BLUE SKIES Harvard Case Solution & Analysis

Introduction

Blue Skies came into being in February 1998 with a mission to provide fresh fruits. It is found by Anthony pile, with headquarter located in the United Kingdom, and production plant in Ghana, Africa. The mission of blue Skies is to provide best quality of fresh fruits to the European market and to maintain the best and fresh quality of fruits; it avoids adding flavors and preservation anddelivers the product by air within 48 hours of harvesting

Increasing demands of fresh fruits around the European country give an opportunity to Anthony to explore this market. Unlike other tropical fruits, pineapple is the only one that is harvested and exported 365 days a year and considered as a king of all tropical fruits. So he brings the idea of ‘fresh from harvest’ which was first denied by the board members as they thought importing freight by sea from South America and processing it in factories in the heart of England to make juice or fruit salad is the best idea to proceed. With his entrepreneurial skills and abilities, Anthony has been successful to make his plan implemented and start exporting fresh cut pineapples to Europe

Case Summary

Food in Europe is differentiated on the basis of its quality and on the basis of product cultivation of organic agriculture. Anthony starts exporting a fresh cut pineapple to the European market where people are more attracted by the originality and fresh quality of fruits. In blue Skies, fruits are cut into a particular shape then packed without adding any artificial flavor or preservations within 48 hours of harvesting.

TheUSP (unique selling point) of Blue Skiesmakes its bond stronger with its customers by giving them a sense of having fresh fruit directly after 2 days of its harvesting. The issuearises when the European countryfaces the economic recession and customers’demand discounts on the prices of the product. From this point blue Skies profit margin start declining due to the customers high bargaining on pricing.

To stay connected with its mission Pile established two farms to grow pineapple Smooth Cayenne and MD2, mainly as a temporary fix until farmers got back to pineapple production. In this critical situation,it started selling bottled fruit juices in the market near to its factory and fast food restaurantsto decrease the dependency on the European market.

Analysis

SWOT Analysis:

Strengths

The biggest strength of Blue Skies is to ship the fresh cut packed pineapple within 48 hours of harvesting. This strength gives it a competitive edge over other fruits suppliers. Customer preferences of having fresh fruit in a short span of time give an opportunity of supplying pineapple who remain fresh after 2 days of harvesting unlike of banana and peer whose shape and taste get change after 2 harvesting days. By supplying consistent ready to eat fruit blue Skies give hope to thousands of people in Africa and South America.

Weaknesses

Sometime quality of the fruits gets affected if the product is delivered at a long distance by air as a result fruits can only be delivered to a particular distance.Fruits that can maintain its quality can be exported other fruits can’t be shipped by air as the quality get affected so it will affect the company’s image.

Opportunities

Explore different countries of the world with quality fresh fruit.Develop a website Caretrace.com to give all the information to the customers about the company and the detail of the product where it is coming from to enhance the customer relationship.

Threats

Airfreight is becoming expensive, that is affecting the profit margin of the company.Assurance of the quality, as the product is fruit that can cause health problems if affected during shipping.Health education and training to the staff to make sure the quality won’t get affected at any stage.

Recommendations

To overcome the issues faced by Blue Skies due to the economic issue of the European country, Anthony should make certain air freight agreement with the airline that could help in decreasing the shipping cost by reducing fuel consumption. Company does all the shipping by air rather than by sea so there should be some agreements that could benefit the company at-least till the period of economiccrisis in European countries.

Another should have invested more in the fruits juices and harvesting of other fruits that can be delivered within the UK’s restaurants, hotels, and cafes. Selling’s product within the UK and other countries of the world where shipping of the quality product can be possible, should be encountered..........................................

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