Rent/taxes
If a retail area is popular then there will obviously be a high demand for sites in this area and therefore, the cost of renting these sites will be higher. If the area is less popular, for example, on the edge of town, the demand and, consequently, the rents, will be lower. If the government imposes taxes on the premises, the more popular sites will likewise also attract higher taxes.
Information on my Chosen Site
My chosen site is the former site of Bryan Donkin Co. Ltd, an engineering business that, among other things, manufactured the valves throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s. However, in 1995, Bryan Donkin Company Limited was split and subsequently sold as four separate divisions. More recently, in June 1997, the valve division was bought by Agua-Gas AVK Limited and has since stopped trading.
The address of my chosen site is: -
Bryan Donkin Valves Ltd.
Derby Road
Chesterfield
England
S40 2EB
This is a photograph of my chosen location, the derelict site that was formerly home to Bryan Donkin Company Ltd. It has been taken from across the road in the Alma Leisure Park.
This is another photograph of the land at the side of and behind the main building on the Bryan Donkin site. It has been taken from the roundabout opposite my chosen location.
Advantages/Disadvantages of my chosen site
I feel that my chosen site has the potential to be extremely busy. It is based on the route that most people take to get into the town centre; therefore huge amounts of customers will pass it every day. It is also extremely accessible to people living in Sheffield, they can travel to my site easily via the A61. A disadvantage is that the roundabout can get extremely busy at peak times, such as when people are travelling home from work. However, with the extensive land available at my site, I feel that it would be possible to ease the congestion by perhaps creating a large car park or even extending the road.
Predictions
I feel that my questionnaire will show the result that many people would prefer a supermarket on the site. This is because there isn’t a supermarket near the site; all of the others are on the other side of Chesterfield. There will be a few who will vote in favour of a new football stadium for Chesterfield Football Club being built there as there has been talk of this happening ever since Bryan Donkin closed down. I also feel that a shopping centre may be popular, with an Ice Rink being voted for by the younger voters.
As I will be asking how far the general public would be willing to travel to my site, I expect that if it is chosen to be a supermarket then they would be happy to travel further than if it was a shopping centre. This is because it would be the nearest supermarket to Hasland, Wingerworth and Grassmoor, whereas, there are plenty of other shopping centres or retail parks in this area, such as the Vicar Lane shopping centre in Chesterfield and Meadowhall in Sheffield. However, I feel that if a company was to set up a supermarket on the former Bryan Donkin site, it would waste the huge amount of potential visitors who could travel to my site from places such as Sheffield if it was, for example, a shopping centre. A football stadium would obviously guarantee certain amounts of tourism in the area from travelling away fans. However, it is thought by many that there may be too many problems with the current infrastructure to be able to house such a huge project at this site. The fact that there are already Ice rinks in Doncaster, Sutton in Ashfield and Sheffield may affect people in the way that they feel that an Ice rink is not needed in Chesterfield currently.
Delivery Access Information
I feel that my location is extremely easy to reach, as there are several routes available. I have included a map to pinpoint the available roads: -
As seen on the above map, there are several ways for customers to reach my site. For example, the A61 Derby Road serves as a possible route for people in the nearby villages of Wingerworth, Tupton and Clay Cross, whereas the A61 to Sheffield may attract large amounts of customers from in and around the city. Also, many people will pass my site on their way to the town centre, so I feel quite confident that whatever business locates there will attract some custom from passers-by who just happen to go into the building out of interest and curiosity. I took some more photographs to help get a better
understanding of the area as a whole and the roads around my site.
This photograph is taken from the above the road leading into Chesterfield town centre. It is facing the Bryan Donkin site. The roundabout is clearly visible from this position.
This photograph is also taken from above the road leading into Chesterfield town centre, however, this is facing Chesterfield town centre. The Bryan Donkin site is about 100m away from where I took this photograph, in the bottom left hand corner.
This picture is of the busy roundabout that links together the 4 main roads. My chosen site is a little to the left of this photograph. Viewable on this picture are the A617 from Hasland (A), the A61 to Sheffield (B) and the A61 Derby Road (C). This is a good example of how congested the road can get, as this was taken early in a morning and it is still very busy.
This picture is of the A61, which leads to Sheffield. The Bryan Donkin site is situated behind and left of where this photograph has been taken. This road provides a very easy way for people from Sheffield to reach my site, which is obviously a good thing as Sheffield has a high population, meaning the possibility of gaining lots more customers.
This photograph has been taken from the pavement at the side of the A617 from Hasland. My chosen site is visible to the left of the photograph, across the road. I have labelled it (A). The busy roundabout is also visible to the right hand side of the photograph.
Gaining Public Opinion
To find out what the general public felt would be the most useful business to be located on the former Bryan Donkin site I carried out a survey. I have included a copy of this survey on the next page. In the interests of fairness, I decided to ask 100 people, all of differing ages. I concluded that this target audience should consist of 50 males and 50 females, as this would give me the ‘fairest’ results.
When constructing my survey, I felt that I should give possible answers in the form of bullet points as this may convince more people to fill it in. For example, if someone is busy and they see a question where they have to write a few sentences, they may not bother to fill in the survey. However, if there are bullet points that can be circled to increase efficiency, they may be willing to spend more time filling in the questionnaire.
I have constructed charts as I feel that this is the best way to represent the data that I have collected in doing this questionnaire.
Questionnaire (please delete or circle answers as appropriate)
Gender:
Male
Female
Age:
- 0-15
- 16-30
- 31-45
- 46-60
- Over 65
What kind of business do you think would be most suitable for the former Bryan Donkin site?
- Ice Rink
- Shopping Centre
- Football Stadium
- Supermarket
- Other
How often do you think that you would use this new site?
- Often
- Quite Often
- Not very often
- Never
How far would you be prepared to travel to this site?
- Under 2 miles
- 2-5 miles
- 5-10 miles
- 10+ miles
How far away do you live from the former Bryan Donkin site?
- Under 2 miles
- 2-5 miles
- 5-10 miles
- 10+ miles
Thank you for filling in this questionnaire.
Analysis of Graphs
As shown by my graphs, I tried to spread out the age, gender and location of the people I chose to fill in my questionnaire, as I felt that this would give me the fairest and most interesting results. I feel that, as I predicted, a supermarket is most popular with the general public, with over 40% of the interviewees opting for this choice. Most people I interviewed lived within 2 miles of the former Bryan Donkin site, as I felt that these were the people who would be the core of my investigation. I also, however, questioned several people who lived more than 10 miles away from the site, so that I could get a general opinion about whether people living outside Chesterfield would be interested in visiting the business at my site. Also, the distance that people would be willing to travel has a direct relationship with the distance that they live from the site, so it is not really mutually exclusive. Many people, however, answered that they would be willing to travel up to 10 miles to reach my site, which I feel bodes well with many people being potential customers because they live in Sheffield.
Ruling Out Other Options
The location of my site is extremely important, as across the road is the Ravenside Retail Outlet. This is an extremely popular park that contains a Pub, two fast food restaurants, Blockbuster video rental, Cannons gymnasium and a Cineworld Cinema. It would therefore be quite foolish, I feel, to locate any similar business to these on my site. However, if a business that thrives on competition was to do this, it could only be classed as an advantage to them. I feel that a supermarket of some sort would therefore be extremely popular as there is no direct competition within quite a distance. Also, down the road from my site is a retail park that contains several home improvement and domestic electrical stores, so it would be unrealistic to locate another one of these at my site.
Conclusion and Final Choice
By analysing the results of the questionnaire which I handed out to the general public, and using my own ideas and initiative, I have decided that I – and the majority of the people that I interviewed – feel that a supermarket would be most suitable and effective if located on the former site of Bryan Donkin Ltd, based on Derby Road just outside Chesterfield town centre.
The size of a supermarket is not a problem, as my site would easily accommodate one of these, with enough space to create several car parks as well. I feel that this is one of the most important features about my site – it’s great size means that it can house any number of projects. There would be enough land for the supermarket to extend the building, construct another car park or even accommodate another businesses premises to the back of their own building.
The transport links are also very useful as the site is just to the side of Chesterfield’s main roundabout, which connects 3 main roads and also takes people from derby road into the town centre.
The fact that the general public would prefer a supermarket to be built on the site proves right my theory from earlier. Also, the football stadium was popular with some of the males who answered my questionnaire. I feel that this is because they are supporters of Chesterfield Football Club and therefore have the club’s best interests at heart instead of my chosen sites’.
I definitely feel that my site could be home to a successful supermarket as the location is perfect for this kind of business.
Evaluation
Overall, I feel that my assignment was a success. I was happy with the amount of research I conducted and I think that this is one of the things that I did well. The photographs that I used also improved my coursework, it helps to give the reader a better picture of what I am trying to achieve. I am happy with my final choice, as this is what a lot of the public would want so I feel that if it was to be built on the Bryan Donkins site, the people of Chesterfield would welcome it. If I was to perform the assignment again, I would maybe think about finding a location in a less crowded and built up area as this would increase the options of what to construct on the site. For example, it would have been silly to put a cinema on the Bryan Donkins site, as there is one across the road. However, in a less crowded area, I could maybe consider locating a cinema on the site. In general, I feel that my coursework was good and I am happy with that, I would consider different things if I was to do it again though.
Bibliography
- a map website.
www.entrepeuner.com - an informative Business site.
www.bdrmg.co.uk - the website of Bryan Donkin Ltd
GCSE Bitesize Revision : Business Studies by BBC
