Icts role in primarks operations strategy Essay

Icts role in primarks operations strategy - Essay ExampleThis paper discusses the operations strategy of Primark Stores Limited, a unfluctuating stylus retail company that currently operates in Ireland, United Kingdom, Portugal, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands and Germany. Primark is owned by the diversified British giant, Associated British Foods (ABF) and as at the end of 2011 had 232 stores go around in continental Europe . In 2010 Primark beat Marks & Spencer and ASDA to become was UKs largest clothing retailer by turnover, with sales of 3,043m. Primark sells a range of mode items targeted at people under 35 years old who are fashion-conscious. It is identified as the retailer that offers the lowest prices on the high street. Primark is a sham in the relatively young retail apparel sedulousness known as fast fashion. Fast fashion refers to the strategy where retailers count on zip up of production and adoption to current and emerging design trends to market their merchandise. While fast fashion may be heaven to buyers it can be calamitous to retailers who have to keep changing their inventory rapidly if they are to capture their fashion conscious target market. This however does not prevent the industry from organism very profitable. Consider this in the apparel industry, fast fashion companies have surpassed traditional rivals in growth by seizing their market share. Furthermore, fast fashion leaders typically earn higher profit margins than their old-guard competitors, averaging 16 per cent, versus 7 per cent for the typical specialty-apparel retailer. (Sull & Turconi, 2008, p.5). However, to better comprehend Primarks industry and leave behinding strategies we shall basic analyse the industry using Porters five forces. 2.1. Five Forces Analysis of Primarks Industry The strengths of Porters five competitive forces has an transaction on costs, prices, investments and other factors needed to compete thus they affect the average level of profitability for a given industry (Porter, 2008). This implies that these five forces have a direct correlation with the industry participants profitability. Using this line of thought one(a) can therefore state that a firms industry grammatical construction is a major factor that determines an organizations competitive strategy (Laudon & Laudon, 2009). The first strong force is competitive rivalry. The UKs retail fashion industry is according to Mintel (2005) is more consolidated than the rest of Europe with the top five UK retailers account for almost 45% of sales. Secondly, following from the effect of 2008 recession on consumer useable incomes, the industry is not a basic need category and as such has continued to experience slow growth. All the above attributes are symptomatic of industries where intensity of competitive rivalry is great (Porter, 2008). Another strong force in Primarks industry is the threat of substitutes largely as a result of the following three characteristics (1) t he garments sold in fast fashion are not durable (2) Primarks offerings are low-cost and (3) the cost of switching from one retailer to the other is very low. These three traits make it