PEST is a planning tool which is used by a business to evaluate and analyse the impact that political, economic, social, and technological factors might have on a business. PEST analysis of Ginsters Foods.

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Pest Analysis for Ginsters

A PEST analysis is an important part of a business’s planning process.

PEST is a planning tool which is used by a business to evaluate and analyse the impact that political, economic, social, and technological factors might have on a business. These are factors that affect a business. It is very important for a business to consider its environment before beginning a project. Businesses should continually consider the recent environmental aspects that affect their business

PEST is an acronym for the following factors:

  • Political factors
  • Economic factors
  • Social factors
  • Technological factors

Political factors that can affect  a business include areas such Ecological/ environmental issues, Current legislation home market, Future legislation, European/International legislation, Regulatory bodies and processes, Government policies, Government term and change, Trading policies, Funding, grants and initiatives, Home market lobbying/ pressure groups, International pressure groups, Wars and conflict

Economic factors that can affect a business include Home economic situation, Home economy trends, Overseas economies and trends, General taxation issues, Taxation specific to product/ Services, Seasonality/weather issues, Market and trade cycles, specific industry factors, Market routes and distribution trends, Customers/end-user drivers, Interest and exchange rates, International trade/Monetary issues,

Social factors often look at the lifestyle trends of people, demographics, Consumer attitudes and opinions, Media views, Law changes affecting social factors, Brand, Company, Technology image, Consumer buying patterns, Fashion and role models, Major events and influences, Buying access and trends, Ethnic/religious factors, Advertising and publicity, Ethical issues .

Technological factors look at elements such as Competing technology development, Research funding, Associated/dependant technologies, Replacement technology/solutions, Maturity of technology, Manufacturing maturity and capacity, Information and communications, Consumer buying mechanisms/ technology, Technology legislations, Innovation potential, Technology access, licensing, patents, Intellectual property issues, Global communications.

Some advantages of a business using PEST analysis is that PEST is simple and does not cost much to do, this means that to create a PEST analysis for your business it doesn’t cost much money you only have to spend your time doing it. PEST provides an understanding of the wider business environment this means that the business owners can see what it is that they will be affected by. PEST analysis may raise awareness of threat to a projects, this means that the business owner can work out how to overcome this threat. They can do things such as diversify into another product if they have a threat from a competitor taking their customers, they can do this so that they have a wider product range than their competitors so customers may stay with their business and they may get new customers, this will give them an edge over their competitors. PEST analysis can also help a business to be aware of future difficulties in association with their business this means that the business owners can take action to avoid or minimise the effect that the factor has on their business. e.g. If new laws are being talked about by the government about environmental issues such as recycling a business can plan for this so that they can make sure that when the law comes into place that their business has all the essentials that they need to comply with the law. PEST analysis can also help a business can help a business to spot out opportunities and exploit them.

However there are some disadvantages to a business of using PEST analysis. A disadvantage of using PEST analysis is that most PESTs are usually a simple list that doesn’t have ever possible factor that could affect a business. Another disadvantage of PEST is that society is constantly changing this means that it is increasingly difficult to anticipate developments that may affect a business in the future. Another disadvantage to a business of using PEST analysis is that PEST only covers the external environment, this means that there are many other factors such as the business itself, the businesses competitors, and the industry in which the business is operating these factors need to be taken into consideration when looking at the external environment singly.

In this assignment I will be looking at the PEST factors that will affect Ginsters. Some PEST factors that are associated with Ginsters business may make one of Ginsters existing aim and objective harder or easier to achieve. Ginsters may also have to change their aims and objectives as a result of changing PEST factors. In this assignment I will be looking at the way that PEST factors may or may not affect Ginsters business.

Political

A PEST factor that I think could affect Ginsters is Current legislation. This factor is the effect that current laws and legislations can have on a business. A current legislation is a law/ legislation that is in place.

A current legislation that might affect Ginsters is The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. It is the most significant legislation that will affect Ginsters to do with health and safety. Another legislation that could affect Ginsters to do with health and safety is the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. This Health and Safety at work act 1974 legislations are set in place so that standards must be met to ensure the health and safety off all employees and other who are affected by anything to do with a business’s activities. The main requirement of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations legislation is that employers must carry out risk assessments to eliminate or reduce risks. Health and Safety issues that could affect a businesses are things such as the cleanliness, if businesses are not clean enough they are at risk from being closed down as this is part of the Health and Safety at work act 1974 as cleanliness in a business could have a dramatic effect on health and safety in a business. Such as if work tops in the business are not cleaned properly germs and disease will be left on the work tops, this could lead to employees using this work top for other purposes and transferring the germs all around the business. This will mean that the business could be at risk from giving their customers diseases such as salmonella or Escherichia coli this disease can cause serious food poisoning in people, this will mean that businesses will have to have a product recall; this will be very expensive for the business as they will have to get rid off all the products affected with the disease.

This PEST factor could affect Ginsters because they have a large quantity of employees working at Ginsters; this means that they will have to have a full health and safety evaluation of their business. In order for Ginsters to meet the healthy and safety needs of their employees Ginsters will have to do things such as improve lighting, improved cleanliness. These factors could affect Ginsters as if lighting is not very good at Ginsters employees could be at risks from not noticing possible hazards, such as a spillage of water on the company floor; this would mean it could cause a serious accident for the employee. This would affect Ginsters as they could be sued by the employee for not providing clear lighting, which would have prevented the risk of the employee slipping in the water. This means that the accident would have been the fault of Ginsters and is a health and safety risk that Ginsters could have prevented through carrying out appropriate health and safety assessment, where Ginsters would have seen this possible health and safety risk. This could be very time consuming for employees at Ginsters, this would mean that work productivity decreases. This is a way that current legislations will affect Ginsters as they have to carry out these health and safety evaluations, this could mean that Ginsters are losing profit as a direct result of work productivity decreasing due to less staff. Ginsters may be affected by this legislation as it will mean that if significant findings are made in the risk assessment for Ginsters that Ginsters will need to act on these findings and minimise the effect of these health and safety hazards. This means that Ginsters may have to spend money identifying the health and safety risks and finding ways to prevent them.

Another current legislation that may affect Ginsters is the The Food Standards Act 1999. This legislation is put in place to ensure the protection of public health in relation to food. This may affect Ginsters as if they are travelling long distances to distribute their goods they will need to think about refrigeration.  This is because most of Ginsters products have meat within them such as their Cornish pasties which has beef in, also their sausage rolls which are made with pork also their chicken balti pasty which has chicken in it. Meat has to be kept refrigerated even if it has been cooked; this is because refrigerating meat slows the growth of bacteria. The temperature of the fridges will need to be set at 40°F or colder to keep meat safe for the maximum amount of hours. However if the temperature of a fridge rise between 40 to 140°F this can be very dangerous, as in this temperature bacteria thrives, this means the meat will be dangerous to eat.  This will affect Ginsters as they will need to ensure that there products are kept in a fridge set a temperature of 40°F or colder otherwise they could be at risk from harming their customers and having to have a product recall so they harm the least amount of customers as possible. There are two different types of bacteria that affect refrigerated meat these are pathogenic bacteria, this will make people sick, while the second spoilage bacteria makes food go bad and smell. By sight and smell people can identify that a meat is contaminated with spoilage bacteria unlike meat that is harbouring pathogenic bacteria.  In a refrigerator spoilage bacteria can thrive, this just means that meat will eventually spoil. This means that Ginsters will be able to sort out this problem as they will no that their products are no good as they know that they have to get rid of products after their sell by date as these could be at risk from spoilage bacteria, this is the reason for sell by dates. However if the meat is contaminated with pathogenic bacteria it will make people ill and can undetectable. This means that Ginsters will have to be careful because if they have their products out of refrigeration to long their products could become contaminated with pathogenic bacteria. Ginsters will be unaware of this and will sell the products; this will affect Ginsters as they will be selling a product to customers with bacteria that could potentially make customers really ill. Therefore Ginsters need to ensure that they know the amount of time their products can be kept out of refrigeration and not exceed this rate, this means that if they are travelling long distances to distribute their good they will have to make sure that have refrigeration for their good. Otherwise it could lead to great problems for Ginsters as they will have lose customers as people will believe that Ginsters products are dangerous for them to eat therefore Ginsters will lose profits.

This PEST factor could be significant to Ginsters as it could directly affect their ability to achieve the aim / objective of meeting stakeholder’s needs this is because Ginsters will be putting in place sufficient health and safety assessments to prevent possible hazards in Ginsters. This will make sure that everyone that works for Ginsters is safe and has the right amount of safety training and knows how to keep safe in their workplace. Ginsters will be meeting their stakeholder’s needs as they are making sure that they have standards in place to ensure the health and safety off all employees and people who are affected by the business. This means that there employees will be feel as if Ginsters has taken their needs into consideration, and is making changes so that that they feel safe and happy working at Ginsters.  

This PEST factor could also be significant to Ginsters as it could directly affect their ability to achieve the aim / objective of maximising profit this is because they will not have to spend any money on things such as payments to employees who have sued Ginsters as they have been involved in a health and safety accident. This is because Ginsters have health and safety assessment which are put in place to find health and safety issues and deal with them as soon as they are found, this means that there is less likelihood that Ginsters are at risk from having to pay put money to employees. This will also mean that employees are then more likely to join or stay with Ginsters. In the short term this will mean increased costs for Ginsters. However in the long term Ginsters will maximise profit as they will not be paying out any money for these things so they will have more money left as profit. This is cost that all firms will have to spend money on as it something that all business have to do in their workplace. 

This PEST factor could also be significant to Ginsters as it could directly affect their ability to achieve the aim / objective of becoming the becoming the savoury product UK market leader this is because they will have to ensure that all their products are refrigerate correctly otherwise if people get ill from Ginsters products, people will not continue to buy them and buy other businesses such as Puka Pies products. This means that Ginsters will not achieve their aim of becoming the savoury UK market leader.

Another PEST factor that I think could affect Ginsters is Government policies. This is the effect that government policies have on a business. Government policies are things that the government believe in. An aspect that the government have been involved with in recent years is trying to get people to live healthier lifestyles. This could be through eating healthier foods or exercising to keep fit. The government have tried to promote this by providing services such as leisure centres so that people have the facilities to be able to work towards becoming healthier and fitter. This PEST factor will affect Ginsters as the government has been promoting healthy eating in recent years this means that Ginsters may be affected by this policy. This is because people may choose to buy a healthy snack rather than to buy a pasty or slice. This is because Ginsters products are usually baked in pastry, such as their sausage rolls, slices, pasties. This could persuade people from buying Ginsters products as pastry is seen as a heavy fatty product, this means that people would be more likely to buy a healthier snack such as a nutria grain bar.

A way that people often try to regulate the food they eat in order to eat healthier is by looking at the nutritional information on a product. A main aspect of nutritional information that people tend to look at are the calories in a product, men should have a daily amount of around 2500 calories and women 2000calories a day. People often look at products to try to make sure that they are not exceeding this amount each day. Ginsters original Cornish pasties provide 549kcals per portion. This is a percentage of a person averagely daily amount of calories, this means that people will be less likely to buy Ginsters Cornish pasties as they are seen as not healthy due to how many calories they provide this means that people will buy a product which provides less calorie consumption so that they do not go over the guide. Ginsters could overcome this by creating a healthier type of pastry to contain the contents of their Original Cornish pasties. This will mean that it will provide fewer calories this may mean that more people will be more inclined to buy Ginsters Original Cornish Pasties. Another way that Ginsters could overcome this would be to create a new product that is healthier and contains fewer calories.

Also many of Ginsters products are made with large quantities of meat such as their original Cornish pasty which is made beef, potatoes, onion and Swede, wrapped in puff pastry.  Meat is seen as a food product that should be eaten moderately when someone is trying to lose weight, this could mean that people who are trying to lose weight to become healthier will be less likely to eat meaty products. This means that people will be less likely to eat Ginsters original pasties as they are made with a high percentage of meat a lot like most of Ginsters products. This could be seen to many people as not as healthy as other products in the savoury food market made from other businesses so they will buy a healthier option. Ginsters could diversify their product range and provide healthier options; this would means that people would be more inclined to buy Ginsters produce. However this could cost a lot of money in the short term for Ginsters as they will have to advertise and promote the new products. Although in the long term Ginsters will have more customers this is because they will be providing products for a wider range of people’s needs.

The government have also tried to promote change for their workers to extend their right to flexible hours. This means that workers would be entitled to more time off. This could affect Ginsters a they may have to find the finance to be able to pay people who wish to work overtime, this means that Ginsters will need to make more profits in order to have the money to able to pay their employees overtime. Also this may affect Ginsters as people may wish to work part time, this could be because employees might need days of during the week if they have young children which are not in school, this could be because they cannot find a childminder for their child. This means that Ginsters might have to employee more staff as they will have less people working on certain days if their employees only work part time, this means that Ginsters will need new employees to work on the days where there are less staff so that Ginsters can still produce the same amount of products as they days there part time employees work on. This could be expensive for Ginsters as they will have to pay out for things to do with these new employees such as training, so the new employees know what they are doing.

This PEST factor could be significant to Ginsters as it could directly affect their ability to achieve the aim / objective of maximising profit this is because Ginsters will have less money coming into the business as people are buying healthier products from other businesses. This is because Ginsters is not seen as a healthy option due to its content such as pastry therefore government policies may affect Ginsters in a negative way. This means that less people are likely to buy Ginsters savoury products therefore Ginsters will not be meeting their aim to maximise profits also Ginsters may have to pay out a large quantity of their profits into diversifying into other products in order to get more customers. This means that Ginsters will loss their profits as they will have to spend money on research into looking into the type of product they should produce and money to buy machinery to create these products.

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This PEST factor could also be significant to Ginsters as it could directly affect their ability to achieve the aim / objective of becoming the savoury product UK market leader, this is because if Ginsters has lost customers due to the fact that people want to eat healthier and Ginsters is not seen as a healthy product. This will lead to Ginsters not being able to achieve this aim as they will not be selling a large proportion of their savoury products this will mean that they cannot become the savoury product leader.

This PEST factor could also be ...

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