Granny Blind Care Social Enterprise
Business Plan
Executive Summary
This business plan is aim to help Grany Food Co. Ltd to become a franchise thanks to the
investment and help of Taiwan Foundation of the Blind. The current owner of Granny Food
Co. Ltd wish to delegate the management to a more qualified and responsible person or entity.
She wishes to solely focus on the baking which was her main reason to start that business in
the first place.
Our goal is to show that thanks to the extra fund, the development of a franchise is possible as
well as concealing a viable business model and social commitment. Granny Food Co. Ltd
wish to become a place where visually impaired could be an active part of the society and not
stay only passive and requiring helps.
Even though the market is dominated by big franchise like 85C cafe or Starbucks, there is a
demand for a socially commited company caring for the healthiness of its community and
Granny Food Co.Ltd products answers to that request.
Granny Food Co. Ltd main product will be their cookies which are easily transported and
could become a great asset to advertise about the company’s mission.
As the result of that business plan, Taiwan Foundation for the Blind will have a clear picture
of what could be expected of the market in Tainan after opening two retail shops.
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1. Company Description
1.1.
Company History
It all started with the restaurant. As the most important person, a good cook, was already
included, the restaurant was opened, and customers were quite satisfied. In addition, the team
decided to sell baked goods at the restaurant as well – cookies and cakes, which got a very
good feedback from the clients.
Unfortunately the cook decided to leave, because of the job offering from abroad. That was
fatal for the restaurant business, but the customers adviced to continue selling cakes and
cookies, which still remained to be with a very good taste. The baker was very committed to
that as well – before starting selling the baked goods, she had taken some courses to learn
how to make different cakes, waffles, desserts etc (mainly for the concern of her children),
and because of early retirement, she also had free time.
The name Granny came from the idea, that the baker had always wished to be a granny. Also
this name is reflecting to home-feeling, family-feeling, what you can get by enjoying the
baked products – which are not richly decorated, but more intended to give the feeling, that
the products are home-made. It is important to mention that the products made are healthy
considering the nutrition value, and thus will give you even more the feeling that while
making the products, the baker is thinking about your health and wants you only the best.
The idea to start a social enterprise named Granny Blind Care Social Enterprise came from
the fact that the people behing Granny Food Co. Ltd. (the bakery) had a personal contact with
the Taiwan Foundation for the Blind. Their own son Tony is visually impaired, the whole
family wanted to do something to help all the visually impaired people who had difficulties
finding a job. As they also wanted to develop the Granny Food Co. Ltd., which was more like
Internet business and needed more physical representatives, they just put two and two
together, and came out with the idea of a socially responsible entreprise.
1.2.
Mission Statement
Everybody must have an opportunity. The company’s one main goal is to help visually
impaired persons by giving them a job they are able to do, by giving them an opportunity.
Also, as the visually impaired persons develop their skills, they can later become from a
simple employee to a manager, and even a franchise owner. The company has stated that the
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franchise licence will be given only to visually impaired person (company policy to help
people who actually need it – normal people have access to other opportunities).
The second goal would be to raise the public awareness about visually impaired people living
among the society. By promoting the job opportunities offered to visually impaired persons,
the Taiwan Foundation for the Blinds, and the ways people can support them, the Granny
Foods Co. Ltd. in cooperation with the Granny Blind Care Social Enterprise can make the
community more helpful to each other and also make them notice the society members, who
does not have all the same opportunities as everybody else.
The next goal would be to help Taiwanese people to eat healthy and tasty bakery goods. By
enjoyng products made by Granny, they would know that their health is being considered
while baking the goods and a savory taste is achieved. As Granny is also offering Chinese
traditional baked goods, the consumers can order all the products needed for celebrations
from one place.
The last but not least, Granny’s products offer the customer a cousy family ambiance (Granny
concept). This is done by using the recipes that will make the baked goods as tasty as being
home-made (at the same time considering your health), and also providing good services by
the employees who have the working environment as in family business.
1.3.
Products and Services
1) Cookies
2) Cakes
3) Chinese Traditional Products
4) Chocolate – special orders
The products sold should make people feel like they are consuming something tasty and
home-made, and reminding them the family-feeling (Granny concept – the products should
remind people their Grannies who are known for baking a lot of good-tasting food-products).
Instead of decorating them with unhealthy sugar glaze and trying to give them an appealing
look, Granny’s products remain simple as a hint for customers that health issues are also
considered and all the unnecessary and unhealthy add-on have been removed. Customers
health is set as a priority – and due to that, all the ingredients used are the purest and
healthiest ones.
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Right now the cakes are the main product – around 80% of sales revenue comes from selling
them, but the cookies which were added to the product list only 5 months ago, are gaining
more and more popularity. The cookies are also a great asset to the company as cookies’ date
of consumption is significantly longer than cakes. As kitchen production is limited, products
with different date of consumption help to maintain a efficient kitchen workload and pace.
Until now the cakes have been sold as a whole (as 1 big unit), but when in cooperation with
the Taiwan Foundation for the Blind the retail store will be opened, they should also be sold
by pieces meant for one person (so that people can also buy the cakes piece-by-piece and have
a little tasty experience with a cup of coffee or tea – needed for the cafe corner in the retail
store). For the cookies there should have many several sizes of packages. Different
combination offerings are also a good idea – like to have different types of cookies and two
cups of tea together with one price (for example, 3 different types of cookies, 2 cookies from
each type – altogether 6 cookies – and two cups of tea or coffee for 100 NTD). Also, a
combined packages of different products (cookies and small cakes) are made and sold.
The Chinese traditional baked products are also in the product list (mainly for the Chinese
New Year, Dragon Boat Festival and Moon Festival) and as the local people tend to consume
baked products at that time the most, it is the most busy time for Granny. Also other
international celebration days such as Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day (days when people
are more tending to consume cakes) are considered as busy times for the enterprise.
Special chocolate products are made only for special orders.
1.4.
Current Status
Right now Granny Food Co. Ltd. has a kitchen in Tainan with all the equipment needed – for
the first few years there will be only one central kitchen located in Tainan. There is an option
to build another central kitchen in Taipei as Granny’s experience spreads to the North and
demand is sufficient to open a retail store as well.
There will be an oven and a baker in every store opened – to make the customers feel that
baked goods are really fresh and also to give even more the feeling of home-made product by
making them warm. Warm products are of course followed by a nice sweet smell enhancing
the shopping experience and working as an incentive to customers. It will be also helpful by
creating the family- and home-feeling of the store and the products. Currently the location of
the first store is being seeked in Tainan (with the rent of 20 000 – 50 000 NTD per month and
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area of 90m2). It is planned to open in February/March 2013 with a 2 people working in the
store – one with full vision and one visually impaired. In next 2-3 months time another store
in Tainan will be opened. Following the plan will be to open the third shop in Taipei – but
first two stores must prove themselves first. After opening few shops in Taipei to fully cover
Taiwan Northern customers, a store in Taichung might be an option so Granny Food Co. Ltd.
would be covering entirely Taiwan.
In the central kitchen, there will be 2 people working. One of them Granny Food Co. Ltd.
already has, but another one is to be found. For the first store, 1 candidate (visually impaired)
has been already found, and at the first place he/she will be working as an intern (part-time
job) to go through all the steps. Later the working contract will be overseen, and in case of
success, he/she will start working there full-time to become a manager or even a franchise
owner later. The enterprise is also looking for a good manager to supervise the development
pace.
For recruiting the staff – visually impaired persons will be given the priority as one main
goals of the enterprise is to provide them with job opportunities. Any person with workable
vision can apply – also normal persons, as they are also needed to help visually impaired
person in the retail store. The idea is normal people and people with visual disabilities to work
together, so in case of problems one cannot solve, the other can help. The employees of the
enterprise must be selected very carefully – for the visually impaired, those with the vision of
becoming a franchise owner should be preferred, because those workers will be more
interested about company’s development and they will be doing better job helping the
community to raise their awareness of visually impaired people and the cooperation with the
Granny Food Co. Ltd.
Right now the products are being sold mainly through websites – there is one Granny
webpage managed by Tony, who is visually impaired and son of the owners of Granny
Bakery. Baked goods are made in the central kitchen and sent to customers (delivering time 23 days – due arrangements can be managed faster). There is also one more online retailer who
found Granny by their own and as they liked the products, they made an agreement with
Granny to sell those baked goods through their website as well (Granny’s goods are their
main product). In the future, this online retailer is going to be a partner of Granny Blind Care
Social Enterprise.
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As the Taiwan Foundation for the Blinds is the main partner, right now there is an agreement
with them to start together the Granny Blind Care Social Enterprise which would be helping
visually impaired persons with job opportunities, promoting social awareness and informing
people about that kind of people living among themselves and also good and healthy baked
products produced here in Taiwan. The Taiwan Foundation for the Blind is supporting the
project financially, and tries to find businessman or angel investors who would be interested
to help and raise the enterprise’s capital.
1.5.
Legal Status and Ownership
At first there will be one centralized kitchen which belongs to Granny Food Co. Ltd. – the
enterprise which is already working mainly as an Internet business by selling home-baked
cookies, cakes and Chinese traditional goods. The retail stores would belong to the Granny
Blind Care Social Enterprise (C corporation), which will be owned by the Taiwan Foundation
for the Blinds, Granny Food Co. Ltd. and if possible, some angel investors or businessman.
The president of the Blind Foundation will be also the president of the new enterprise, Granny
Blind Care Social Enterprise.
There will be a possibility for franchises, but only for visually impaired persons and only for
those who have been through all the employee positions in the store and who really have an
interest and financial resources needed (all those criterions should be checked while recruiting
the staff).
1.6.
Key Partnerships
The most important partner is Taiwan Foundation for the Blind who is supporting the
enterprise with contacts of potential employees, with advertisments through the enterprise to
all the members and their families – also, as the connection between the foundation and the
enterprise will be noticeable, it will help to sell the products to all those people who are
concerned about helping blind or visually impaired persons.
The foundation is the first Taiwanese organization to provide the complete service and
prospective projection for the disabled people in terms of government's policies of culture and
education, job training and related welfare. They know that independence is very important to
the members of Blind Foundation and therefore the foundation actively promotes the public
interest activities in hope encouraging the public to raise their knowledge, and altogether to
help visually impaired persons to be normal members of the society. The foundation has the
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passion for their job, and the employees there have the positive thinking and belief to human’s
good nature – with cooperation of the Granny Food Co. Ltd. they can spread their attitude and
knowledge to more people and thereby help together the visually impaired persons and the
social community.
As already mentioned, the Foundation is also supporting the enterprise financially and helping
them to find some businessman or angels who would also like to support the socially
responsible enterprise. There is also going to be intense cooperation between the retail stores
and the Blind foundation service centers (in Taiwan, altogether 7 offices in the biggest cities)
as the retail stores will be also providing materials about the foundation and the visually
impaired persons. The Granny Blind Care stores can work as a store / cafe / representative for
the foundation’s service center and thereby raise more public awareness about the people they
are all together trying to help.
One more partner will be the website which is now selling the cakes and cookies with their
own initiative. As the Granny Blind Care Social Enterprise will start its work, this website can
also help to promote the foundation, the visually impaired persons, and the good and healthy
products made by Granny. Due to that even more people can raise their knowledge, and the
visually impaired persons and their needs will become more visible – thereby the community
can help them to better take care for themselves and to raise their confidence which will also
give the base of better life.
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2. Industry Analysis
2.1.
Industry Size, Growth Rate, and Sales Projections
Taiwan market is currently dominated by 85℃. That company has now 225 regular stores, 74
bakery and 179 24-hrs stores in Taiwan. Therefore it constitutes the market leader. As its
growth was very quick thanks to huge investment. We also hope that thanks to Taiwan
Foundation for Blind financial help we will be able to achieve such growth pace.
Altough the presence of 85℃ Cafe, the market is in a slow pace expansion. A lot of concurrent
are lurking into 85℃ Cafe’s market share. The main reason is that 85℃ Cafe offers a wide
range of baked goods: from breads to sweet or salty pastries or cakes. Its image is thereby a
simple bakery. One of the striving competitor is Starbucks which franchise is owned by UniPresident and thus can have access to massive investment. However while selling also sweet
pasties and cakes, Starbucks main core product is coffee. Customers go there to buy a coffee
and maybe cake or pastries.
Our Granny Blind Care Charity Shop image will be a bakery commited to its community by
providing healthy cookies and cakes and helping the visually impaired people. We expect
people to follow the trend of eating healthier and wishing to be help their community.
2.2.
Industry Structure
85℃ Cafe has set the current standard of a bakery shop. A bakery shop should offer daily
fresh bread, sweet or salty pastries, cakes and drinks (coffee or tea). Customers follow a
simple-single path through the shop while holding a plate and picking sweet or salty pastries
then end up to the cashier. Customers wishing to buy cakes have to take another entrance or a
different cashier with cakes displayed nearby. There are also tables and chairs provided to
give a cafe-like ambiance and customers are provided with free internet wifi.
2.3.
Key Success Factors
The main key success factors to the industry is the relative reasonable prices for baked goods
which are not inherent to Asian culture. Breads and alike are a trendy snack spread by the
presence of more and more foreigners and especially Western foreigners who has that bread
culture. Offering freshly breads also goes with Taiwanese habits to eat fresh products.
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2.4.
Industry Trends
The industry focus more and more on selling cakes, daifuku or donuts. Those baked goods
have a higher margin profit. Cakes are bought for any occasions or event from a conference to
birthday party. It’s an enjoyable good but which isn’t eaten on a casual basis. Besides the size
of cakes doesn’t allow a single person to buy for himself alone. There are also single portion
but those require more space and aren’t as profitable as selling the whole cake. Cakes’
nutrition value is also quite bad. The main ingredients of cake are cream, sugar glaze and
chocolate which are used in excessive quantity to give an appealing look to the cake.
Daifuku trend remains strong among Taiwanese. That is mainly because of the very close
relationship between Japan and Taiwan. Several Japanese habits have been passed to the
Taiwaneses. Daifuku are composed of single fruit wrapped into a dough of sticky rice while
savoring the taste of the fruit and the low calories content of the dough, customers are left
with an healthy impression. Despite an undeniable healthy value of daifuku, the prices are
relatively high because of the fruits. Moreover the dough of sticky rice is still not very popular
among Taiwanese. Daifuku are thus an occasional product bought by customers.
Donuts trend has been striving with the arrival of several big franchise: Mr Donuts or Dunkin.
The American habits coming from the TV-series and movies have spread in Taiwan and
increases customers’ interest for donuts. Donuts are deep-fried flour dough shaped in rings
topped or containing frosted, glazed, powdered, Boston cream, coconut, sour cream,
cinnamon, chocolate, and jelly. The nutritional value for 100g of donut is 450kCalories. It’s
very high and thus not considered as a healthy dessert food.
2.5.
Long-term Prospects
The industry has a lot of competitor which could frighten any new-comers however the
industry clearly shows that there is still a niche market unexplored by the current competitors:
the healthy baked good segment. Although the habit slowly changes for healthier dessert
goods the current competitors still struggle with an strong brand image that doesn’t allow
them to follow the healthy food trend. Therefore Granny Food Charity Shop will target that
segment which is right now small enough to host it but not other competitors and will
eventually become bigger.
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3. Market Analysis
3.1.
Market Segmentation and Target Market Selection
85C cafe has defined the standard of the industry. There is currently no high class bakery
however some groceries sell at a low price some baked goods with very short date of
consumption (usually less than a day).
A single baked good cost an average of 30-40ntd allowing students, families or white collar to
buy them. Most of the breads are brought for breakfast by families, while students also buy
them as snacks. However the nutritional value is limited. Because Granny Food Charity Shop
is concerned about the healthiness of its community, it wishes to improve those standards by
offering simple but yet tasty and healthy snacks.
The target market will be the students especially those from elementary schools and junior
high schools because they are always seeking some snacks and their parents are concerned
about their health. Parents going to pick up their children after school or wishing them to have
healthy snacks will definately buy our products.
As for special events, customers usually buy a large quantity of baked goods.
3.2.
Competitor Analysis
85C cafe is a western-like bakery although its products have been designed to suit the
Taiwanese tastes but the healthiness of their goods is low. It usually operates 24h/7 and has a
large range of birthday cakes. However even for special events such as Chinese New Year,
85C cafe offers very limited Chinese baked goods. Granny Food Charity Shop has an edge in
those situations as half of its products are traditional Chinese baked goods.
Dunkin and Mister Donuts are struggling to expand their market shares and there are still very
few shops opened around Taiwan. Besides the healthiness of their products is very bad and
the relative high price for a donut (20-40ntd) is an obstacle to their development. Thus donuts
franchises cannot be considered as a strong threat for our company.
Starbucks which main core product is coffee can be seen as an effecient competitor because of
the trendy wind blowing around the franchise. The coffees are expensive (more than 100ntd)
and could prevent eventual customers to choose Starbucks over Granny Food.
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4. Marketing Plan
4.1.
Overall Marketing Strategy
We want to focus on concerned parents about healthy snacks for their children. Those parents
would have children in elementary schools or junior high schools. It’s critically to get their
approval as they are the main influence on Taiwanese next generation. They will model the
new habits. If an elementary school student has the habit to eat healthy food and especially
our snacks that habit will remain as he/she grows up and will be spread out easily. Besides
mothers with children in elementary schools are a very influent component on the general
opinion as well. They possess large networks and the word-of-mouth spread particularly fast
through them.
4.2.
Product, Price, Promotions, and Distribution
Our main products are cakes and cookies.
One of our original cake is a milk-frozen roll cake which receives large praises by the
previous customers of Granny Food restaurant and from current customers as well. That
product might be one of our best-seller in the near future as it isn’t available or not as tasty at
other competitors.
The cookies also had great feedbacks. One of the nice feature of the cookies is their longer
date of consumption than usual baked goods. It allows a more flexible baking planning as
well as leaving the customers no urge to finish them quickly. There are at that time three
different flavors for the cookies: lavender, coffee and cheese. Our recipe designer will be
looking for more flavors as the company grows. The size of the cookies allows easy
transportation and could work even better than flyers as an advertisement for the Granny Food
Charity Shop.
The prices were set from Granny Food Co. Ltd. Experience whose ingredient price was
divided as 30% for the ingredients, 60% for the employees and 10% of marging profit
however thanks to the opening of franchise, economy of scale can be expected and the gross
margin will as shown in the financial part steadily increase.
The cookies can either be bought by set of five or twelve. The set of five will cost 50ntd while
the set of twelve will cost 100ntd. The customers will also be offered a set a two cookies of
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each flavors (so six cookies at all) and two teas for the price of 100ntd. We wish our
customers being able to enjoy and share our products.
As at 85C cafe, customers will only have one simple single path to walk. The first products
seen by the customers will be the whole cakes, as they proceed single portion will be reach
their eyes and near the cashier the different cookies will be put into different wood-like basket
on a layer. Leaving the cookies near the cashier will increase the customers’ purchase rate as
they see them as small and affordable snacks.
Granny Food Charity Shop will provide Taiwan Foundation for the Blind with cakes and
cookies for their events in order to promote the franchise. Small packet of cookies will also be
sold in Taiwan Foundation for the blind centers.
Cookies baking sessions could be planned by Taiwan Foundation for the Blind to promote
healthy eating habits. They would be opened to anyone, but priority given to visually
impaired. In those sessions as well as baking cookies, the participants will be able to buy
cookies made by Granny Food Charity Shop for those events.
Promoting in schools and churches is also an option to show our full commitment to our ideas.
In those occasions, free cookies will be given.
As stated earlier, the customers have the option to either order by phone or through Granny
Food’s website.The shipment will be made the next day as we are using Yamato Transport
and customers can expect their orders within two days.
Delivery to the retail shops will be made in the morning to allow a flexible management of the
retail store inventory. At first delivery could be made every two days as the demand isn’t
strong enough but it is the maximum time length to assure the freshness of our products.
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5. Management Team and Company Structure
5.1.
Management Team
The new enterprise is going to be a C corporation. The C corporations are organisations where
profits pass to owners and are only taxed at individual level – there is also an advantage of
lower tax level, which is made this form of enterprise very popular. This kind of company is
used to limit the owner’s legal and financial liabilities. C corporations are legally considered
separate entities from their owners.
To work properly, a C corporation must have shareholders, officers, directors and employees.
The shareholders (and the owners of the new enterprise) will be the owners of the Granny
Food Co. Ltd., Taiwan Foundation for the Blinds and if found, businessman and angel
investors who would like to support the enterprise financially. One of their task is going to be
the selection of board of directors who in turn, will select the officers for the company.
As the company will be quite small in the beginning, some people might have to take several
roles, not only one. For example the employees have to take the duties of the officers, and at
the same time they might be also a shareholders. There will be board of directors, board of
advisors, the CEO who will be responsible for all the system working properly (the manager
of the social enterprise), managers for each of the stores, store clerks and bakery staff for each
store and then chef and other staff working in the centralized kitchen. The current baker (as
named before, the chef) will be responsible for the kitchen’s operations.
In the beginning there will be only one manager for the first store in Tainan, who will also
take the place as the manager for the Granny Blind Care Social Enterprise (as the workload in
the beginning with only one store won’t be too big). Later when another store in Tainan will
be opened and thereby the workload increases, the first store needs to have another manager
as the first one will remain as the CEO of the social enterprise. This might be also a great
opportunity for the first visually impaired person hired, because he/she might be capable at
that time to become the manager by himself/herself.
As the Granny Food Co. Ltd. (bakery) owners feel that they don’t want to be the managers for
the new company, and they also need to manage the bakery, they are currently looking for
somebody else to take the position. The baker (one of the owners of the Granny Food Co. Ltd.)
wishes to simply work in the kitchen and bake the products for the new enterprise. And her
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husband has other occupation (a professor at the university), and he expressed his wish to
only remain as an adviser. Unfortunately a good manager is hard to find – but they will keep
searching. He/she should be open-minded, socially committed, enthusiastic and with a
previous work-experience (3-4 years) as a manager or in a bakery company to be suitable for
that position. In the beginning, when it occurs that all other conditions are suitable for opening
the first store in February/March 2013, the enterprise is also willing to choose a manager
among themselves until a fitting manager is found.
The law states that there have to be at least two officers chosen – a president and a secretary.
It is already decided that the president of the new enterprise will be the president of the
Taiwan Foundation for the Blinds - Hsieh, Pang-chun who is very dedicated to his work and
really wish to give to all the blind and visually impaired persons a chance to be socially
integrated.
Chairman Hsieh is a public-spirited professional manager with abundant knowledge and
practical working experiences, and he was one of the founders of the Taiwan Foundationd for
the Blind in 1991. Over 20 years he has been keeping his passion to his work, promoting the
social organization for the blinds and raised public awareness about visually impaired people
living among ourselves. That makes him the true spirit of the foundation and thereby the very
right man to lead that organization and become the new president of the Granny Blind Care
Social Enterprise.
5.2.
Board of Directors
As already said, the board of directors will be selected by the shareholders (every member has
one vote per share) of the enterprise. The board of directors is an very important institution for
the company, as they are selecting the company officers (such as a secretary, president etc),
who are responsible for the corporation daily work. Furthermore, all the strategically
important decisions will be made by board of directors, and they are also responsible for
enforcing the company’s rules and regulations.
As the enterprise will be quite small in the beginning, the board of directors is not going to be
very large as well (the size of the board is not limited by law). According to the understanding
of this paper’s authors, it will consist of three members: the president, chairman Hsieh, who
has been described earlier; the manager for the first store and the social enterprise (who is still
needed to be found and whose main personalities are also described earlier as the criterions
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for selecting a good manager) – and later also all the managers of each store when there will
be more stores; and the baker as the responsible person for the kitchen and as a representative
of the Granny Food Co. Ltd.
The baker is also very committed to her work, she designs all the original recipes, which are
the base of good-tasting and healthy baked goods. She has always wished to be a granny and
to produce that kind of products, and as she has two grown-up children, her wishes increases
day-by-day along with her great cooking sense. Now, she has also the opportunity to help
visually impaired persons with her passion, and thereby gave her part to make the community
life better and raise public awareness of visually impaired persons difficulties. All of this
together makes her the very best choice to be the representative of Granny Food Co. Ltd.
5.3.
Board of Advisers
A board of advisors is a small group of people which meets periodically (or actually they do
not have any real pressure to meet regularly) to offer advice and direction to a company. The
board of advisors is less formal than board of directors and can incluse any number of people.
They can be chosen from professionals in certain areas (chosen by their knowledge and
prestige), but they can also be trusted co-workers, or anyone who has a relationship with
company’s owners and interest in company’s success. The members do not usually have a
share in the company, and they do not bear legal responsibilities for the company's actions
(compared to board of directors – they bear legal responsibilities for the company’s actions).
As the board of advisors is consisting in people who should have just a professional interest in
company’s success, they could be very useful for a new company like Granny Blind Care
Social Enterprise. All the questions the board of directors might have, could be discussed with
members of board of advisors and thereby another opinion will be given and the topic will be
discussed even more before making a decision. At first the board of advisors will consist only
one member, the husband of the baker, who has several years experience as the advisor in the
field of new enterprises. He has the most important thing an advisor must have – the interest
to make the enterprise work properly – and thereby he is the very best candidate to become
the advisor of the Granny Blind Care Socail Enterprise. Also the experience being selected to
many enterprises board of advisors will make him invaluable for the new enterprise.
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5.4.
Company Structure
At first there will be only one centralized kitchen (located in Tainan Yongkang district) where
all the products are being made and most of them also packed. As the centralized kitchen will
also act as a distribution center, then from there all the products are sent to the retail stores. As
the retail stores will have an oven and a baker per store as well, some products are cut out in
the retail store and other easier operations are made there in the place as well (including
making them warm in the oven and by that, also make the good smell of freshly made baked
products).
In the chart, one could be see the ownership structure of the organization. Granny Blind Care
Social Enterprise will be owned by Taiwan Foundationd for the Blind, Granny Food Co. Ltd.
and potential investors. Granny Blind Care Social Enterprise will own the retail stores, which
later might become franchises.
Taiwan Foundation for the Blind
Granny Blind Care
Charity Shop
Granny Food Co. Ltd.
Tainan Kitchen
Taipei Kitchen
(in the future)
1st retail shop
in Tainan
2nd retail shop
in Tainan
3rd retail shop
in Taipei
Graph 1. The ownership structure.
The supply relation will look like this: Taiwan Foundation for the Blind branded food
products will be developed and produced by Taiwan Foundation for the Blind and sold to
Granny Blind Care Charity Shop for an agreed margin. That means that the kitchen will stay
as an independent enterprise producing baked goods and selling them to the Granny Blind
Care Social Enterprise retail stores. All products will be managed, stored, distributed and
controlled by the enterprise.
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…
At first, every store would have 2 employees – one with full vision and the other visually
impaired. The first store in Tainan will have the visually impaired person and the manager
who is also the manager of the social enterprise. As already described, earlier, as another store
will be opened, he/she will become only the manager of the social enterprise and the store
needs to have a new manager – if capable, the visually impaired person might take the place
(that is the case when he/she has learned all about the previous positions).
Then there will be 2 person working in the kitchen – baker and her assistant. They will also be
in charge of the packaging and to set the daily shipment to customers and to the retail shops.
In the centralized kitchen location, the webpage is also managed by the baker’s son Tony,
who has learned all the abilities to run the webpage smoothly.
The president of the social enterprise is icluded, as well as the husband of the baker, who is
there as the advisor. Altogether the system will start working with seven people, and the
number will increase as the company follow a good development pace.
17
6. Operations Plan
6.1.
General Approach to Operations
As right now the demand is not very big, the Granny Food Co. Ltd (the bakery) can manage
most of the deliveries very well. Actually, during the biggest celebrations of the Lunar Year
(the Moon Festival, Dragon Boat Festival and the Chinese New Year), there have been
cancelled orders as well, because of the great workload during that time. To avoid that kind of
situation in the future, as the demand will definitely start to grow, the schedule must be
worked out. It is essential to precisely know and manage the baking procedure, and how much
time will be needed for packing and delivering to the stores. During the Lunar Calendar
biggest celebrations as well as international celebration days like Mother’s Day or Valentine’s
Day, the production, the packing and the delivery should go even smoothly.
As the cakes will stay fresh about 5 days, some others a little bit longer, it is also very
important to plan the demand – to avoid the losses from unsold cakes and to provide the
freshest taste to each customer. The cookies have a longer date of consumption, but still it is
needed to plan carefully when to produce and to sold maximum amount of produced goods.
Also, the deliveries to the retail stores must be planned in advance to avoid the empty display
stands or too much inventories.
To assure the employees’ awareness of the baked goods as well as the company’s policies,
and as the store will be also a place where to get information about the Blind Foundation, a
training plan was designed for all the new employees. As the authors of the paper thought, the
training should take 5 days (the whole working week) short enough to allow anyone to join
and long enough for employees to grasp everything. Here is the draft of the training plan:
1. Day – introducing the Granny Food Co. Ltd. and all about the baking procedure:
which ingredients are being used, how are the products and ingredients warehoused,
how is the baking and packing processes taking place, how long each processes take,
the nutrition value and the healthiness of the products. Also the history of the company
and where the name and idea has came from.
2. Day – Practical day in the kitchen, the new employees take part of the baking and later
the packing processes to know exactly how the products are being made etc.
18
Those first 2-day will enhance employees’ knowledge about the products and the
company. An product-aware employee will be able to suggest baked goods to demanding
customers as well as increase the sells.
3. Day – introduction of the store processes, at first the reports and the documentary side,
and then how to contact the service centers of the foundation (possibly 2 times per
month) and how to promote all the foundation’s events and other institutions helping
visually impaired persons etc.
4. Day – information about the foundation, the story of the retail stores and the social
enterprise, all the information needed to know about the visually impaired persons and
where they can receive help when needed, the importance raising the public awareness
and helping the community etc.
5. Day – practical processes in the store: how to greet the customers so that they would
feel warmly welcomed, how to help them, how install a home-feeling ambiance, how
to use the cash machine and safe box, how to put the products behind the display
screen and how to promote them (merchandising), how and when to get the products
from the kitchen etc.
After that training program, employees are fully capable to efficiently work either in the
store or the kitchen.
6.2.
Business Location
The centralized kitchen is located in Tainan, Yongkang district, Nangong Street, 135, Lane 10
(710 台南市永康區南工街 135 巷 10 號). As the kitchen is the first place already existing,
the retailer stores must be located depending on the location of the kitchen – they should not
be too far away as the kitchen also operates as the distribution center. While deciding the first
store location, one must consider the location of the kitchen, and also the aspect where are
potential customers moving through their day.
As the store will be operating also as the information center about visually impaired persons,
it cannot be too close to the foundation service center which is located in Qiánfēng Road (前
鋒路). That will make sure the information is available as many places as possible so the
people who really need it, could reach to it without too much difficulties. The public transport
stations nearby would be a very good option (like Tainan Main Station). Also the store should
19
be in easily reachable place, where too much traffic or unconvenient infrastructure (no place
for the pedestrians) would not endanger the visually impaired persons.
Also, one critical point choosing the location is the distance from schools – it is well known
that children in all ages like to consume snack-like products and Granny Food Co. Ltd. is
precisely offering these. And their mothers, as they will come to pick their children up from
the school (here it is mainly meant children from elementary schools to high schools), would
definitely like to offer them a nice home-feeling and joy by buying Granny’s cakes or cookies
from time to time, especially when they know those products nutrition value is not harmful to
their children.
The same goes to university students – their mothers wouldn’t pick them up from the school
(at least not every day), but they by themselves would like to have a warm family-feeling
especially when they are studying far away from their homes. Even more, university students
tend to watch TV-series and movies made by Hollywood producers, and those are definitely
promoting the baked goods consuming culture – by that, the students are even more willing to
buy Granny’s products. And last, but not least, universities nowadays offer opportunities to
students from abroad (especially from Western countries) to come and study here in Taiwan –
and as they do so, they bring Western culture with them and first, consume the baked goods
by themselves and second, through a copy-cat effect, it will increase Asian students’
consumption.
As Taiwanese people are not used to consume a lot of baked goods (like a lot of Asians, while
comparing to European or other Western people – it is in their culture, and they have already
got used to eat that kind of food more often, not only in the celebrations but also during
normal days), the location must be somewhere where tourists can see it – while they are
visiting the retail store to buy some coffee or tea and some piece of cake or cookies, that will
encourage also local people to do the same (like the Western students will encourage Asian
students with their behaviour). And thereby more baked products will be sold.
All of those reasons mentioned will lead us to the conclusion that the first retail store should
be near Yongkang district, but also near universities and other types of schools, and near
tourists. Even more, the place must be convenient to visit even for visually impaired persons
who need information about the supporting programs offered by the foundation. That is why,
the best location would be somewhere near Tainan Main Station, near National Cheng Kung
University (國立成功大學) as there are also several high schools (National Taiwan First
20
Senior High School 國立臺南第一高級中學, Zhangrong Girls High School 長榮女子高級
中學) and at least one elementary school (Bo’ai Elementary School 市立博愛國小).
The very best would be to get the place in the restaurant street near National Cheng Kung
University or the Yùlè street (育樂街), where other restaurants are already located. Or another
good option would be the Shènglì Road (勝利路), which is a big street (easily accessible by
car or scooter or public transport as the Tainan Main Station is not very far away) which
would make the store easily recognizable (and thereby the visually impaired persons and the
work the foundation and the social enterprise is doing for them and for the community also
more noticeable) and more known.
Another advantage of that location would be the closeness of different churches, who are also
known for helping the community with various projects and who could promote the
foundation and raise the awareness of visually impaired persons living among ourselves.
Moreover, the churches are having several events from time to time as well, and they could
use the opportunity to order the baked goods from the store.
The second store should be somewhere a lot of tourists would get the change to get
themselves a nice cup of coffee/tea and piece of cake or a few cookies. While considering the
central Tainan already has got the first store, the next one would be good to be located in
Anping, as there are a lot of historical sights to see and thereby a lot of tourists walking
around. Also, in that area, there are several schools, for example Ximen Elementary School
(西門國小) or Anping Junior High School (安平 國中), so that place would also be attractive
to consider as a location for the second store. Moreover Anping area holds several companies
that might wish to offer to their employees or guests baked goods for conference as an
example.
As Taipei and Taichung are still further future, the locations remain still unknown – but
when choosing the location, the same criterions should be used especially when they turn out
to work successfully in first places.
6.3.
Facilities and Equipment
The central kitchen already has everything needed for baking the products – the ovens to bake,
the fridges to store some type of cakes, all the facilities needed to mix the ingredients together
etc – all the things needed to produce the Granny Food Co. Ltd. for the social enterprise. As
21
the kitchen works also as packing and distribution center, all facilities needed to warehouse
the products, to pack the deliveries together and to distribute them are present.
As every store should give their customers feeling that the products are freshly made there
will be a baker and an oven in every retail store. Glass display stands are also needed to show
the products, and an equipment for selling – a cash machine, safe box to hold the money etc.
As the store will be like a cafe, there should be a few tables (2 tables) and chairs (around 6)
around them so that the customers can have their cake and a coffee/tea there. Also all the
equipment needed to make those drinks (coffee, tea, milk-tea and maybe also some fruit
juices) and some stands to let customers know that there are also an opportunity to order them.
In the store there will be also information about the blind foundation, visually impaired
persons, and how to help them etc. As one of the mission statement of the social enterprise is
about raising the public awareness of the Blind Foundation and the visually impaired persons,
the information sheets and the knowledge of the store’s staff are critical.The donation box
where people can make their offerings is also placed so it will be easier for them to support
the foundation and the visually impaired people.
As some of the cookies are sent to the stores as big cookie bars, there will be knives or some
machinery needed to cut them apart. E.g. not so much inventory as in the central kitchen, but
some facilities are still necessary. The equipment needed to operate a store, is evaluated at
500,000 NTD.
To attract the customers there should be a decorations as well – definitely the logo of the
enterprise, special offerings nearby celebration days, drinks menu, some characteristical signs
peculiar to the enterprise (there will be a standard form for the corporate entity systemwhich
is currently under development), etc. All the decorations for one store are considered to cost
another 500,000 NTD.
Right now the demand for the products are not that big, and Granny Food Co. Ltd. (the bakery)
can manage with the logistics of the products (delivery time 2-3 days, but it can be arranged
to be more quicker if needed). As the Granny Food Co. Ltd. will become a bigger enterprise,
Granny Blind Care Social Enterprise, and the demand will grow, the delivery system is also
needed to be overchecked. Currently the deliveries are handled by Yamato transport, as
deliveries increase better (cheaper) options might be offered by Yamato transport.
22
7. Product (or Service) Design and Development Plan
7.1.
Development Status and Tasks
Currently there are several products already being made and sold to customers (under Granny
Food Co. Ltd.). The list of the products contain several frozen milk-rolls, differently shaped
brownie-type cakes, hand-made special chocolate, cheesecakes with different flavors, several
bread-like cakes and some cookies (for both salty and sweet taste). When Granny Food Co.
Ltd. will become Granny Blind Care Social Enterprise and open a few retail stores, there will
be the need for the new recipes to improve the product list. And furthermore, the new recipes
must be as good (and as healthy) as the ones already being used to hold the position already
gained with te first recipes. Those must match the company’s ideas to offer good-tasting and
healthy baked products.
For the service side, the design of the retail stores should be developed, and also the etiquette
for the employees. This is necessary to provide a good service which would make the first
customers come back and recommend the store to their family members and friends – also as
the enterprise is going to offer the baked goods with home- and family-feeling, the customers
should feel alike while they are offered the service. Also, all the missing staff members should
be found soon, especially when the first store will be opened in February of March 2013.
Very important issue is to find a good location described earlier in this paper for the first retail
store. This is essential for the start of the enterprise and will be the key factor when it comes
to decide whether to open new stores or not. The first store must be successful enough to
prove that the idea is really working, and so another stores can prove the need of their
existence.
To promote further the products, small advertisement or recommandation should be done
near churches or elementary schools or cram schools. Granny Blind Care Social Enterprise
should aim to provide snack-set for group of two to ten people. Those two combined will
increase general knowledge about blind people and their commitment toward the community.
7.2.
Challenges and Risks
There are a few critical points that must be done well to lead the enterprise to success. The
location of the first store is definitely one of them. The first challenge is to find a good
location, that would match all the criterions given before in this paper. It is very important as
23
Granny Blind Care Social Enterprise wants to reach all the potential customers, and
furthermore, the moment the first store openes, the enterprise is quite unknown and it is quite
essential that a new enterprise should introduce itself to its customers and do it the best
possible way. A good location will enable the enterprise to easily reach its target customers.
The second thing that came out is doing the introduction the best possible way. That means all
the staff working in kitchen and in the first retail store, must make their best effort to offer an
excellent service to its clients and to impress them with good, tasty and healthy products. Also,
as the enterprise named Granny wants to offer the family- and home-feeling, it is necessary to
make the customers understand and feel it as well.
As there will be 2 webpages promoting also the same products, it should be very useful to let
those customers know about the new store as well – they are already familiar with the
products and a physical store would give them the chance to see other products, and to
recommend them easily to their friends and family members. The blind and visually impaired
persons should also be informed about that kind of enterprise and all the job opportunities it
will offer them.
Another risk is that the Granny Blind Care Social Enterprise will be established as a result of
two organisations working together – the Taiwan Foundation for the Blinds (and its
subdivisions) and Granny Food Co. Ltd.. It is important to notice that all the rules and
procedures must be written down and discussed through before the real production under the
new enterprise will start. This is necessary to avoid misunderstandings and issues in the
future – the cooperation must be working to achieve all the goals set. And in case this is not
working, one must understand the people suffering the most is the blinds and visually
impaired persons who haven’t done anything wrong, but believed in a good job opportunity.
Taiwaneses’ awareness of the product is also a challenge. The baking procedure is still
unknown to a large part of the population and consuming those kind of goods still remains an
exceptionnal behavior. The taste is also an originality to Taiwanese. Our recipe designer has
to find appealing savor and challenge herself to adapt the product to Taiwanese and new trend
taste. The price might be an obstacle to our student-customers but we hope that healthiness
choice will provide and encourage them to enjoy our baked goods.
24
7.3.
Intellectual Property
As the enterprise’s main business is to bake the cakes, cookies and Chinese traditional baked
goods, the most important intellectual property of the enterprise is its recipes. Although that
fact, protecting the recipes at our current state will be way too expensive. In the future, if for
example there are over seven retails shops and the demand is still growing up or remains
strong, protecting the recipes might be considered.
However the Granny Food Co. Ltd logo should be protected. It is an important trademark for
customers to recognize our goods, policies and commitment to the community.
As the products will be sold under the brand of Taiwan Foundation for the Blinds, we assume
that the name won’t be usurped by anyone or the foundation itsel has the name protected.
25
8. Financial Projections
8.1.
Sources and Uses of Funds Statement
The Granny Food Co. Ltd. equity is 2 000 000 NTD. The Taiwan Foundation for the Blind
will invest 8 000 000 NTD to the social enterprise. When another investors (businessman or
angel investors) are convinced to support the project, then some more money will be involved.
The kitchen and packing center equipment is considered to be worth of 500 000 NTD (and all
of that is already ready to start with the work). The equipment for the stores will need
1 000 000 NTD (500 000 NTD for the store equipment and another 500 000 NTD for the
decorations of the store) – and the headquarter will invest 500 000 NTD to each franchise
store, when the first will be opened – all the other funds the franchise owner must find by
himself/herself.
It is said that the enterprise will need at least 3 shops to get to the economic scale. So working
with the first store (or even 2 first stores), does not have the goal to reach for the profit. As the
enterprise will be socially responsible, it is important to keep in mind, that the main goal is
not the profitability, but to help the visually impaired people, and to raise the public
awareness of those people and about the foundation which is working really hard for them.
8.2.
Assumptions Sheet
When starting to make the pro forma statements, there are a lot of assumptions to make, and
they are listed here:
1. The salaries of the workers are based on the minimum salaries of Taiwan – also, one
needs to notice that the enterprise is a social enterprise and the salaries cannot be very
high. The people working for Granny Blind Care Social Enterprise are doing it
because of the sense of mission and the need to help. So, the salaries paid are the
following:
The baker – 21,500 NTD
The assistant in the kitchen – 19,500 NTD (a bit over the minimum salary)
The visually impaired person working in the shop – 19,500 NTD
The manager – 21,500 NTD
The webpage manager – 14,500 NTD
26
When the second store is opened, another 1 manager and 1 visually impaired person
will be included – that means the total payroll costs will increase from 96,100 NTD
per month to 136,900 NTD per month.
2. The good month is considered to have the turnover of 250 000 NTD, as the bad month
has only 100 000 NTD. In one year, there will be 5 good months (January – because of
the Chinese New Year, May – because of the Mother’s Day, June – because of the
Dragon Boat Festival, September – because of the Moon Cake Festival. February and
December are considered to be the months between good and bad, because of the
Christmas and the Valentine’s Day and as a whole they will represent the turnover of
one good and one bad month.) and 7 bad months – it is better to be rather pessimistic
with that kind of assumptions.
3. Later, when the first store will be opened, the good month will have a turnover
265,000 NTD (when the store is opened – current numbers are based on Granny Food
Co. Ltd. numbers right now when there is only Internet business) and bad month
110,000 NTD.
300,000
250,000
200,000
150,000
Current figures
100,000
Figures later
50,000
0
Graph 1. The turnover per month
4. When the second store will be opened, the turnover will increase again – a good
month 400,000 NTD and a bad month 200 000 NTD (not shown in the figure).
5. The ingredients are making 30% of the products final price right now with the website
only. The first information was, that the cookies ingredients will make 30% of the
final price and for the cakes, the percentage is 20% - but the author’s of this paper
27
considered that also packing materials should be involved, and that is why the
ingredients are considered to be 30% of the final price. As other retail shops are
opened there will be economic scale and the cost of ingredient are assumed to
gradually drop to 24% with one retail shop and to 20% with two retail shops.
6. As the enterprise will be social enterprise, it is considered to be tax-free. The reasons
behind that is the social part of the enterprise, and also the fact, that in the beginning
not much profit will be made.
7. Depretiation rate is considered to be 5% over 10 years.
8. The rent for the first store will be considered to be 30,000 NTD (between 20 000 and
50 000 NTD) per month. When opening the second store, 35,000ntd more will added.
9. The utilities cost will be 3000 NTD per month (including the insurance costs) and they
will be times by 1.5 when the second store will be opened.
10. The information materials about the foundation and the visually impaired people will
be provided by the Taiwan Foundation for the Blinds.
11. The marketing promotions and sales are not included into pro forma statements,
because it is still unknown how much they could possible be.
12. The menu costs, music and entertainment costs, laundry costs, office expenses etc are
included to the ingredients costs
8.3.
Pro Forma Income Statement
Pro Forma Profit and Loss Account
NTD
Current
With 1.
With 2.
figures
store
store
Sales
1,870,000 2,010,000 3,500,000
Ingredients cost
561000
482400
700000
Gross Margin
1,309,000 1,527,600 2,800,000
Gross Margin %
70%
76%
80%
Expenses
Payroll
1,122,000 1,153,200 1,642,800
Sales and Marketing
Promotions
Depreciation
52,500
157,500
218,750
Rent
360,000
780,000
Utilities (including insurance)
36000
36000
54000
Total Operating Expenses
1,210,500 1,706,700 2,695,550
Net Profit
98,500
-179,100
104,450
28
Those figures will show that with the first store (and when taking into account all the
assumptions mentioned before) they won’t be profitable, and opening the second store is a
necessity to prevent from losing money.
8.4.
Pro Forma Balance Sheets
Current figures
With 1. store With 2. store
Assets
Current Assets
Cash
1,493,500
8,005,900
7,166,950
Inventory
-
-
-
Total current assets
0
0
0
500,000
1,500,000
2,500,000
Accumulated depreciation
52,500
157,500
218,750
Total Long-term Assets
552,500
1,657,500
2,718,750
Total Assets
605,000
1,815,000
2,937,500
2,098,500
9,820,900
10,104,450
Accounts Payable
-
-
-
Current Borrowing
-
-
-
Subtotal Current Liabilities
0
0
0
Long-term Liabilities
-
-
-
2,000,000
10,000,000
10,000,000
98,500
-179,100
104,450
Total Capital
2,098,500
9,820,900
10,104,450
Total Liabilities and Capital
2,197,000
9,641,800
10,208,900
Long-term Assets
Long-term Assets
Liabilities and Capital
Current Liabilities
Total Liabilities
Paid-in Capital
Earnings
29
8.5.
Pro Forma Cash Flows
Ingredients
Turnover
Profit per
month
Good month
75 000
250 000
116 825
Bad month
30 000
100 000
-33 175
Good month with the 1. store
63 600
265 000
59 175
Bad month with the 1. store
26 400
110 000
-58 625
Good month with the 2. store
80 000
400 000
91 725
Bad month with the 2. store
40 000
200 000
-68 275
As it is shown in the tabel, the monthly cash flow is not always positive. This is why the
social enterprise have to be very careful managing the cash flows throughout the year.
Earnings
Tax
Retention 40%
Dividends 30%
Donation 30%
Current
With 1. With 2.
figures
store
store
98,500 -179,100 104,450
0
0
0
39400
0
41780
29550
0
31335
29550
0
31335
The income will be divided as followed: 40% retention, 30% dividends and 30% specified
charitable donation. The donation will be used to create a foundation to provide funding for
outstanding visually impaired managers or service providers who wish to advance their
professional skills or open a franchise store. As the income will be used to even more help the
visually impaired people, it is important that the enterprise would be profitable. This is also
the reason why this enterprise must have success.
30