ANALYSING A SPREADSHEET AND PRESENTING A BUSINESSREPORT
Case Study
Pink Lady Apple Orchard is a small family run orchard in RedHill, Victoria. Jacinta and Pete own the property,which includes 50 hectares of apple plantings.
As the market price of apples sold to supermarkets and fruitshops has decreased in the past few years, causing business tostagnate, Pete and Jacinta have decided to use some of their applesupply to produce their own range of apple based products.
They have set up a small market stall at the orchard where theysell products directly to the public. They also have aregular stand at local markets. The number ofcustomers is growing as word of mouth spreads. In an effort tofurther expand they have negotiated with a number of smallretailers to stock their products. Recently they also employed asystems developer, who set up a website which enables them tomarket their products online and sell directly to the public.
In a further effort to expand sales Jacinta organised to havetheir products advertised on a number of ‘shopping deal’sites. Each site charged an upfront fee of$500.00. The Pink Lady Apple Orchard’s ‘deal wasadvertised throughout February. The orchard offered 30%off any sale made through the deal site. After deductinga further 5% commission on sales the ‘deal’ site passed the orderand the payment onto the organisation. Jacinta thenprocessed the order and delivered the products to thecustomer. Jacinta hoped that by offering this deal morecustomers would be attracted to their products.
Jacinta and Pete have always delivered goods free of charge totheir wholesale customers. However, with increased salesthey are concerned about the increased courier charges. Pete hasdecided that by charging 15% delivery charge on each retail orderhe can recoup all the delivery charges.
As Jacinta and Pete are already busy attending to the appleorchard they have employed Ruby, a local resident, two mornings aweek (8 hours) to attend to all onlineorders.
Although the number of orders is increasing, Jacinta isconcerned that maybe not all products sell well enough to continueproduction. She has been experimenting with different flavours andproducts, including a new recipe for “Spicy AppleChips”. Maybe she should change products or delete someproducts. She does not want unwanted stock accumulatingin the storage sheds. She believes that the ‘specialdeals’ she has advertised for January/February will certainly helpsales, but is concerned that she has made a bad decision withregard to profitability.
Jacinta has set up a spreadsheet. She has asked youto complete any relevant calculations and to use excel ‘tools’ toanalyse the data she has given you. She thenrequires you to provide a business report with regards to theeffectiveness of the recently implemented online ordering system,and in particular both the overall popularity and profitability oftheir products and the success of the recent ‘deals’campaigns. After analysing the relevant data she wantsyou to consider the options with regard to future sales and toalert her to other factors that need to be considered before afinal decision can be made. She is interested inreading your recommendations with regard to online sales.
PREPARING THE BUSINESS REPORT
Report Content
The analysis, findings and recommendations which you prepare forJacinta and Pete should be outlined in a professional businessreport.
This report should include:
1) A brief Introductionthat outlines clearlythe purpose of the report.
2) A brief presentation of theanalysis you havecarried out and a discussion regarding theresultsof this analysis
3)A discussion regarding the results of youranalysis.
Identification/discussion regarding other factors that may needto be considered before a final decision can be made.
4)A short concluding summaryof the content ofthe report.
5)Finally, at least two clearrecommendationsthat Jacinta and Pete can adopt. Theserecommendations must be drawn from the analysis that you havecarried out, and must have been discussed in the body of yourreport.
