Diversification strategy : Tesco opts for own-label banking

An excellent article in The Guardian today would provide lots of scope for a good business strategy lesson for the Year 13s…

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HMV Diversifies into Cinema

A cracking good article for business students in the Guardian today tells the story of a really good case study on diversifcation…

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WD-40 to diversify into…whatever customers want them to

A cracking story from the Times explains how icon cleaning brand WD-40 is looking to diversify into wholly different markets from its core positioning.  And what better way to determine the product/market strategy than to invite existing customers to suggest the new product ideas?  Ansoff’s Matrix can be quietly slid into the bottom drawer at the corporate planning office, whilst WD-40 management work closely with customers to determine the next move!  The article also contains a little-known fact that can be used to impress students - WD-40 is one of the few products to have actually been developed by rocket scientists

From crisps to vodka - what else can you make from potatoes?

Will Chase, founder of Tyrrells Crisps, has found a new use for the potatoes grown on his farm in Herefordsire – distilling vodka. An article in yesterday’s Times Magazine makes interesting reading. Having successfully managed an exit strategy of selling 75 per cent of his stake in the upmarket crisp company to venture capitalists in March this year, he found that he couldn’t just sit back and enjoy the money but needed another entrepreneurial challenge and is ploughing some of the £40 million he pocketed into a traditional micro-distillery. 

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Video Case Study - Just Jenny’s Ice Cream Start-up

A classic example of how a dairy farm attempts to diversify by adding value to the commodity it produces.  Many dairy farms try to start their own ice-cream business.  Some, but not all succeed.  Here is a video clips about a farmer from Yorkshire who has successfully established an ice-cream brand.  Great example to use in AQA/Edexcel Unit (AS) and of course the new AQA & Edexcel GCSE Unit 1 courses from September

Download student worksheet (inc video link)

Video case study - biofuel farmers feel the pressure

When the price of diesel rocketed to well over £1.25 per litre, British farmers spotted an oppportunity to transform used materials into cheaper biofuels.  However, the viability of this business idea has worsened significantly during 2009.

Download student worksheet (incl video link)

Innocent Drinks diversifies into Veg

I forgot to blog about this excellent interview in the Times with Richard Reed of Innocent Drinks when it appeared at the start of the week.  Much has been written about Innocent’s great success in the fruit smoothies market.  Can the three entrepreneurs leading Innocent achieve a similar success with their new product - Veg Pots?

Farm diversification is still small business

I was a little surprised to learn that there are only 60,000 farms in the UK that sustain a full-time farmer, and that less than a quarter of these have diversified into other business areas that don’t involve the letting of buildings.

Farm diversification into ice-cream is not plain, vanilla process

Researching some materials for our revision toolkit for the OCR Applied Business Unit 3, I came across a really useful case study on farm diversification into ice-cream.

New owners for Pontins try to defy the product life cycle

Pontins, the UK holiday park business which was born in post-war Britain and thrived during the 1950’s and 1960’s, has just been bought for £46m by new investors.  Can they turn reverse the decline in the traditional holiday park market?