Reference no: EM13871018

Individual Case Study - ‘Brownstown'

You have been drafted onto a project team by your Regional Manager to deal with the challenges arising from a decision to build a brand new store 2.5 kilometres away from an older, run down store.

In four months' time, your town is about to welcome their newest and boldest retailer yet, a brand new Coles store nestled in the bustling suburb of Appleby.

The papers are calling it the ‘store of the future', and for good reason. Coles Appleby will feature an ecofriendly juice bar, state of the art customer facing technology as well an Aquaponic vertical herb farm on top of the roof (the only one in the country!). If that wasn't enough to get the locals excited, the click and collect drive thru is estimated to attract over 40 additional customers per week.

The stand-alone store will be accompanied by a locally owned coffee shop, beauty parlour and bespoke greengrocer, while the other four tenants are yet to be confirmed. In addition, the council are working hard to open yet another Primary School in Appleby West to cater for the suburb's growing demographic. That's four Primary Schools in a 7km radius of the development site. Appleby West Primary is set to open its doors the same week as our brand new store of the future.

Coles Appleby's development site is running ahead of schedule and excitingly, the store's leadership team has just been announced with a combined 90 years of retail experience!

However it's not all bright and dandy...

Only a stone's throw from Appleby is the ripened Coles Store in Brownstown and it may be in jeopardy. Brownstown has been producing solid results for the past 13 years (of a 15 year-lease - not bad!) but it's not exactly a picture of beauty. The building is extremely out dated and the store itself is looking tatty. One team member even reported sighting rats in the delivery bay!

In addition to this, the building's power, heating and cooling systems are from an evidently bygone era and cost a fortune torun and maintain. Last year there was an air-con failure on a 36 degree day - water and sunscreen sales went up but otherwise it was a disaster!

It's not all bad of course. The team members are happy and morale is reasonable. The last engagement survey conducted saw engagement levels in the top 20% of all Coles stores nationally. Many of them live nearby or on the main bus route. The team member retention rate is exceptional for a 13 year old store however with great change on the horizon, many of Brownstown's solid performers have shown interest in the new store and would like to apply despite the lack of public transport in the area.

Your Task:

As lead of the project team, you have been tasked to address the following:

1. Identify the top three challenges involved in the situation at Brownstown and your rationale for choosing these

2. Come prepared to discuss how each of the challenges should be managed/mitigated