Adidas Company

The interpretations on the trends of the ratios for ‘Adidas Group’ tell the company’s performance for the past three years 2006, 2007, and 2008.
For the years 2006, 2007, and 2008, the debt ratio decreased from around 66% to 64%. But still this is a good percentage as the debt ratio is less than 1. Thus we can say that the company is not much dependent on money borrowed and has good equity position. The company would be in risk if this ratio is high. The current ratio has decreased from around 1.8 to 1.3 from year 2006 to 2008 which says that the company’s ability to pay for its short term obligations has reduced. If the ratio decreases furthermore, then the company would not be definitely in good financial position to pay the obligations back which are due at that point. The asset turnover ratio has decreased from 1.4 to 1.2 from the year 2006 to 2008. This is still a good number because the company still has good profit margins as the ratio is low which is almost near to 1. But it is better to have a high ratio. The profit margin has increased from 4.9 to 5.9 from the year 2006 to 2008, which indicates that the company has control over its cost and has more competitors and is giving good competition to its competitors in the market. The higher the profit margin percentage, the better is the company profit. The return on equity ratio has increased from 17.9% to 20% from 2006 to 2008 and this indicates that this company is gaining good profits from the money invested by its shareholders. The higher the ROE ratio, the profits are more to the company from the shareholders. The gross profit margin has increased from 44.5% to 48.6% from 2006 to 2008 which is a good indication that the company has sufficient resources. The better the gross margin, the better is the financial resources of the company. The price earnings ratio is very important for the companies in the same industry. The P/E ratio increases a little and then decreases drastically from 16.3 to 19 and then to 8 from 2006 to 2008, which is good for investing as it reduces the risk. As the ratio increases the expectation increases. The Accounts receivable turnover ratio has decreased from 8.4 to 7 from 2006 to 2008 which indicates that the firm is not efficiently utilizing its assets and the collection of accounts has decreased. The average collection period has increased from 43 days to 52 days from 2006 to 2008 which is not a good sign for the company as the days to collect the accounts is increasing. But as this is a company manufacturing various products, this can be varying from product to product. The inventory turnover ratio has decreased from 3.9 to 3 from 2006 to 2008 which indicates that the inventory turnover is low for the past three years which may be due to stock accumulation and slow moving of goods or over investment in inventories. This company needs to improve its inventory management. If the ratio is less, it may lead the company to low profits. Days to sell an inventory have increased from 92 to 119 days and this indicates that the stock is accumulated for a longer period of time due to improper management of the inventories. But still as this is a company with different products this may increase or decrease depending on the type of good. The Dividend payout ratio has decreased from 17.7 % to 15.3% from 2006 to 2008 but the ratio is almost the same for the last two years. This ratio is less as this company is a growing company and has good profits. So they pay fewer dividends. This decrease in the ratio tells that is company is gaining more profits.
Thus, the Adidas Company manufactures differentiated goods. From the above information it can be understood that, though it faces tight competition in the market, it maintains a good profit. It has many branches all around the world and has a good reputation in the world of sports.

References:
http://www.adidas-group.com/en/News/_downloads/pdfs/2009/Press_Release_Q42008_e.pdf
http://www.adidas-group.com/en/News/_downloads/pdfs/2008/2008_03_05_Q42007-e.pdf
http://www.adidas-group.com/en/News/_downloads/pdfs/2007/March7_Q42006-e.pdf

Laptop Industry Structure

“Laptop” is a differentiated product. There are many companies which manufacture laptop computers like Apple, Dell, Lenovo, and HP, each company has its own quality and design. Each company introduces different models which differ in looks, display quality and the different features available in them with different configurations. Few companies provide good service, in terms of customer service as well as in the product’s life. Companies such as ‘Sony’ and ‘Toshiba’ are Japan companies also give a very good competition to the leading companies manufacturing laptops. So the location of the company also helps in distinguishing its product. The brand name and packaging also count in giving competition which forces the customers in the market to buy a particular product of the company like; ‘Sony’ manufactures different kinds of electronic goods. There are significant barriers to entry for the sellers or producers which help the existing companies to have greater control over the market. So there are only few firms which manufacture laptops in the market. This is because if a new firm has to enter the market, it should have its plans and strategies to create its own techniques of production to give competition to its competitor’s techniques like “Apple inc.” has its known style for its product’ look and uses Mac Operating system for its products which shows its exclusive resource ownership. Another barrier to entry is the start-up costs of the products will be high. This is because the firms in this form of market need high capital particularly for manufacturing the sophisticated equipments. Herfindahl-Hirschman Index is 1073.3 which represent a moderately concentrated market. The concentration ratio is above 60%. Profit margins for “Dell Inc” which is one of the top manufacturers of laptops are:
Rate of Return on Stockholder Equity (ROE) (Net Income / Shareholder Equity = 39.8% (average of 5 yrs) or 58% (2009)), Profit Margin/Return on Sale (Profits / Sales = 19.6%), P/E Ratio (Stock Price per share / Earnings per share = 16.2), Financial Leverage (Total Debt / Shareholder Equity = 6.3), Asset Turnover (Total Revenue / Total Assets = 1.8)
From the above calculations, the laptop industry is a competitive market as the firm has profit margins which are relatively high. So, the market form of this industry is OLIGOPOLY. Some other factors which determine are: the industry has many buyers and few sellers producing the identical products who rule the market (which is laptop in this case) in terms of setting the price of the product and interdependency. They may produce homogeneous or differentiated products. Collusion risk is high and strategic planning is required. The non-price competition methods such as branding, product differentiation and advertising are more used as they are more cost-effective and also to keep away the price war risk when compared to the price competition methods which are ineffective in the oligopoly form of market. There is a large level of commercial advertising done through internet promotion for laptop product in the oligopolistic market to draw the attention of the consumers from its competitor firms.
Thus, the laptop industry structure is strongly an oligopoly form of market as there are few firms with lots of competition because of all the factors mentioned above like barriers to entry, product type, number of firms, product differentiation, concentration indexes etc.
References:
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/13412579/Price-wars-in-oligopolistic-markets
http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2008/09/apple-gains-us-market-share-in-laptops.ars
http://www.advfn.com/p.php?pid=financials&symbol=NASDAQ%3ADELL http://www.advfn.com/p.php?pid=financials&btn=annual_reports&mode=&symbol=NASDAQ%3ADELL

Lepakshi Handicrafts - A Specialty Good

After learning about the specialty goods in the Marketing class I decided to share about one of the famous specialty good which is "Lepakshi" Handicrafts.

Lepakshi is a project of the Andhra Pradesh government set up in 1982 to endorse and expand the handicrafts of A.P. in India. The capital paid up by the Govt. of A.P and the Govt. of India is 2.00 crores for marketing, promotion and development of handicrafts in addition to implementing schemes for the artisans benefit. It has a smaller amount of manpower of 181. It's Production Unit which is Nirmal Industry is located at Hyderabad in India.

With the help of the marketing mix (i.e. 4 P's); Lepakshi handicrafts can be perfectly described as Specialty goods.

Product: Lepakshi products are unique and are not purchased frequently. Its brand name "Lepakshi" is a symbol of loyalty and is a strong liking brand. This product needs special effort for purchasing and slight shopping comparison. These products attract significant group of buyers with the major characteristics like brand name and items' exclusive unique features.

Different products offered are:

• Furniture: Rosewood, Nirmal
• Paintings: kalamkari, Nirmal, Cherial Scroll, Kalamkari block prints
• Carvings: Stone, wood
• Toys: Kondapalli, Nirmal
• Artware: Brass, Bidri
• Special items: Silver Filigree, Bobbili Veena, Banjara Embroidery

Thus these unique and special products influence people to put in extraordinary effort to get them.

Price: Lepakshi products are very expensive. Though the market for these products is small, they have high price and profits. Comparisons between choices are not encouraged by the sellers.

Promotion: The publicity is mainly through websites, brochures, Hoardings etc. Promotion is targeted by both the reseller and the producer carefully. Promotion is also done participating in the International and Domestic Trade Fairs.

Place: Distribution of these products is exclusive only in one or a small number of outlets for each market region. It has only 14 retail showrooms. They are available in Exhibitions, Craft melas or bazaars sometimes. So to buy this brand product considerable distances should be travelled is required, as the purchase depends on the personal desire or preference. The time is put in by the buyers to arrive at the dealers to get this desired product.

Thus, this specialty good is really a great asset to the Andhra Pradesh state in India.

References:

http://www.lepakshihandicrafts.gov.in/corporate-profile.asp

http://hydepages.com/eprofiles/10_1.html