The company is high when it comes to leveraging its debt as well its equity. There is a huge percentage for the company to have paid its long term debt which can result to high risk. In this manner, the canalization of its having high capital structure had resulted to some of the recommendation which the company needs to follow in order to have a high and maximum value while alleviating its cost of capital. In this regard, the suggested strategy for the company is to continue and diversify its better services while minimize the investment of debt.   Introduction and Purpose of Analysis             The examination for the current capital structures of the company is an ample movement for most of the business which can recognize current and future optimality of its debt-to-equity ratio. In this manner, it can determine the finances for the assets of the certain corporation for some of the combination of the debt, equity, and the hybrid security. This is therefore important in structuring the composition or the analyzation of its liabilities. In this regard, this structure can determine the profitability of the company and how it can leverage or come up to its debt and with respect to its equity. The company that serves as the best example for understanding its capital structure is the Woolsworths Limited.             Woolsworths Limited is the best and one of the most trusted and recognizable brands in serving and retailing for the everyday million of customers while having the great choice, outstanding quality, and low prices. This had been covered by the group in the entire New Zealand and Australia which as more than 3,000 stores with 180,000 employees. The expertise of the company are primarily revolving into liquors, general merchandise, food and grocery, consumer electronics, and its service for the million of customers everyday. The company is also considered to be one of the major investor in the communities of New Zealand and Australia. It go through the creation of job, development of infrastructures, shareholders wealth are growing, growth of the manufacturing and agricultural production, and its innovation of products. Through better social commitment, it resulted to the educational and training development for majority of the employees while having the advancement of the food industry and the safety for the workplace and improvement of retail technology. It has also committed itself to the serious address of environmental footprints while suing the scale in influencing and bringing the improvement positively to the performance of environment to the stores, and to its supply chain ( , 2008).             Studying the current capital structures of WoolsWorths Limited and to the other large listed companies will determine constraints and other variable which has the significant effect the growth of the company. Since, most of the large and listed companies, they have the easier access to the international market which can resulted to their financing decisions will be less subject by the imposition domestic market into the institutional and international constraints. Thus, the objective of this analysis is the examination on leveraging and the maturity of debt as the options are made by the company to countries. In this particular paper, the focus is the understanding of the factors that can influence the finance decisions for the Woolsworths Limited with the use of the debt and its equity ratio and to other variables and how its affect to its long term decisions and growth can.       Optimal Capital Structure             Since, it had been known that the capital structures is the significant amount for the permanent debt whether it is for short or long term manner, the common equity and the preferred stock in financing the firm. On the other hand, we can say that the capital structure is optimal if it occurs to the point wherein the cost of the capital had minimized while the value is maximized. In this regard, it consists primarily to the debt if ever the corporate income tax had exists while there are no agency costs and financial distress costs. If this had given, the optimal capital structure commonly consists some of the combination for both equity and debt. The debt capacity of the firm is the amount for the debt contained in the optimal capital structures. Therefore, these can be determined by the factors that includes in the business risk of the firm, the extent for the forecasted financial distress, tax structures, and the agency costs as well as the role played by the policy of capital structure that provides signals in the capital markets with regards to the performance of the firm ( 2005).             If the optimal capital structure exists, the management needs not only to finance the firm but with the aide of its objectives of maximation and optimal proportions for the firm’s value will assured. As a matter fact, whatever movement in connection to the optimal capital structure will reduce the cost of capital while there is an increase in the value of the firm ( 1993). Its concept is primarily based on the policy of capitals structure that involves the trade-off in the midst of return and risk. This means that if the use of the more debt will be risky to the earnings of the firm but the higher debt ratio leads to the higher expected rate of return. In summary, the higher risk is associated to the greater debt which have the possibility of decrease the stock prices though the higher expected rate of return will increase to it. This means that the optimal capital structure is the one which can strikes the optimal balance in the midst of the returns and risk which can maximize the price of the stock while minimizing the ( 2001).             The optimal capital structure is part entirely by the company’s package for the financial policies that includes the amount and type of the debt and equity claims and the dividend policy being issued. This can be evaluated by the done by the assessment financial flexibility, optimal debt arrangements, and weighted cost of capital. The financial flexibility had defined as the ability in funding its expenditures for the short notice to the reasonable cost at the range of financial and economic market conditions. This is primary refers to the internal borrowing and funding sources which are always available. This financial flexibility can have the ability to predict the deviations from the business plan without undermining the market position or destructing the operations. This can also have the ability to fund the profitable opportunities of investment. There can also have the excess for the financial flexibility and it includes the relaxation of the normal cost and the cost control disciplines which pursue the opportunities of revenues. The cost of capital or the weighted average cost of capital is the cost of equity and debt being weighted in connection to the contribution of the total capital of company. The reason behind using the assessment of the optimal capital structure to the framework of shareholders value is the determination for the amount of the capital required in maximizing the business value wherein the amount of capital which can be an excess to the optimal amount is returned to the shareholders. There is also impact of the debt to the shareholder value which needs to assess properly. The developing of the debt policy can requires the review for the way whereas the different arrangement can have the significant effect to the shareholders value. Therefore, the criteria in selecting the precise mix of floating and fixed rate debt must be based on minimizing the variation of shareholder value that arises from the changes of nominal interest rate.                         The Existing Debt-to-Current Ratio – an Analysis             The debt-to-equity ratio is considered to be one of the most often used ratios of financial leverage. This means that the debt-to-equity ratio needs to analyze the cash flows of the firm whereas the stable cash flows can have the predictable higher debt levels ( 2002. The measurement for Woolworths Limited and its financial leverage can be calculated as dividing the total liabilities by its shareholders’ equity. This proportion indicates that the equity and debt for the company is using in order to finance its assets. Before taking into the account of the current debt-to-current ratio, it is also important to determine the past years ratio so that there will comparison in building to the proper analysis.             The table shows the shareholders equity of Woolworths Limited with respect to the total liabilities with their debt-to-equity ratio. (in $M) 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 Shareholders Equity 5,992.90 5,275.30 4,027.80 1,974.20 2,163.80 1,464.30 Total Liabilities 9,437.20 9,140.80 9,318.60 6,800.90 4,681.10 4,651.00 Debt-to-Equity Ratio 0.63502946 or 63.50% 0.57711579 or 57.77% 0.4322323 or 43.22% 0.29028511 or 29.03 0.46224178 or 46.22% 0.31483552 or 31.48% Source: Financial Statement of Woolworth Limited             For the year 2003, the company has the 31.48% of debt to equity ratio which means that there is not much expected return in the debt ratio. The progress continues for the following until the current year of 2008 which can be seen in the table above that the ratio for the debt-to-equity is 0.6350 or simply means that Woolworths has the long term debt of 63.50% as large as its equity. This implies that for this year, the company will be at the high risk in its shareholders due to the fact that the creditors are always in line first for the compensation. This implies as well that for every dollar in the equity financing, this is the 63.50% in its debt financing. There is also the potential to generate the many earnings in the greater amount as compared to the cost whereas the shareholders’ benefits are spread to the shareholders. Nevertheless, since the company has the sufficient amount of equity, then, this is not bad. On the other hand, even the current debt-to-equity ratio of the company is risky in its earnings; there is still the optimism for having the high debt ratio as it leads to the higher expected rate return in the future.             Since the company has still the room for the minimizations of its capital and its value needs to maximized, therefore, the said current structure is not yet optimal. Moreover, the company is also risky when it comes to debt and to its capital. There are also no possibility and assurance that this will continue in the long term manner. These are the reasons why the company needs to change its capital structures so that growth will be for the long term manner. In order for the company to minimize its cost of capital, it is important to divert its capitals and debt to less cost with high amount of value to the company.                       Recommendations             Most of the analysts suggest that the choices of the firms for the capital structures will depend primarily on the existence of the cost of agency and the asymmetric information. Thus implies that costs are mitigated by the structure of ownership as well as the financial contracts and commonly depends to both the institutions and to the characteristics of the firm into the economy that can monitor and facilitate the financial contracts. For the most of the extended time frame, the company can have the option of including and raising more of the equity. This equity raising has the possibility that they may not be limited to the cases to the government-owned entities.             The improvement or the maximization of the value of Woolworths can be done by its development of its capability of supply chain, in depth of talent, and the low cost culture which can result to the continuous commitment of the customers and having its growth. The continuous acquisition and evaluation for the opportunities can also help to leverage the strengths while can augment the existing business of the company. In order to have the better value, it is important for the company drive up its retail business by bringing its customers in the greater convenience, lower prices, better quality products and services. The company needs to have the best track records for its continuous growth in order to deliver growth and to accept the opportunity for growing the market share in the entire business for both in New Zealand and in Australia. The value can be maximize with aide of reinvestment to the current business, needs to continue to re-invigorating its offer, improvement of the new businesses as well as adjacencies, and the development of new categories. The company can also have the better opportunity in leveraging its scale and to its store distribution in introducing the new services, products, formats, and categories. In general, most of the opportunities are existing n driving into the future growth through continuing to reinvest into the business so that the company can generate the high value. This development can have the options for the company to do it until end year of 2009.             Some of the suggested recommendations that can be use by the company are the continuation to invest to range of merchandise, price and quality on all brands, store execution and customer service. There must also be expansion on the private levels which ranges from organics and other products which can continues customers’ acceptance and increased the market research as well as data analysis. In connection to the development of the product roadmap, this can leverage the cards program which has the plans in offering to the general insurance of the customers and the offering t the customers of the general insurance and to the convenience of the financial services. Upon the continuing expansion of the activities of global sourcing, the company can increase the capabilities of the said area in order to continue in securing the costs price savings while improving the range and quality. There are also opportunities in the leveraging the expertise of supply chain which can follow by the company in order to maximize its value.           Summary and Conclusion             Since the company had known for having the high risk at debt and equity, then, the suggested strategies will be a great help for the company in leveraging its debts and equity and in order to achieve its goal. Its customers can continue to support the company as well as it new products and services due to its commitment that brought in every heart of its customers.                                   Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

The company is high when it comes to leveraging it’s debt as well as it’s equity

The Current Capital Structure of Woolsworths Limited Executive Summary Woolsworths Limited is one of the huge companies ...

â€œUNDERTAKE A FULL VALUE CHAIN (COMPLEMENTORS) ANALYSIS OF THE AUSTRALIAN SUPERMARKET INDUSTRY AND ITS IMPLICATIONS ON EACH OF THE THREE SUPERMARKET CHAINS (WOOLWORTHS, COLES AND ALDI). SUPPORT WITH EVIDENCE.â€

Value Chain Analysis according to [1](2006) is a tool used for creating the best possible value for customers and the best way in maximizing the company’s profit. Value Chain Analysis has three steps:   Activity Analysis. In activity analysis the first step is to brainstorm the activities that the company will undertake. In an organizational level  has a step-by-step business process in serving the customers. This is called the Primary Activities. It includes marketing of products and services, sales and order-taking, operational processes, delivery, support and more (depending on the industry.   Value Analysis. After identifying each activity the company management must list the Value Factors, value factors are the things and services the customers value the most.   Evaluate Changes and Plan for Action. After completing the Value Analysis, the management will seek action.  First is to pick the easy tasks, although the company will generate a small income with the tasks it will definitely boost the energy of the team. Then assess the more difficult changes. And the remaining tasks must be prioritized and tackle them one-by-one.       According to the 2] (2004), the shopping and grocery habits of Australians have changed over the past years. There are many factors that contribute to these changes and these are: population changes, size of households, new retailing practices and changes in lifestyle. Australian consumers are more health-conscious nowadays compare years ago. The supermarkets in Australia saw this trend and promote healthy nutritious foods by expanding the fresh and health sections in supermarkets. Consumers not just in Australia but all over the world are attracted in new products and services in the market. Shopping habits of Australian consumers are changing, a number of consumers do quick short trips to the supermarket more often. According to  in 2002 about 62% of Australian consumers spent less than one hour shopping while back in 1998 there were only 28%. Because of these changes in shopping habits grocery markets in Australia created new formats in order to provide the customers convenience, speed and freshness. Way back then only wet markets provide customers with fresh products; grocery stores have food stores in shopping centres, strips, neighborhood centres and convenience stores. The retail industry in Australia is facing a great international competition in five to ten years because of the entry of Tesco from the United Kingdom and Wal-MART OF THE United States.       Woolworths Woolworths Limited according to [3] (2006) the largest retail company in Australia and New Zealand using market capitalization and sales, the largest food retailer in Australia and New Zealand, largest takeaway liquor retailer, Hotel and Poker Machine operator in Australia.  (1990) discussed that the Philosophy of Woolworth’s Management is always applied in its daily operations. The approach of managers trying new ideas and penalized if did not is very productive.  The format of the store is interchangeable. Woolworth also emphasizes human as one of the factors. Woolworth is a company committed in having and giving excellent performance. (2004) discussed that formats in the stores also include the technology. It assists the supermarkets in merchandising, distribution, sales and markdowns. Woolworths is following Wal-Mart and Tesco by having wireless computer chips in their system, known as radio frequency and identification. Woolworth has been distributing petrol products since 1996. When Coles Myer had a deal with Shell, Woolworths also had an exclusive deal with Caltex in order to compete with Coles Myer-Shell.  Woolworths introduced Everyday Low Pricing Strategy (EDLP) on national brands making the manufacturers cut the prices for supermarkets.     Coles Myer Coles according to  (2006) was founded in the year 1914, back then it was called “Coles Variety Store.” In August 1985 the Myer Emporium Ltd. And GJ Coles & Coy Ltd. Merged and became Coles Myer Limited. Just like Woolworths Coles Myer is also introducing the use of radio frequency identification in the company’s system. The chips are able to store data about the goods and its sources, destination, price, color, weight and many more. Coles Myer ventured into distribution of petrol and unleashed a deal with Shell.  Then the fuel discount changed dramatically because of cheap petrol, making Woolworths deal with Caltex.  While Woolworths introduced everyday low pricing strategy Coles on the other hand, launched the “Save everyday” as campaign starring Lisa McCune. The company sticks to high-low pricing strategy in some national brands and having everyday low pricing strategy on some of the company’s products.   Aldi Aldi according to  (2006) is an international supermarket chain that is based in Germany. Aldi sold products that are own-brand; the company specializes in items like food, beverages and other household items. The supermarket also sells outside brands but very limited.            Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

â€œUNDERTAKE A FULL VALUE CHAIN (COMPLEMENTORS) ANALYSIS OF THE AUSTRALIAN SUPERMARKET INDUSTRY AND ITS IMPLICATIONS ON EACH OF THE THREE SUPERMARKET CHAINS (WOOLWORTHS, COLES AND ALDI). SUPPORT WITH EVIDENCE.â€

Value Chain Analysis according to [1] (2006) is a tool used for creating the best possible value for customers and the best way in maxim...

The Current Capital Structure of Woolsworths Limited

The Current Capital Structure of Woolsworths Limited   Executive Summary             Woolsworths Limited is one of the huge companies in the Australia. Having the sufficient number of employees and the better image to customers, there is high risk debts behind these successes. The company is high when it comes to leveraging its debt as well its equity. There is a huge percentage for the company to have paid its long term debt which can result to high risk. In this manner, the analyzation of its having high capital structure had resulted to some of the recommendation which the company needs to follow in order to have a high and maximum value while alleviating its cost of capital. In this regard, the suggested strategy for the company is to continue and diversify its better services while minimize the investment of debt.   Introduction and Purpose of Analysis             The examination for the current capital structures of the company is an ample movement for most of the business which can recognize current and future optimality of its debt-to-equity ratio. In this manner, it can determine the finances for the assets of the certain corporation for some of the combination of the debt, equity, and the hybrid security. This is therefore important in structuring the composition or the analyzation of its liabilities. In this regard, this structure can determine the profitability of the company and how it can leverage or come up to its debt and with respect to its equity. The company that serves as the best example for understanding its capital structure is the Woolsworths Limited.             Woolsworths Limited is the best and one of the most trusted and recognizable brands in serving and retailing for the everyday million of customers while having the great choice, outstanding quality, and low prices. This had been covered by the group in the entire New Zealand and Australia which as more than 3,000 stores with 180,000 employees. The expertise of the company are primarily revolving into liquors, general merchandise, food and grocery, consumer electronics, and its service for the million of customers everyday. The company is also considered to be one of the major investor in the communities of New Zealand and Australia. It go through the creation of job, development of infrastructures, shareholders wealth are growing, growth of the manufacturing and agricultural production, and its innovation of products. Through better social commitment, it resulted to the educational and training development for majority of the employees while having the advancement of the food industry and the safety for the workplace and improvement of retail technology. It has also committed itself to the serious address of environmental footprints while suing the scale in influencing and bringing the improvement positively to the performance of environment to the stores, and to its supply chain (WoolsWorths Limited Corporate Website, 2008).             Studying the current capital structures of WoolsWorths Limited and to the other large listed companies will determine constraints and other variable which has the significant effect the growth of the company. Since, most of the large and listed companies, they have the easier access to the international market which can resulted to their financing decisions will be less subject by the imposition domestic market into the institutional and international constraints. Thus, the objective of this analysis is the examination on leveraging and the maturity of debt as the options are made by the company to countries. In this particular paper, the focus is the understanding of the factors that can influence the finance decisions for the Woolsworths Limited with the use of the debt and its equity ratio and to other variables and how its affect to its long term decisions and growth can.   Optimal Capital Structure             Since, it had been known that the capital structures is the significant amount for the permanent debt whether it is for short or long term manner, the common equity and the preferred stock in financing the firm. On the other hand, we can say that the capital structure is optimal if it occurs to the point wherein the cost of the capital had minimized while the value is maximized. In this regard, it consists primarily to the debt if ever the corporate income tax had exists while there are no agency costs and financial distress costs. If this had given, the optimal capital structure commonly consists some of the combination for both equity and debt. The debt capacity of the firm is the amount for the debt contained in the optimal capital structures. Therefore, these can be determined by the factors that includes in the business risk of the firm, the extent for the forecasted financial distress, tax structures, and the agency costs as well as the role played by the policy of capital structure that provides signals in the capital markets with regards to the performance of the firm (McGuigan et. al., 2005, p.345).             If the optimal capital structure exists, the management needs not only to finance the firm but with the aide of its objectives of maximation and optimal proportions for the firm’s value will assured. As a matter fact, whatever movement in connection to the optimal capital structure will reduce the cost of capital while there is an increase in the value of the firm (Stonehill, et. al., 1993, p.126). Its concept is primarily based on the policy of capitals structure that involves the trade-off in the midst of return and risk. This means that if the use of the more debt will be risky to the earnings of the firm but the higher debt ratio leads to the higher expected rate of return. In summary, the higher risk is associated to the greater debt which have the possibility of decrease the stock prices though the higher expected rate of return will increase to it. This means that the optimal capital structure is the one which can strikes the optimal balance in the midst of the returns and risk which can maximize the price of the stock while minimizing the WACOC (Beenhakke, 2001, p. 177).             The optimal capital structure is part entirely by the company’s package for the financial policies that includes the amount and type of the debt and equity claims and the dividend policy being issued. This can be evaluated by the done by the assessment financial flexibility, optimal debt arrangements, and weighted cost of capital. The financial flexibility had defined as the ability in funding its expenditures for the short notice to the reasonable cost at the range of financial and economic market conditions. This is primary refers to the internal borrowing and funding sources which are always available. This financial flexibility can have the ability to predict the deviations from the business plan without undermining the market position or destructing the operations. This can also have the ability to fund the profitable opportunities of investment. There can also have the excess for the financial flexibility and it includes the relaxation of the normal cost and the cost control disciplines which pursue the opportunities of revenues. The cost of capital or the weighted average cost of capital is the cost of equity and debt being weighted in connection to the contribution of the total capital of company. The reason behind using the assessment of the optimal capital structure to the framework of shareholders value is the determination for the amount of the capital required in maximizing the business value wherein the amount of capital which can be an excess to the optimal amount is returned to the shareholders. There is also impact of the debt to the shareholder value which needs to assess properly. The developing of the debt policy can requires the review for the way whereas the different arrangement can have the significant effect to the shareholders value. Therefore, the criteria in selecting the precise mix of floating and fixed rate debt must be based on minimizing the variation of shareholder value that arises from the changes of nominal interest rate.   The Existing Debt-to-Current Ratio – an Analysis             The debt-to-equity ratio is considered to be one of the most often used ratios of financial leverage. This means that the debt-to-equity ratio needs to analyze the cash flows of the firm whereas the stable cash flows can have the predictable higher debt levels (Gaughan, 2002, p. 479. The measurement for Woolworths Limited and its financial leverage can be calculated as dividing the total liabilities by its shareholders’ equity. This proportion indicates that the equity and debt for the company is using in order to finance its assets. Before taking into the account of the current debt-to-current ratio, it is also important to determine the past years ratio so that there will comparison in building to the proper analysis.             The table shows the shareholders equity of Woolworths Limited with respect to the total liabilities with their debt-to-equity ratio. (in $M) 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 Shareholders Equity 5,992.90 5,275.30 4,027.80 1,974.20 2,163.80 1,464.30 Total Liabilities 9,437.20 9,140.80 9,318.60 6,800.90 4,681.10 4,651.00 Debt-to-Equity Ratio 0.63502946 or 63.50% 0.57711579 or 57.77% 0.4322323 or 43.22% 0.29028511 or 29.03 0.46224178 or 46.22% 0.31483552 or 31.48% Source: Financial Statement of Woolworth Limited             For the year 2003, the company has the 31.48% of debt to equity ratio which means that there is not much expected return in the debt ratio. The progress continues for the following until the current year of 2008 which can be seen in the table above that the ratio for the debt-to-equity is 0.6350 or simply means that Woolworths has the long term debt of 63.50% as large as its equity. This implies that for this year, the company will be at the high risk in its shareholders due to the fact that the creditors are always in line first for the compensation. This implies as well that for every dollar in the equity financing, this is the 63.50% in its debt financing. There is also the potential to generate the many earnings in the greater amount as compared to the cost whereas the shareholders’ benefits are spread to the shareholders. Nevertheless, since the company has the sufficient amount of equity, then, this is not bad. On the other hand, even the current debt-to-equity ratio of the company is risky in its earnings; there is still the optimism for having the high debt ratio as it leads to the higher expected rate return in the future. The Weighted Average Cost of Capital is used in measuring the cots of capital of the firm and can be computed as: The companies given values are: Re = 4.16 Rd = 11.5 E = .50 x 2.2% = 27.5 D = 3.68 V = E + D Tax rate = 32.8% Then, the computed value of WACC will be: WACC = 27.5 /(27.5+ 3.68) (4.16) + 3.68/(3.68+ 27.5) (11.5) (1 – 0.328) WACC = (27.5 / 31.18) (4.16) + (3.68 / 31.18) (11.5) ( 0.672) WACC = (0.881975) (4.16) + (0.118024)(11.5) (0.672) WACC = 3.669016 + 0.9120 WACC = .58 This means that the company can have the interest of .58 fort every dollar it pays in its finances which seems to be lower considering it is a large company which added to the riskiness of the company.             Since the company has still the room for the minimizations of its capital and its value needs to maximized, therefore, the said current structure is not yet optimal. Moreover, the company is also risky when it comes to debt and to its capital. There are also no possibility and assurance that this will continue in the long term manner. These are the reasons why the company needs to change its capital structures so that growth will be for the long term manner. In order for the company to minimize its cost of capital, it is important to divert its capitals and debt to less cost with high amount of value to the company.   Recommendations             Most of the analysts suggest that the choices of the firms for the capital structures will depend primarily on the existence of the cost of agency and the asymmetric information. Thus implies that costs are mitigated by the structure of ownership as well as the financial contracts and commonly depends to both the institutions and to the characteristics of the firm into the economy that can monitor and facilitate the financial contracts. For the most of the extended time frame, the company can have the option of including and raising more of the equity. This equity raising has the possibility that they may not be limited to the cases to the government-owned entities.             The improvement or the maximization of the value of Woolworths can be done by its development of its capability of supply chain, in depth of talent, and the low cost culture which can result to the continuous commitment of the customers and having its growth. The continuous acquisition and evaluation for the opportunities can also help to leverage the strengths while can augment the existing business of the company. In order to have the better value, it is important for the company drive up its retail business by bringing its customers in the greater convenience, lower prices, better quality products and services. The company needs to have the best track records for its continuous growth in order to deliver growth and to accept the opportunity for growing the market share in the entire business for both in New Zealand and in Australia. The value can be maximize with aide of reinvestment to the current business, needs to continue to re-invigorating its offer, improvement of the new businesses as well as adjacencies, and the development of new categories. The company can also have the better opportunity in leveraging its scale and to its store distribution in introducing the new services, products, formats, and categories. In general, most of the opportunities are existing n driving into the future growth through continuing to reinvest into the business so that the company can generate the high value. This development can have the options for the company to do it until end year of 2009.             Some of the suggested recommendations that can be use by the company are the continuation to invest to range of merchandise, price and quality on all brands, store execution and customer service. There must also be expansion on the private levels which ranges from organics and other products which can continues customers’ acceptance and increased the market research as well as data analysis. In connection to the development of the product roadmap, this can leverage the cards program which has the plans in offering to the general insurance of the customers and the offering t the customers of the general insurance and to the convenience of the financial services. Upon the continuing expansion of the activities of global sourcing, the company can increase the capabilities of the said area in order to continue in securing the costs price savings while improving the range and quality. There are also opportunities in the leveraging the expertise of supply chain which can follow by the company in order to maximize its value.   Summary and Conclusion             Since the company had known for having the high risk at debt and equity, then, the suggested strategies will be a great help for the company in leveraging its debts and equity and in order to achieve its goal. Its customers can continue to support the company as well as it new products and services due to its commitment that brought in every heart of its customers.   Reference Lists Gaughan, P 2002, Mergers, Acquisitions, and Corporate Restructuring, John Wiley and Sons, Manhattan. Beenhakker, H 2001, The Global Economy and International Financing, Greenwood Publishing Group, United States. McGuigan, J et. al., Contemporary Financial Management, Thomson South-Western, United Kingdom. Stonehill, A 1993, International Financial Management, Taylor & Francis, United Kingdom. Woolworths Corporate Website 2008, Woolworths Limited, viewed 11 September, 2008, http://www.woolworthslimited.com.au/phoenix.zhtml?c=144044&p=our-profile.   Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

The Current Capital Structure of Woolsworths Limited

The Current Capital Structure of Woolsworths Limited Executive Summary Woolsworths Limited is one of the huge companies ...

WOOLWORTHS LIMITED CURRENT TRENDS AND EMERGING ISSUES

WOOLWORTHS LIMITED CURRENT TRENDS AND ISSUES         Woolworths limited comprises of 3000 Supermarkets that offers a guaranteed quality services to every customers that enters in their store premises, therefore they need quality individuals to take care of their customers and the products they are offering. Woolworths limited has done a good recruitment process of hiring multi cultural and diversified rooster of employees all over Australia to work on their company. They employed more than 150,000 workers inside their store premises.       This company has focus on partially disabled individual as a worker they do not discriminate such disability to perform well; in fact they have trained them to become a part of their labor force which is more disciplined and hard working. They are able to comply with customers demand in spite of their conditions. On the other hand they are given an equal opportunity treatment that they deserved. In many years these employees has been an asset in their company. Hiring those people has been their corporate responsibility.       This multi cultural diversity of employees has somehow manages to develop a healthy atmosphere of respect and individual recognition and balance at work. Through this we can say that their people are their best assets. Human Resource Management has been very successful in managing and recruiting their employees.           Human Resource Management response is to come up and answer the public some necessary issues pertaining to the current situations they are encountering. They have come up with additional benefits for regular employees for the year 2011 till 2012, and they are pleased to offer a Share Purchase Plan (SPP) this project aims to give the employees an opportunity to become Woolworths Limited Stockholder to share the entire performance of the company. This means that they are given an opportunity to acquire ownership interest to the company.  All regular employees are eligible to purchase such plan as long as they are of legal age and the maximum shares they can purchase are 1000 each. Thus purchase of such plan is not mandatory but to the employees discretion. Such purchase is personal and non transferable for at least three consecutive years until they are employed.         This plan has been fully explained by Woolworths Limited to each and every employee who is interested to purchase such plan including consideration why they have to buy such plan, their opportunities and privileges and the risk involved. All in all this has been good news for regular employees.        Woolworth limited currently selects FIS prepaid card to become its prepaid provider for payment processing including purchases of customers and other transaction can be electronically processed using such technology. They have been using such technologies during the past years but this with FIS prepaid card. They have chosen such innovative and inexpensive way to deliver much quality services to all its customers throughout the country this selection makes it easier for the company to distinguish regular customers and employees. Currently FIS is processing about 250,000 card customers for Woolworth Limited. Employees can be easily trained to handle such technology easily and effectively and customer will experience fast and more convenient ways to shop in their stores or online.       Woolworths Limited Implements Workforce Optimization Software to deliver superior quality services to its customers in all its business undertakings, this software will provide all the information the company needs. This software will monitor the current situation from internal and external forces as well as analyze and protect customer’s privacy information. This will monitor and leverage employees and management efficiency and will unify the solution of the problems that may occur. And much more this will schedule employees on their work position and will record the call of customers accurately on real time. The software can manage employee’s interaction to customers and maximize employee’s performance. And improve the overall performance and day to day operation of the stores.       Woolworth Limited is doing their share to protect and held employees concern on the right track they are highly on the top of their priorities next to customers. This implicates a very strong foundation for employee’s strength and development that Woolworth Limited has been given. Employees must learn to take advantage of the technology and benefits they are receiving. And in return they must learn to give back to the company their part the quality service to customers they deserved. Human Resource Management and Staff have created such plans so that Employees can have a very comfortable and efficient working condition all throughout.       Woolworth Limited has plans of acquisitions from group of real estate assets on every part of Australia. This acquisition is reserved for expansion of new stores all over the country. This goes to show that employees can expect much more benefits from Woolworth Limited for the years to come.                   Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

WOOLWORTHS LIMITED CURRENT TRENDS AND EMERGING ISSUES

WOOLWORTHS LIMITED CURRENT TRENDS AND ISSUES Woolworths limited comprises of 3000 Supermarkets that offers a guaranteed quality se...

WOOLWORTHS LIMITED CURRENT TRENDS AND EMERGING ISSUES

WOOLWORTHS LIMITED CURRENT TRENDS AND EMERGING ISSUES

WOOLWORTHS LIMITED CURRENT TRENDS AND ISSUES Woolworths limited comprises of 3000 Supermarkets that offers a guaranteed quality se...

PEST ANALYSIS OF WOOLWORTHS LIMITED

PEST ANALYSIS OF WOOLWORTHS LIMITED PEST Analysis as a Human Resource Strategy             Any business organization operates within the context of an environment. The environment of a business organization impacts and influences the business operation in a number of ways. That is why an analysis of the environment is a very essential component of any business organization and at any level of its business life cycle. Environmental assessment is a continuous process. The environment of an organization is categorized into three main environments: internal environment, micro-environment and macro-environment. Internal environment consists of the internal customers who are the staff, their wages and benefits, and the office technology that they handle. The micro-environment refers to the external customers, the competitors, the suppliers, the agents, and distributors. The macro-environment consists of the PEST factors: political and legal, economic, socio-cultural and technological forces. (Marketing Teacher, n.d.) Political Factors are the political and legal regulations that affect spending power of customers, political stability, tax regulations, economic policy, and regional trading agreements. The economic factors refer to the interest rates, inflation, purchasing power parity, GDP, per capita income which are especially important for international marketing. The socio-economic factors are religion, attitude, language, leisure time, gender roles, population size and demography, and environmental awareness. Technological factors specifically refer to new technological innovations. New technology is a competitive edge of any organization as it facilitates innovation and production of cheaper and quality products, fast and efficient distribution of products, and new ways of communication and management of customer-relationship. (Marketing Teacher, n.d.) PEST Analysis of Woolworths             Woolworth’s Unlimited is the largest and most successful retail store in Australia and New Zealand offering the best quality and trusted brands, in food, grocery, liquor, petrol, electronic and other general merchandize. It is 87 years old in the business and employs more than 191,000 employees. It has served the communities in Australia and New Zealand economically through creation of jobs and increase in shareholders wealth, investment in infrastructure and stimulated the growth of the manufacturing and agricultural production. (Woolworths Limited, n.d.) Political Factors             Woolworth benefits from the Australia-New Zealand Closer Economic Relations Trade Agreement (ANZCERTA). This trading cooperation brings the two countries where Woolworth is operating into a single economy.  Woolworth and its shareholders (foreign and domestic) are also secure in the political stability of both countries. In 2011, Australia ranked 3rd and New Zealand 5th in “IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook” Economic Factors             Woolworth operates in an economically sound environment. Australia and New Zealand have a relatively high standard of living compared to the rest of the world. GDP per capita at purchasing power parity of Australia (,699) is ranked number 10 and New Zealand (,966) number 32 based on the 2010 estimates by the International Monetary Fund. (Wikipedia, n.d.) Socio-cultural factors             Woolworth is along the trend for a green lifestyle and sustainable corporate practices with its “sustainability strategy 2007-15”. Investors and customers alike who are aware of the environmental impacts of their investing and consuming behavior choose a company with a green-tag and buy and patronize products that are organic.  Further Woolworth also addresses the needs of customers with very little time for shopping with their convenient and efficient services as discussed in the next factor. Technological Factors             Woolworth harnessed the innovations of information communication technology to improve the efficiency of their service and satisfy their customers. In 2008 it introduced the self-checkout machines that enable the customer to “scan, weigh and pay for their groceries via cash, credit or debit cards”. (Palmer, 2008) They also employed the SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) software that monitors its business activity, identify bottlenecks of their service in real time and reduce costs. (Foo, 2008) Recently they introduced the Visa’s payWave to reduce waiting time of customers spent in checkout queues. (Budmar, 2011)             The success of Woolworth as a number 1 retailing company in New Zealand and Australia can be traced to its significantly positive macro-economic environment: political, economic, socio-cultural and technological factors.    REFERENCES Budmar, Peter, 2011. Woolworths adopts Visa payWave Technology for Checkouts. [online] Available at:< http://www.arnnet.com.au/article/387304/woolworths_adopts_visa_paywave_technology_checkouts/> [Accessed 28 May 2011]. Foo, F., 2008. Woolies Boost Supply Chain Technology. [online] Available at:< http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/woolies-boosts-supply-chain-technology/story-e6frganf-1111115892003> [Accessed 28 May 2011]. FTA’s Advantages and Disadvantages. Pdf. [online] Available at: http://www.dfat.gov.au/publications/aus_us_fta_mon/Chapter3.pdf> [Accessed 28 May 2011]. Kylel1, 2009. Woolworths. [online] Available at:<http://www.slideshare.net/KyleL1/strategic-management-group-assignment-1> [Accessed 28 May 2011]. Marketing Teacher, n.d. PEST Analysis. [online] Available at:<http://www.marketingteacher.com/lesson-store/lesson-pest.html> [Accessed 28 May 2011]. NSW Government, n.d. Political Stability. [online] Availablt at:<http://www.business.nsw.gov.au/invest-in-nsw/about-nsw/economic-and-business-climate/political-stability> [Accessed 28 May 2011]. Palmer, D., 2008. Woolworths Trial Self Check-Out Technology. [online] Available at:< http://www.ausfoodnews.com.au/2008/04/21/woolworths-trial-self-checkout-technology.html> [Accessed 28 May 2011]. Wikipedia, n.d. List of Countries by GDP (PPP) Per Capita. [online] Available at:< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PPP%29_per_capita> [Accessed 28 May 2011].   Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

PEST ANALYSIS OF WOOLWORTHS LIMITED

PEST ANALYSIS OF WOOLWORTHS LIMITED PEST Analysis as a Human Resource Strategy Any business organization operates within t...

The company is high when it comes to leveraging it’s debt as well as it’s equity

â€œUNDERTAKE A FULL VALUE CHAIN (COMPLEMENTORS) ANALYSIS OF THE AUSTRALIAN SUPERMARKET INDUSTRY AND ITS IMPLICATIONS ON EACH OF THE THREE SUPERMARKET CHAINS (WOOLWORTHS, COLES AND ALDI). SUPPORT WITH EVIDENCE.â€

The Current Capital Structure of Woolsworths Limited

WOOLWORTHS LIMITED CURRENT TRENDS AND EMERGING ISSUES

WOOLWORTHS LIMITED CURRENT TRENDS AND EMERGING ISSUES

PEST ANALYSIS OF WOOLWORTHS LIMITED

â€œUNDERTAKE A FULL VALUE CHAIN (COMPLEMENTORS) ANALYSIS OF THE AUSTRALIAN SUPERMARKET INDUSTRY AND ITS IMPLICATIONS ON EACH OF THE THREE SUPERMARKET CHAINS (WOOLWORTHS, COLES AND ALDI). SUPPORT WITH EVIDENCE.â€