1. Assess the strengths and weaknesses of the company Horniman Horticulture.
- Horniman Horticulture has a variety of strengths and weaknesses, among them are a mix of quantitative numbers to support the performance as well as qualitative factors to support the performance. We should address the management to start with and their business philosophies. One of the co-owners Bob Brown has a very strong work ethic, which he has achieved through his fathers personal career path to become a foreman of a lumber mill in Southwest Virginia. Bob followed his father’s footsteps and was made supervisor at the lumber mill after his educational side was achieved, among working as a supervisor he was highly respected. Bob was a “people person” that customers and employees liked a lot.
Their capability of having a very diverse yet specialized product range is a huge strength as they can have very close relationships to their customers and building a strong personal relationship to every individual.
Among the quantitative strengths are the stable revenue growths, a high operating profit leading to a high net profit. With a stable and strong 25% growth rate this is one of their strongest aspects in the company and the growth rate is strongly correlated to Bobs determination of shifting the product mix to nurseries that were willing to pay more for plants that delivered “instant landscape”. The operating profit is also correlated to the high revenue growth as the gross profit increased leading to a higher operating profit and thus leading to an expected growth of 30,1% in net profit. A lot of the steady margin improvements were due to Bob’s responsive actions towards a growing demand from customers of more-mature plants, which shows a clear correlation from management sector directly affecting their financial sector.
A positive aspect of Maggie paying her suppliers early is the gain in a 2% discount, but this also incurs a negative side as