COMPANY INTRODUCTION Coles Group Ltd (CGL) Is Australia's

COMPANY INTRODUCTION

Coles Group Ltd (CGL) is Australia’s dominant retailing company with an estimated market share of more than 20 percent of all retail sales in Australia. Its major businesses include Australia’s largest department store chain, largest grocery-supermarket chain, and the largest discount chains. In addition, it is a major player in food and liquor retailing, office supplies and apparel.

The Product Portfolio of Coles Group include –

(Source: Goggle Images viewed on 6th January 2007)

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Food and Liquor: The Food division includes full-line Coles Supermarkets, Bi-Lo discount Supermarkets which are increasingly being merged into Coles supermarkets. The Liquor division includes First Choice Liquor Superstores, Liquorland, Vintage Cellars and Liquorland Hotel Group. Liquorland also operates an online liquor shopping service, Liquorland Direct. (Source: www.coles.com.au)

Kmart: Kmart offers an extensive range of products such as apparel, toys, sporting goods, bedding, kitchenware, outdoor furniture, barbecues, music, video, car care, electrical appliances and Kmart Tyre & Auto Service business. Kmart operates 185 stores and 275 Kmart Tyre & Auto Service sites across Australia and New Zealand. (Source: www.coles.com.au)

Target: Target has an extensive range of apparel and accessories, home wares, bed linen and décor, cosmetics, fragrances, health and beauty products and a full range of toys, games and entertainment. Target has 259 stores located across Australia. (Source: www.coles.com.au)

Officeworks: Officeworks caters specifically for the needs of small to medium businesses, home offices and students, with over 7,000 office products all under one roof, located in 95 stores across Australia. (Source: www.coles.com.au)

Coles Express: CML has a network of 599 Coles Express locations across Australia in an alliance with Shell. CML sets pump prices and offers fuel discounts, with Shell supplying the fuel products and service station properties. (Source: www.coles.com.au)

Harris Technology: Harris Technology is a reseller of information technology products and services and has 8 stores throughout Australia. (Source: www.coles.com.au)

COMPANY’S INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT

Coles Myer has more than 2600 stores throughout Australia and New Zealand. In fiscal 2005, Coles Myer opened 30 superstores, 47 liquor stores, including 2 1st Choice Liquor Superstores, 5 Kmart stores, 11 Target stores and 9 Officeworks. The company’s large and expanding scale of operation increases its bargaining power and gives it a competitive advantage. Coles Myer is recognized as a strong brand in the Australian retailing business. The company operates through a chain of supermarkets and stores under popular brand names such as Kmart, Target, Myer, Officeworks and Megamart. A strong brand image enables the group to launch more products under its own labels.

Coles Myer offers a diversified product portfolio through its retail stores. Broad product categories in its offering include fresh and packaged food products, liquors, fuel, apparel, toys, sporting goods, bedding, kitchenware, office products, electronics and furniture goods. The company’s diversified product portfolio offers greater revenue generation opportunities. (Source: www.coles.com.au)

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ORGANISATIONAL RESOURCES

Resource Imitability ladder:

Coles Supermarket provides facilities for elderly and disabled people. There are wheelchair & disabled trolleys available in all stores. This provides value to the customer; however it can be easily imitated by its competitors.

These supermarkets are easily accessible due to its convenient locations making, it costly for its competitors to open equivalent amount of stores.

Coles’ house brands, “You’ll love Coles”, have established its identity amongst its customers. They are favored by all its customers due to their high quality products at affordable prices. Though, the competitors have their house brands but the customer loyalty towards Coles may be difficult to imitate.

The brand name “COLES GROUP LTD” cannot be imitated.

Cannot be imitated

Brand Name Relatively hard to imitate Difficult to imitate

House brands

Costly to imitate Convenient Locations Relatively easy to imitate Easy to imitate

Facilities for elderly & disabled people:

(Source: Hooley et al, 2004)

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