Donald Powell coursework

Dileepa Abeyrathna Business Studies Mr Victory 17/01/08

Findings section 2 – Where should the store be located

In which town should the store be located?

There are a lot of advantages for a business, this pie chart (shown below) is showing the results I gathered from asking strangers if they thought Crawley needed more shops, as you can see the majority says yes Crawley does need more shops. The results I gathered mostly supports my view that there is a ‘gap in the market’ for a new store in Crawley, from this pie chart even suggests that Crawley need more shops, its citizens think so…the conclusion I can make with these results is that Crawley needs more shops, but it depends on what the demands are of the citizens and then after getting that data you can choose what type of store will be best in that town, the type of store that you can make a lot of money from.

This is a map of bus routes and railway in Crawley, the bus routes are quite impressive as they go everywhere in Crawley taking pedestrians where they want to go in Crawley. The transport links are quite impressive, there are bus stops around that you could use if you are in a rush to get somewhere in Crawley, the railway system is quite good because there are 3 stations and they are quite close to the town area, you could easily get your goods for your store if you need to go to Brighton or somewhere outside of Crawley and the Gatwick airport is close by so you can import and export goods to your store.

There are 99,744 people living in Crawley. There are 48,920 males and 50,824 females. There are about 6761 babies being born every year (mostly females), the other age range it’s mostly females that are living till their 90 and/or over.

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About 300,000 live in a range of 20 miles, 99,744 people live IN Crawley and 300,000 live OUT of Crawley, this is good for a business because as people come to shop in Crawley from Redhill or Brighton or any other places the businesses/firms get more customers so they sell more and make a huge amount of profit from the customers. The type(s) of people that live in the area are wealthy and prepared to buy anything for their children, (because their children keep nagging them to do so).

The average household income is shown at the side; there is about £21,400 to £39,300 per annum and per week its £421 to £720. Crawley is a reasonably wealthy town, the average income in 2006 stood at £24,350.

This is the average household income for postcode sectors and it’s the estimated gross from all sectors of Crawley 2007. This table shows that Crawley is a wealthy town, so Donald Powell will get good money selling his sports products here.

The average house prices in Crawley is about £205,072 in 2006 but in 2007 there has been a 10% increase in the house prices, for semi detached houses the price is £204,133 but for detached houses the price is £328,139, these prices has increased because Crawley is a wealthy area and the people that are able to afford these house(s) should be able to settle in nicely.

Crawley is a good town for Donald Powell is an advantage for a business like his because the customers for a business would be able to afford most of the stuff that is in stores because Crawley is a wealthy town and the profits for Donald Powell’s shop would go up.

Yes, there is competition in Crawley; my firm will have to face Sports world, JJB. Locating a town with few competitors is an advantage because:

You will have more customers and make a big profit.
Your store will become popular and soon it will be known worldwide.

Yes, Crawley attracts lots of shoppers because everyone from the neighbouring places e.g. Redhill, Horsham or Brighton come to shop in Crawley, so more and more people will come every month and so you get more customers.

Although Crawley has many advantages that make it a good place to set up a sports shop, there are however a number of drawbacks or disadvantages of setting up here.

The cost of the business property (either to buy or rent) is quite high in this town; this is a problem for Donald’s new business because the land prices are quite high so Donald might have a problem trying to get the money to buy or rent this land. If he rents the land then it might cost more than buying the land.

To find a suitable site to build your store will be hard to find because there might be other people trying to buy/rent that land aswell as you, so, you could find it rather hard to try and build your store where everyone else is trying to build theirs.

This is a problem because you could lose that land, and some other person could buy/rent it.

Donald Powell could face a lot of competition along the way if he sets his store there, he could face hard competitors along the path of successfulness.

For Donald Powell to get a government grant is very unlikely, this is a concern because he would have to find the money for his store another way (earning the money, but this could takes weeks, months, even years.), but he can’t ask the government for money instead he has to make his own money. It would be very useful to get a grant; the government gives the money you need to set up that business and you could set the business up very easily. He could get a government grant in the north. The drawback is that there might not be good enough transport and there might be a lot of other competition.

Yes, Crawley does have enough skilled workers, but I think that Donald Powell should consider recruiting in the future when his business is setup, because then he would have time to calculate how much he is willing to pay them and how much everything would cost him.

Yes, I think there are nearby firms willing and able to supply the goods to Donald, these firms could stock and deliver what Donald’s business needs.

There are lots of other towns nearby that people might go to instead which offer a better shopping experience (e.g. Guildford, Kingston, London, etc…), even though lots of other people might go to these neighbouring towns there will still be quite a lot of shoppers that will shop in Crawley, so, you will still get a profit at the end of the day (about £200 every week I expect).

However based on the argument this is a good place to set up the sports shop.