Due: Friday October 16, 2020 @ 11:59pm submission folder on e-Conestoga.

Details: This case study is to be completed individually. All work will be submitted through turn-it-in for originality check upon submission into the submission folder on e-Conestoga. Total points 70.

Lukes Diner:

Today, your company is presenting a set of strategic retail initiatives to Mark Ess, owner/manager, cook/dishwasher of LUKES Diner. Mark is the third generation in the Ess family to run the popular diner in downtown Everyville, Ontario. Sales and profitability at LUKES Diner peaked a decade ago and the competitive landscape has undergone a major change. Mark is open to a major marketing reboot with the only limitation that the name and the location be retained.

Luke Ess bought the building and started LUKES Diner in 1945, almost immediately upon returning from military service in Europe to his hometown of Everyville, Ontario, then population 8,000. Over the next thirty years he built a successful business and raised a family; both the business and the family continued to participate and support the local fastball and hockey leagues. After Luke died of a heart attack in 1974, his 28 year old son Jerry retired from a career in minor hockey to take over LUKES Diner. He re-invented the diner to target the sports crowd in Everyville, which boasted a population closer to 18,000. Over the next forty years Jerry also grew the business, raised a family and watched Everyville grow to a population of 40,000 +. In 2014 he retired from LUKES Diner to oversee his growing real-estate holdings (and growing number of grandchildren) and transferred all ownership, management, cooking and dishwashing duties to his son Mark.

Everyville now has three Tim Hortons, two McDonalds, a Coffee Time, an A&W, a Pizza Hut, a Swiss Chalet, four other fast-food restaurants and a dozen family restaurants, all within 15 minutes of LUKES Diner. Mark studied business at Georgian College and has worked in the diner since he was a teenager. Sales and profitability peaked ten years ago and has been slowly declining since. The larges losses have been in the breakfast and lunch traffic and revenues, which have always combined for 80% of the LUKES Diner profitability. Though the diner has been physically well maintained interior and exterior, Mark realizes that a reboot, driven by a new retail marketing strategy, is overdue.

The competitive landscape has been and still is dramatically changing, mostly driven by the fast food franchises and the growing Tim Hortons coffee shop culture. According to the latest research, lunch is now the most skipped meal of the day (only three years ago it was still breakfast). Today, Canadians pass up the mid-day meal an average of 44 times a year. Analysts attribute the switch mainly to the concerted effort from so-called quick serve restaurants to get your day started with coffee in one hand and a portable sandwich in the other until late in the morning. People no longer take, or think they can afford, the time to a sit-down breakfast. The drive-through breakfast, which is so readily available, often carries them through to another mid-afternoon coffee run or even to supper. These factors have affected breakfast and lunch traffic at diners everywhere.

Today the fast food industry is quite saturated. Last year, the volume of traffic at fast food restaurants in Canada still grew by 7 percent; however closer analysis of market research from NPD Canada revels that lunch and after-eight sales were flat and supper actually declined by 4 percent; concluding that breakfast is the fasted growing day-part of the industry in the last five years.

Tim Hortons took over from McDonalds as Canadas top breakfast destination a year after it introduced breakfast sandwiches in 2007. Consumers are more likely to buy breakfast food at the same place they go for their favourite coffee and both franchises are aware that coffee drives the momentum of breakfast traffic. Features like premium roast coffee, caf style extras, extended breakfast menu and all-day breakfast have dominated the market.

The competition is fierce, but the breakfast club is extremely lucrative and still growing; it now accounts for 20 percent of quick-serve restaurants revenue. McDonalds added steak to its ever-growing breakfast menu; Tim Hortons just increased the size of its original hash brow by 35 percent; Burger King is pushing 25-cent coffee and its new Egg McMuffin clone; A&W now offers its own egg sandwich and is promoting a traditional bacon-eggs-toast breakfast, even Starbucks has recently introduced its Sous Vide Egg Bites.

The breakfast trend has driven the proportion of Canadians who visit a restaurant daily to 47 percent. A big chunk of that is coffee. Canadians consume nearly 2 billion servings of coffee a year outside their home. The coveted Millennial customer base gravitates more to cheap but healthy food that they can eat on the go and most chains have responded by promoting healthier options like oatmeal, egg whites and turkey sausage on their signage, of course while still offering all the greasy, heavier items that weigh in as high as 700 calories.

The traditional Canadian diner, found in most every town and city neighbourhood in Ontario, has not participated in this growth of restaurant traffic, on the contrary, sales are declining as even the seniors are flocking to Tim Hortons and McDonalds for their morning socializing. As a result, Lukes closest competitor in town, Carols Coffee has recently closed their doors.

Into the first quarter of 2020, LUKEs Diner was still profitable and generating positive cash flow, though much of this is because Mark owns the building. Like many food and service providers, LUKEs Diner has had closed doors and physical distance requirements to face along with increased cleaning and safety protocols. Though the traditional Canadian diner concept is dented and tarnished, Mark refuses to believe that LUKEs Diner is done but knows that he must respond to these market forces with a new retail marketing strategy.

Lukes March 2019 Financial Statement (5 weeks)

Gross sales	$133,000
Opening inventory, at cost	$ 59,500
Closing inventory, at cost	$ 61,000
New purchases, at cost	$ 78,500
Cash Discounts	3%
General overhead	$ 11,000
Advertising	$ 9,000
Salaries	$ 20,000
Customer returns and allowances	$ 8,000
Reductions	2.5%

Carols Coffee: Profit 6% or $7,500, Operating expenses 40%

Part 1 Complete a skeletal statement for each competitor (30pts)

Lukes Diner Skeletal Statement (15 pts)

Carols Coffee Skeletal Statement (15pts)

Part 2 Conduct a brief SWOT of Lukes Diner (12 pts)

Part 3 Identify which of the 4 growth strategies would be most effective for Lukes Diner. Support this choice by referencing the SWOT. (3 pts)

Part 4 Alternatives: Generate 3 possible alternatives to implement the growth strategy for LUKES Diner. Support each alternative with sustainable competitive advantages and referring to the SWOT and selected growth strategy. (6 Pts.)

Part 5 The Retail Mix: Select the best alternative idea and generate a marketing mix to implement the growth strategy for LUKES Diner. Identify the 6 Ps in the retail mix and how they would be used to implement the plan. (12Pts.)

Part 6 Pricing a cup of coffee can be a challenge. Lukes currently serves a basic blend of coffee that costs $10/lb. The current selling price of a cup of coffee is $2.00 for a 6oz up. Each lb. of coffee produces 48 cups at this size. (5 Pts)

1. What is the cost per cup of coffee?
2. What is the Markup % for a cup of coffee?
3. Based on the markup% would you classify coffee as an elastic of inelastic good?
4. If Lukes switches to a premium coffee to remain competitive. The premium coffee costs $15/lb., and sells an 8oz coffee for $3.00 per cup.
   1. what is the cost per cup of coffee?
   2. What is the markup % for premium coffee?

Part 7 Types of Retailers Lukes has the following retailers as neighbours. What type of retailer are they? (2 pts)

1. Marshals -
2. Pennys Pretty Pens & Paper -

I need help to solving these questions if not all at least solve one question. I really do not understand the charts in the first page, because Math is my weak point and it would be little difficult for me. I would appreciate it if you could solve the chart.

if possible can you also help with the rest of the questions.

Thank you and have a great day to who ever is reading this question!