To give a brief company profile, Universal robina corporation is a leading company in terms of snack
foods industry and it is one of the largest leading company in the Philippines.
John Gokongwei founded the URC in 1954 and established a vision to become one of the leading pan
Asian players in snack foods and beverages. The vision is gradually being realized as URC has managed to
transform itself from a Philippines operation to a recognized Asian multinational with full scale
operations in countries outside Philippines and is expected to emerge in a much wider markets.
To come up with strategies in the company, it is important to take a look at first in the different
matrixes. This is important because it helps you to build on what you do well, to address what you’re
lacking, to minimize risks, and to take the greatest possible advantage of chances for success.
First, the strengths of URC are…
(1) Strengths: Market Positioning, Effective communication
URC is a branded consumer foods group- Domestic
As being said, Urc is the leading branded convenience food and beverage company in the
Philippines.
URC is also a trend-setter in the beverage industry (c2) with its coffee and ready to drink
products. It grew the local non-carbonated beverage market with the successful launch and
continuing promotion of C2 cool and clean green tea.
URC has expanded steadily outside the country as well. It has a strong foothold in the countries
like china, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia.
URC has consistently grown due to its constant innovations, strong distribution capabilities, and
effective marketing campaigns. The company's constant efforts caused URC to have market
leadership in salty snacks, candies, chocolates, canned beans, and ready-to-drink tea while
maintaining strong positions in coffee, biscuits and noodles.
(2) Weaknesses: no online presence, poor supply chain
Since urc’s purchases are some imported, there would be delays due to poor transport and
logistics performance. And URC has no online business. It is not readily accessible, the online
presence also gives your customers an easy way to find out more about what you have to offer.
Market commonality
When we speak of market commonality, it is the number of market with which the firm and a
competitor are jointly involved and the degree of importance of the individual markets to each.
After selecting a business level strategy, firms must remain aware of competitive rivalry and dynamics
that affects the success of their competitive actions and allow them to predict their competitor’s
actions.
In the case of URC, the rivalry among competing firms like SAN MIGUEL CORP and DEL MONTE CORP is
strong. With many number of key players in the industry, target market is one important thing to
consider. The rivals of urc partakes in widening their distribution channels such as retailing or
wholesailing. Since there is a growing development among these distribution channels, urc is also
watchful of competitive channels of distribution. There is a growing trends of consumer preferences that
makes the competition stiff.
As we notice, competitors of Urc have almost the same products and the line of segments and the
business. Hence these products of the rivals can be a threat to urc as it could be substituted based on
consumer preference and trends.
Resource similarity
Speaking of resource similarity, it basically answers the question of, ‘’how comparable are competitor’s
tangible and intangible resources in type and amount?”
As to physical resources, urc is financially healthy to support its business. With its financial capability,
the company can invest in different areas that could gain profit. It has its own ppe where money is not a
problem for the company to sustain. Urc choose to invest on these ppes to incur less cost.
As to human resources, the number of permanent full-time employees engaged in URC’s company or
divisions. To name a few, for packaging division, 9 778 are reportedly employed and 541 employees
employed in robina farms division.
As to organizational culture and resources, the nomination and election committee is responsible in
overseeing the development and implementation of corporate governance and principles aligned with
the corporation’s strategic value.
As to management, Board of directors is taking responsibility to the governance and to their
stakeholders as well.
As to marketing resources, urc is dependent upon a single customer or few customers. The loss of
anyone of them would have a material effect on urc. The urc has also developed an effective nationwide
distribution chain and sales network that it believes provide competitive advantage.
As to production resources, a wide variety of raw materials are required for urc. Some of these materials
are purchased domestically and some are imports.
As to research and development, urc conducts extensive research for new products, line extensions for
existing products and improved production, quality control and packaging to meet the local needs and
tastes in the international markets. For this, urc has established a management information system
wherein there would be internal audit that can reasonably assure that the board, management and
stakeholders are faithfully compliant with its key organizational and operational controls.
STRATEGIES THAT COMPETITORS WOULD DIFFICULT TO TAKE
For decades of experience, it enabled URC to gain capabilities in serving the evolving retail landscape. Its
customer engagement along with the wide product offerings and price points made URC one of the
biggest suppliers of top retailers today. As they grow the business, URC continues to reinvest in
capabilities that will drive scale and efficiency in its distribution and account management, as well as
supplier base development. It aims to be a strong partner of choice today and the coming years by
further raising its collaboration with long term customers and suppliers.
Its Route to market strategy focuses on increasing its direct distribution (coverage), better productivity
& sales quality (lines sold) driven by consistent perfect store presence like excellent merchandising and
quality of product lineup in stores. URC piloted a major reinvention of coverage expansion in the
Philippines. This has exceeded its initial targets and has contributed significantly tog the growth of BCF
Philippines.
As part of this route to market reinvention, URC are also building new capabilities. The implementation
of Sales Force Automation has been instrumental in driving its vision of leapfrogging its distributor
capabilities through digitization. This allowed URC's distributors to cover more stores in the most
efficient manner. In addition to handheld devices, it also utilized geotagging in both current and
prospective outlets to effectively monitor its salesman productivity in terms of daily routes as well as
monthly acquisition of new direct accounts
Choose either product innovation/advertising:
-Advertising-
URC devotes significant expenditures to support advertising and branding to differentiate its products
and further expand market share both in the Philippines and in its overseas markets, including funding
for advertising campaigns such as television commercials and radio and print advertisements, as well as
promotions for new product launches by spending on average 8% of its branded consumer food
division’s net sales per year.
