Alpes S
Alpes S.A. Case
Strategic Management
04-75-498-02
Dr. Fritz Rieger
Submitted March 5th 2012
Matt Walsh, Peter Bosi, Andrew Lo,
Fadi Haidar, and Imad Patel
Key Issues They key issue in this case has to do with whether the company (Charles River Laboratories) should invest up to 2 million dollars in a joint venture with Mexican company ALPES. The joint venture will make state of the art specific pathogen free eggs. Right now ALPES produces these however they aren’t of the best product quality right now. CRL is worried about this along with how they are going to control the product quality in Mexico. They are also unsure about investing in Mexico due to its reputation and the fact that they are working with a company that is family run quite a bit differently than CRL is. The final question is will this 2 million dollar investment be worth it and when will they see the growth from this investment if the product sells.
Analysis – Internal Analysis To fully understand what resources CRL has and what they can bring to the table their resources will be examined using a VRINE (Value, Rarity, Inimitability, Non-Substitutability, and Exploitability) analysis. After this analysis it will be a bit clearer from an internal viewpoint if this joint venture is a good idea. The value for the specific pathogen free egg has grown quite a bit around the world. It is estimated that it have exceeding what is being produced by almost 10%. This is good news for CRL because it shows that this product is in high demand which means that they won’t have a problem in the foreseeable future finding buyers. In Mexico ALPES is the biggest supplier of these eggs. This is a plus if this joint venture goes ahead because they have a good reputation in Mexico and the distribution has already worked out. The rarity of these eggs was caused by the increasing amount of diseases found in the standard egg sold by a farmer. Since these eggs are being used to create vaccines like the
Strategic Management
04-75-498-02
Dr. Fritz Rieger
Submitted March 5th 2012
Matt Walsh, Peter Bosi, Andrew Lo,
Fadi Haidar, and Imad Patel
Key Issues They key issue in this case has to do with whether the company (Charles River Laboratories) should invest up to 2 million dollars in a joint venture with Mexican company ALPES. The joint venture will make state of the art specific pathogen free eggs. Right now ALPES produces these however they aren’t of the best product quality right now. CRL is worried about this along with how they are going to control the product quality in Mexico. They are also unsure about investing in Mexico due to its reputation and the fact that they are working with a company that is family run quite a bit differently than CRL is. The final question is will this 2 million dollar investment be worth it and when will they see the growth from this investment if the product sells.
Analysis – Internal Analysis To fully understand what resources CRL has and what they can bring to the table their resources will be examined using a VRINE (Value, Rarity, Inimitability, Non-Substitutability, and Exploitability) analysis. After this analysis it will be a bit clearer from an internal viewpoint if this joint venture is a good idea. The value for the specific pathogen free egg has grown quite a bit around the world. It is estimated that it have exceeding what is being produced by almost 10%. This is good news for CRL because it shows that this product is in high demand which means that they won’t have a problem in the foreseeable future finding buyers. In Mexico ALPES is the biggest supplier of these eggs. This is a plus if this joint venture goes ahead because they have a good reputation in Mexico and the distribution has already worked out. The rarity of these eggs was caused by the increasing amount of diseases found in the standard egg sold by a farmer. Since these eggs are being used to create vaccines like the