Executive Summary This report analyses Morrisons’ strategic developments since the beginning of 2000s till present time. Some key strategic directions are emphasized taking into account the impact on the business. Morrisons’ acquisition of Safeway, launch of e-commerce and vertical integration model of supply chain are discussed in detail. In addition, the grocers’ competitive advantage is identified as opposed to its big rivals, namely Asda, Tesco, and Sainsbury’s. After discussing Morrisons’ key strengths, strategic choices are analyzed with some recommendations for strategic direction. Strategic Developments Food retail industry is fast-changing area of business, if to consider developments occurring in strategy of Wm Morrisons …show more content…
From this agreement, both Morrisons and its customers will get benefits since this will increase sales of fresh-food products for the retailer, and the latter can get their product at cheaper price due to sophisticated delivery platform of Amazon. Competitive advantage In order to get a clear understanding of competitive advantage of Morrisons, SWOT analysis is presented below. SWOT analysis gives general idea about strengths and weaknesses of the business as well as opportunities and threats, although it can be subjective but it is useful tool in decision-making process. Awareness of own strengths and opportunities enables the business to use them on its advantage, whereas knowledge about weaknesses and threats can give insights on their solutions (Blake and Wijetilaka, 2015). SWOT analysis Strengths …show more content…
Although, Morrisons have arrived lately to non-food retail compared to its competitors, however the retailer managed to effectively incorporate new products in short period of time by means of acquisitions of meat and seafood processing facilities, Flower World, Kiddicare, and others. One feature differentiating Morrisons from Asda, Sainsbury’s, and Tesco, is developed vertically integrated supply chain. The advantage of this model is that it gives greater control upon quality of fresh food products by closely collaborating with farmers. Morrisons’ owning of fresh food producing facilities improves its delivery time, and helps to avoid extra costs related to supply chain. Thus, Morrisons can effectively compete with strong rivals on price-cuts. Morrisons runs distribution centers across UK along with third-party facilities operating in distribution network (Morrisons, 2016). These centers resemble to Amazons fulfillment centers, which store all kinds of goods. With use of these centers, Morrisons manages to keep up with growing customers’