Business Plan of Thai Lay Garments

Topic: Business Planning Words: 1142 Pages: 3

Executive Summary

Thai Lay is a fast-moving Garment Export Manufacturing unit for men, women, and children.

Over the years, this company has produced innovative, attractive, and colorful clothes to suit different tastes, designs, choices, and preferences, including half and full sleeve T-Shirts for men, women, and children, woolen products, and casual wear. Their woolen sweaters and cashmere products are well sought after in European markets.

It now wishes to make forays into the e-commerce market.

Background of the Company

Thai Lay is a limited company headquartered in Hong Kong with its manufacturing unit in mainland China. This location has been a strategic choice for gaining quality raw materials, lowered labor and overheads costs (that substantially form part of manufacturing costs), and economies of scale, since the company is operating in a competitive market where it may not be possible to hike sales prices without affecting quantum and volume of sales. Cost controls and market development has been key ingredients that incorporate planning for the “last 20 years “of their existence. (Thai Lay Fashion Co Ltd. 2008).

It is necessary that Thai Lay develop niche products like woolen sweaters and cashmere products, which are its main selling product lines. This can be achieved by making innovative designs, attractive color combinations, and fiber blending which has not to be carried out, as yet, by any of its present competitors.

It is necessary that Thai Lay concentrate on the production of premier products that could be sold online.

There is tremendous demand for the kind of products that Thai Lay manufactures and the present market of “China’s share of US and EU clothing imports will double or even treble in the next five years.”(Survey of Chinese Garment Company Strategies: Summer 2005 Buying Season).

For the sake of a robust Marketing Plan for the future, Thai Lay needs to break up its marketable products into five segments namely: Casual wear, Formal wear, Sports and Swimwear, winter wear, and Party wear. For each of these product lines, it is needed that a company proposes a Market Plan based on past performances, future expectations, and market standings. It is needed that an accurate pulse of the present market is made and battle lines are drawn accordingly, taking into account the future trends and how well Thai Lay could exploit market opportunities and trends in terms of capturing and retaining market shares, through strategic planning and execution.

Serial	Sales forecasts	2008 £	2009 £	2010 £	2011 £
1.	Casual wear	15,000	16,500	18,750	21,000
2.	Formal wear	14,000	16,000	17,750	20,000
3.	Sports and Swimwear	12,000	12,750	13,800	14,500
4.	Winter wear	15,000	16,500	17,250	18,000
5.	Partywear	11,000	11,700	12,000	13,600
	Total	67,000	83,450	79,550	87,100

Serial	Cost of sales	2008 £	2009 £	2010 £	2011 £
1.	Casual wear	13,000	13,500	12,750	13,000
2.	Formal wear	12,000	12,700	12,750	13,000
3.	Sports and Swimwear	11,000	12,250	12,750	13,500
4.	Winter wear	11,000	12,500	12,800	13,000
5.	Partywear	10,000	11,000	11,700	12,000
	Total	57,000	61,950	39,800	64,500

Proposed profits for tears 2008 – 2011

Serial	Sales forecasts	2008 £	2009 £	2010 £	2011 £
1.	Sales	67,000	83,450	79,550	87,100
2.	Less: Cost of sales	57,000	61,950	39,800	64,500
3.	Projected profits	10,000	21,500	39,750	22,600

Market forecast for Thai Lay Garments Products

Serial	Potential customers	Growth rate	2008 £	2009 £	2010 £	2011 £
1.	Casual wear	10%	190,000	209,000	229,900	252,890
2.	Formal wear	12%	250,000	280,000	313,600	351,232
3.	Sports and Swimwear	8%	200,000	216,000	233,280	251,943
4.	winterwear(niche)	15%	400,000	460,000	529,000	608,350
5.	Partywear	9%	150,000	163,500	178,215	194,254
	Total		11,90,000	13,28,500	14,83,995	16,58,669

Demographics and bestsellers

The demographics regarding the distribution of high-quality garments would be an equal ratio between males and females for T-shirts, jeans etc. The niche market for Thai lay in the winter wear which comprises woolens, sweaters, cardigans, pullovers, cashmere shawls, mufflers, etc. Their woolen cardigans are bestsellers because of their attractive design (Computer-aided) color combination and textures.

Their Sports range covers the gamut of needs of young people from early teens to vigorous adults and also the widest age and price ranges. The formal wear is also well accepted and is worn by adults in the earning groups of £ 48,000 per year.

SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis of M/s.Thai Lay Garment Export Company

Strengths	Weaknesses	Opportunities	Threats
In-depth and wide experience in garment export trade	Brand image not present	Possibilities for enlarging the market potential	Highly competitive market
Wide range of quality products	Employees dissatisfaction	Capacity could be increased depending upon market trends	Profit margins could attract potentially strong rivals in later years
Good reputation and goodwill	Lack of motivation for staff and employees	Since quality and pricing are good, there is tremendous growth potential	Govt regulations in export areas could affect business
Strategic location in Hong Kong close to main markets	Delay in order execution	There are no constraints regarding raw materials, power, or resources	Inflation and money market pressures may affect business
Spacious manufacturing infra-structure	Catering to European markets only – need to move into other areas, especially e-commerce business	Professional management with wide experience in the export field can be better utilized	Proposed internet business will have inherent risks

A SWOT analysis is used for understanding the organization. (Swot Analysis-Matrix, Tools Templates and Worksheets: How to do a Swot Analysis. 2008).

Main strength and weaknesses

The main strength of this company would be in terms of its robust marketing experience and the team of professionals well versed with various facets of export trade. Its principal weakness is the lack of a good brand image.

Competition

Being in a highly competitive garment export business, it is believed that its forays into the internet and eCommerce deployed selling would expand the vistas of its trade and reinforce selling on an international basis. This would also offer opportunities to gain deeper and intensive market knowledge so that new products could be developed and presented to valued customers. In garments, “Uniqueness is important as it creates individuality, whilst plain generic is also important to the extent that they can be dressed up, dressed down or teamed up with a unique item to create an over all individual look.” (Target Market: Public market: Zenovia/Business Plan/ Marketing Plan).

Marketing objectives

The main goals of this Marketing Plan are resource planning and allocation of resources according to budgets. The main aspects of revenue generation, cost controls, customer satisfaction, and new product development are critical areas within the ambit of marketing plans. (Principles of Marketing: How to Write a Marketing Plan: Part 1: Purpose and mission).

Conclusions

It is seen that new product development is a critical area in that market sustainability and acceptance are also important factors that need to be addressed to Garment business is all about monitoring and controlling overheads to ensure that expenses are below incomes and long-term business objectives are realized from time to time.

Bibliography

Target Market: Public market: Zenovia/Business Plan/ Marketing Plan. [online]. 2008. Web.

Thai Lay Fashion Co Ltd. (2008). [online]. eSource Apparel: Revolutionizing the Business of Fashion. Web.

Principles of Marketing: How to Write a Marketing Plan: Part 1: Purpose and mission.[online]. KnowThis.com. 2008. Web.

Swot Analysis-Matrix, Tools Templates, and Worksheets: How to do a Swot Analysis. (2008). [online]. Rapidbi: Knowledge Understanding Action. Web.

Survey of Chinese Garment Company Strategies: [online]. 2008. Web.