The Grey Sheep Company

Part 1: Introduction

The Grey Sheep Company is a textile-manufacturing firm based in Hampshire, Britain. Established in 2004 by Emma and Neil on their 310 acres farm where they turned their passion for textile crocheting into a profitable venture over the years. The founders transformed their derelict farmhouse located in the Georgian region into a fledging textile firm and majorly transform the wool that they shear from their farm-raised sheep into works of fashionable art. Passion to see Britons cladding beautiful woollen fashion pieces has been the driving force in ensuring the company has grown exponentially over the last 17 years of its existence. For those who are seeking business dissertation help, The Grey Sheep Company serves as an intriguing case study in transforming a passion into a successful enterprise.

Emma has been directly managing the company operations as the creative/operational director, she has built up a formidable team of British yarn designers and textile turning artisans, and the client base for her luxury British yarn clothing products has grown tremendously. Emma is obsessed with quality and producing yarn fashion items that have beautiful colour themes and she has ensured that all products produced by her firm are eco-friendly and carbon-neutral in pursuit of her climate protection ethos.

In the adjourning paper discussion, the corporate structure of the aforementioned company will be discussed extensively and a detailed SWOT analysis highlighted to bring out the benefits of nurturing small and mid-sized United Kingdom-based companies. It will be clear from the information canvased in this paper that British firms like the Grey Sheep Company can make 1.2 million pounds in annual profits consistently.

Part 2: Analysis

2.1: SWOT analysis for the Grey Sheep Company

Strengths

The grey Sheep Company has been in existence for the last 17 years and this has provided the company founders and managers with enough market experience to dominate the luxury yarn segment in the United Kingdom. Emma has blended her artistic gift of producing high-quality yarn products with her high business management acumen and this has progressively ensured the company experiences growth over the last 17 years of its operations.

The company produces its wool, yarn from its in-house farm-bred sheep, and this, in turn, has made the company churn out products that are of superior quality as compared to its competitors. It has a cyclical management and operations hierarchy, which ensures that creativity and product design ideas flow consistently from all employees involved in the production chain. Company staff is treated equally and thus everyone has direct input in the product design process and this over time has made the production and design process experience continuous improvement. Fashion needs and expectations in the industry change rapidly and because the firm constantly gets design feedback from both staff and clients, they have weathered the storms of products redundancy that has made many companies close shop (Akenji, 2015).

The company products are widely accepted both in the domestic and international market and it has led to the company operating profitably over the years. Soft yarn that feels ragged close to the skin is the secret ingredient that has differentiated the yarn products sold by the company and its competitors. Fashionable clients have opted to purchase yarn products produced by the company and thus revenues have soared over generations.

The company has a reputable employee retention history and record and this makes continuity possible. Most companies that have high employee attrition are unable to operate profitably and thus close shop in large numbers. The company has a homely work environment, staff feels appreciated, and this makes them work for the company for many years (Emma, 2021). The company has been accredited by the UK chamber of commerce as one of the firms that will experience continuous growth over the next generation especially in the post-Covid era (Lichy, 2021).

Angling and professionally using the social media and digital marketing space has seen the company expand its brand recognition footprint across the United Kingdom and the globe. Digitally, the company has expertly used social media marketing resources to reach a younger and fashion perceptive client base that has generated millions in sales revenues around the globe. Social media has proven to be a key marketing tool for the firm and embracing the same was a game-changer in its corporate growth strategic blueprints.

Challenges

A high taxation regime within the United Kingdom have predisposed the company to revenue attrition and thus starves the company of financial resources that would otherwise be used to finance the company’s growth plans. As opposed to paying a 25-30% corporate tax rate, the company should be charged around 10% corporate tax on its annual revenues to ensure the company grows more steadily. High tax rates in the UK have made the company experience tougher competition conditions from Indo Asian firms that enjoy tax holidays from their home governments (Alberto et., al., 2003). Differentiated product prices make the United Kingdom produced products to be highly-priced as compared to Indo Asian produced firms and thus makes United Kingdom (Adam, 2011) products lose their market edge over the other yarn products.

Opportunities

The Grey Sheep Company has adopted artificial intelligence machines in its product-production cycles and this has reduced the cost of production that was eating up a big chunk of the company’s revenues as a production expense. Emma, the managing director credits her passion for mixing tech modalities onto her business operations processes and this has had catalytic effects on the quality of the yarn products produced. Modern business practices dictate that the businesses of the next generation must future-proof their operations by implementing fail-proof artificial intelligence systems in their production regiments (Wright, 2019). Yarn is a delicate product to work with and profit margins are made only when companies can manufacture products with minimal material wastage during production. (Lord, 2003). Artificial intelligence in the production process in according the company with precision production modules that will ensure the company doubles its £1.2 million profits in the next 10 years.

Threats

Chinese products are the bogeyman in the yarn market segment in the United Kingdom because China produces and markets its yarn products at half price compared to their UK counterparts (Laruelle, 2017). High labour costs and long product supply chain channels make The Grey Sheep company products face stiff market penetration conditions because of cheap Chinese yarn products. Additionally, Brexit through a spanner in the market expansion plans of the company because they are currently finding it extremely difficult to ship their products to the European Union (Elliott, et., al. 2020). (Schaaf, 2017) EU was one of the core markets that the company was servicing with its products and with the UK exiting the economic block, the protection that they once experienced in the EU is now not available and thus they have to face exportation bottlenecks that they previously did not face when selling across the European Union.

2.2: Use of Corporate Social Responsibility

The Grey Sheep Company has been playing a critical role in reducing its carbon footprint by implementing climate-smart business processes. The company produces its wool and yarn in-house and this cuts the material sourcing supply chain that accelerates carbon emissions during transportation. Producing the wool and yarn in their 310-acre farm has ensured that they sell ethically produced yarn and that they do not participate in the purchase of yarn and raw materials sourced from slave labour serviced industries.

2.3: Innovation and creativity in business

Thinking of items made from wool, mostly clothes, blankets, and yarn are probably the first things that come to the mind of most people. Wool is one of Britain’s greatest natural resources gratitude to the farmers, producers and entrepreneurs it is now being used in many more innovative and unusual ways – household insulation, garden twine, slug pellets and home interiors, to name just but a few.

People are very much creative when it comes to the use of wool from sheep. It is argued that wool is 100% natural, not manmade. Every year, sheep produce a new fleece making wool an inexhaustible fibre source. In addition, wool is compostable and takes a very limited time to break down in comparison to most synthetic materials, which degrade much more slowly. Lastly, wool is a natural insulator and can help to reduce carbon emissions when used in the home.

Part 3: Conclusions and Recommendations

The Grey Sheep Company is a going concern that is proving to be the future proof and in the next years, it will grow further and produce more revolutionary yarn products. The company should aim to access the African market because it is a market with huge potential given that 77% of its population is below 35 years. The youthful market segment will accord the company access to a market population that demands fashionable products that are produced in an eco-friendly way. The management of the firm should also focus on marketing their yarn products to the Australian market because of the high purchasing power capacities in this market. Market expansion and finding diverse markets for their products will ensure that the company will be a key player in the yarn products market in the future.

The use of influencer marketing dynamic that is propping up around the world will also see the company gain access to a bigger luxury market audience that they do not currently have access to and this will revolutionize their earning spectrum. Focus on getting more high-end clients to purchase their premium product category and see the earnings skyrocket. Top of the pyramid clients spend without price concern and thus fewer resources will be used to produce and market products intended for this market category because one luxury product purchase equals five mid-ranged product purchases. The company should use high society brand influencers to penetrate the high-end market segment that pays a premium price for luxury products and all marketing campaigns should be centred on displaying ethical production processes used to manufacture the yarn products. The yarn sweaters produced by this company are proving to be a fashion must-have for the fashion-forward British society and this is a good thing for the company’s bottom-line going forward.

Reference

Adam, S., 2011. Tax By Design: The Mirrlees Review. 1 ed. Oxford: OUP Oxford.

Air University Air University Press, N. D. W., 2019. Artificial Intelligence, China, Russia, and the Global Order. s.l.:Independently Published, 2019.

Akenji, L., 2015. Sustainable Consumption and Production: A Handbook for Policymakers. s.l.:UNEP, United Nations Environment Programme, 2015.

Alberto Bull, United Nations. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit, 2003. Traffic Congestion: The Problem and how to Deal with it. UK: United Nations, Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, 2003.

Emma, 2021. About Us: The Grey Sheep Co.. [Online] Available at: https://www.thegreysheep.co.uk/pages/about-us [Accessed 1 October 2021].

Laruelle, M., 2017. China's Belt and Road Initiative and Its Impact in Central Asia. Washington: Central Asia Program, 2017.

Lichy, J., 2021. Post-COVID-19 Perspectives on International Business. 1 ed. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Lord, P. R., 2003. Handbook of Yarn Production: Technology, Science and Economics. 1 ed. New York: Elsevie.

Mark Elliott, Jack Williams, Alison L Young, 2020. The UK Constitution after Miller: Brexit and Beyond. Cambridge: Bloomsbury Academic, 2020.

Schaaf, T., 2017. What is the effect of the Brexit on the economy of the United Kingdom and the European Union?. 1 ed. London: GRIN Verlag.

Continue your journey with our comprehensive guide to The Golden Circle Model.