Kate Lainesse Christopher Quintin Andrea Ellis Lizards Action Wear Company, Company Mission, Business Model Lizards Action Wear is located in Sudbury, Ontario. It is a manufactured and retailed Lycra stretch sportswear for athletes. Their mission is to provide high quality active wear for athletes of different levels. Objectives The company strives to supply to professional athletes. The company wants to grow; it is already doing so at the moment by creating new garments such as the winter warm-up jacket. Symptoms The sales by month are not consistent. The sales from December to January had a sales’ difference of 7400$ and from January to February, the difference was 16 700$. Lizards sales represented less than 10 percent of the club and or teams market in Canada. Probable causes The profit of the company is reduced due to the retail margins demanded by retail stores (30-50% on selling price). The raw material quality is not always consistent and because of that they lost a contract with the Alberta cycling team. Predicting how much material needed and sewers is practically impossible with the huge variation in demand for the product.
Strengths (INTERNAL) The company produces many types of Lycra clothing such as cycling shorts, jerseys and cross-country ski suits. Toll free number which gave her the opportunity to basically reach anybody in the Canadian market. Provincial level teams in cycling and cross-country skiing are exposing her brand. Personal relationships are created with her target market, which is people who do sports. Free catalogue which is mailed to the athletes. Promotion placed within a few sports magazines in many provinces of Canada. Liz and her assistant cut out materials themselves which make them save money.
Weaknesses (INTERNAL) Her target market consists of less than 15 percent of the population in Canada. Can’t give discounts of any sorts because they didn’t purchase enough raw materials. Opportunities (EXTERNAL) Not many companies and or brands are selling any sportswear made of Lycra in Canada. Lizards Action Wear is vertically integrating itself by creating a new product line of winter warm-up jackets and pants made of Tasnyl. Lizards Action Wear is interested in sublimation which is a new printing technique that the company has recently discovered which would potentially cut costs in the long run. There are many sports teams in Ontario alone that have not yet been approached by any company for sportswear. Threats (EXTERNAL) Louis Garneau is their competitor. This brand and supplier is Quebec based. They are more recognized by the public (meaning the sports people). They handle much larger orders than Lizards Action Wear. Louis Garneau is better within the retail segment compared to Lizards. Also Domini and Sugoi are growing companies who could potentially affect their sales in the long run. There are only 2 Lycra suppliers available in Canada, which can be worrisome because she might not have enough material available to her. During one year, there was a shortage of Lycra. The company lost a source of income with her husband’s business going bankrupt. Problem Their sales aren't as big as they could be because Louis Garneau is there taking the general public and the elite athletes. Alternative 1 Lizards Action Wear could try to sponsor a professional athlete. Pros: The celebrity's fan will surely copy the athlete and then buy the same sportswear . This will increase the target market and also the sales. Cons: It could be expensive to sponsor an athlete . Alternative 2
She could try to stop asking for a 50% deposit when clients make their orders by phone and email and she could spend more time on the open public than personally calling customers. Pros: This could bring more people to shop. She could bring the non-elite people because they want to have help and actually see the garments they are willing to buy. Also, to ask for a 50% deposit is too much for a regular athlete. Cons: She couldn't buy more lycra whenever she wants, she would have to wait until she actually gets some kind of money from the customer if she doesn't ask for the 50% deposit anymore. Alternative 3 They could try to sell their products in retail stores near Louis Garneau's with lower prices. Pros: This could bring more people to buy their garments because the price is lower than their competitor and sticking with the same type of quality and in the same area.
Plan of action: Alternative 1: She needs to contact all the athletes that she wants to sponsor in the future. She needs to make a contract and let the athlete sign it. This could be made whenever she wants, but the fastest the better. She will ask them by phone, email and in person is the better choice. Alternative 2 She needs to make sure that she will have enough money to work with when she'll stop asking for the 50% deposit. Whenever she has the money, she could take it off. She needs to get all the information to start working on the open public store. Alternative 3 She needs to go look at Louis Gurnee’s prices and quality to then try to get to sell her garments less expensive. She also needs to spot her competitor's retail store so she can ask for rent information to establish herself near Louis Garneau. She needs to ask an interior design person to help her with the design and branding
of her store on the inside. She can take the time to do all that because it needs to be perfect. She also needs to ask a marketing person so they can help her with what will actually increase her sales and if lowering her price will make her worst. Control: Alternative 1 She would have to find a way to contact them, she would have to figure out who are there representatives and explain what is Lizards Action Wear. She would also need a great amount of money to spend on the athelete; he will most definitely not do it for free. If there is any issues she could basically try to go for different athletes, more specified for the Canada, such as lets say the Canadians of Montreal or the Argonauts of Toronto. Alternative 2 This decision is a very big one. She could get more customers that have live more on a pay that they have now and not later. They have the money at the present but they might not have it in two weeks. Doing this could help these people who might want to have greater quality products once in a while. She would have to look at how this affects her sales, does she have more or less after a year. Have her numbers grown or have people been buying smaller items and paying at the single given moment. Alternative 3 Getting herself near a Louis Garneau retailer might be something that is very gutsy, but if she finds the money and time it could definitely not hurt her in the long run. Many could see that she is more about quality as Louis Garneau is now more worn by children then big athletes. To ensure that this would work she would have to establish herself a budget, also she would have to see how much money she has made after placing herself near a Louis Garneau provider. Would people come and compare or would people naturally stick to what they have been buying which is Louis Garneau? She would have to make herself a yearly plan for all of this and check it at the end to make sure she is not falling within her numbers of sales.