Strategic Management
Ice cream manufacturing industry

Cécilia BACHELET

Introduction

People consume ice cream, it’s a delicious dessert that gives them a true gestative pleasure and relaxation.
Ice cream comes from soya milk, sugar and dairy cream.
But, nowdays ice cream in the supermarket comes from substitute milk product and is deep-frozen in huge freezers which work on ammonia liquid.
Nowdays people eat ice cream like they drink coffee.

Identification of the industry and its evolution

According to a report produced in september 2009, 14 million British people buy ice cream as a treat, in a market worth 1,3 billion pounds.
The ice cream industry is situated in the maturing stage of the product life style.
According to the website Datamonitor “The United Kingdom ice cream market recoverded in 2007, after posting negative rate of growth.Toward 2013, the market is expected to show steady rate of growth, both in volume and value”.
The main objective for organizations is to defend their market share.

Competitive products or services

The ice cream manufacturing industry can be segmented into four sectors:
-artisanal ice cream (15,5%)
-frozen yoghurt (0,9%)
-impulse ice cream (24,3%)
-take home ice cream (59,3%)
However, the frozen yoghurt category and artisanal ice cream category have been grouped into the impulse category and take home category for my results.

Porter’s 5 forces is an analysis tool, allowing the influence of external factors on the company to be analysed, but understanding the value, attraction and sector of the company aswell.

Porter said that to achieve, an industry has to confront, influence and agitate against the competitive environmental pressure.
The main objective of an industry is to acquire a competitive advantage to make profit.
The Porter’s model aims to determine the forces leading the competitive environment and to allow companies to adapt their strategies.

I) Porter’s 5 forces

1) Buyer