Miraka: Dairy Company in NZ Built on Cultural Values & Sustaining Natural World - Essay Sample

Introduction

Miraka is a milk company in the dairy-processing industry in New Zealand. The company have strong values that are based on the owners' cultural beliefs. The strong values help in guiding the company's business decisions as well as underpinning the unified relationships among all the staff members and the directors also with the natural world which nourishes and sustains the company's wellbeing. Miraka company is located in Mokai, which is 30km northwest of Taupo, and it remains unique in the dairy industry in New Zealand. It was founded in 2010, and today it has a reach of over 23 countries across the globe. The company uses renewable and sustainable geothermal energy as well as state-of-the-art manufacturing processes giving it the capacity and power to process over two hundred and fifty million litres of milk into ultra-heat temperature and powder products annually.

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The company gets its milk from 100 local farmers who live within a radius of 85km from the factory. The source radius provides the company with farm-fresh milk which is an advantage since the company can offer superior quality products. The quality products are what has made the company to gain a reach of over 23 countries across the globe. The owners of the company are a Maori group of trusts and incorporations which include the Huiarau Farms, Wairarapa Moana incorporation, Tauhara Moana Trust, Tuaropaki Trust, Hauhungaroa Partnership as well as Waipapa 9 Trust. The investors and strategic partners of the company include Global Dairy Network, Te Awahohonu Forest Trust Limited as well as Vietnam's Vinamilk, a leading dairy products enterprise and milk manufacturer. All these companies give Miraka milk company new knowledge and experiences within the dairy marketing and sales internationally.

The intergenerational view of the business states that the company is there for a long term and it has a shared vision of sustainable business practices which will ensure that the future generations get to enjoy all the benefits of the work that the company does today. It continues stating that the company is the guardian of New Zealand, which is not to be sold but instead passed on by the generations. The company can be analyzed using the analytical thinking skills, which include SWOT analysis, PESTLE, Porters Five Forces Analysis, as well as the Business Canvas Model. SWOT analysis is the strategic planning technique that is used in guiding an organization or an individual in identifying the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities as well as threats that are related to a project planning or a business competition.

SWOT Analysis

Just like any other business, Miraka milk company has its strengths, weakness, opportunities as well as threats that happen to exist within its operations. Some of the advantages of the company include its capacity and power to process over two hundred and fifty million litres of milk into ultra-heat temperature and powder products annually due to its modernized use mechanisms of renewable and sustainable geothermal energy as well as state-of-the-art manufacturing processes. The company gets most of its farm-fresh milk from farmers living within a radius of 85km from when the factory is based. This gives the company an advantage of saving on transportation costs; it gets fresh milk from the farmers hence being able to produce quality products. The company is founded on strong values on the cultural beliefs of its owners, making it a unique company, and this is an advantage since its uniqueness makes it remain above the other companies in the market. Miraka milk company is owned by a group of Maori trusts and incorporations. It has investors and strategic partners who bring in new knowledge and experiences on dairy sales and marketing internationally.

Miraka company has some weaknesses that if not well looked into could affect the company's performance, and existence in future and one of its weakness is their customer service, due to increasing demand for their products, the company decided to develop an online program that would enable their customers to order their products online. The plan was faced with challenges such as data errors and redundancy, which if not well taken care of could spoil the company's reputation. The company only sources its milk from farmers with the radius of 85km from its processing unit meaning that there is an opportunity left out that another company that is willing and able to invest heavily could come in and get more milk supplies from all over New Zealand and still manage to get to the market hence offering stiff competition.

Miraka company has a great opportunity of expanding since it can decide to enlarge its source of milk from 85km radius and therefore increase its products which will mean an increase in the revenues of the company. This would help in expanding the business and look for more market across other countries in the international market. On the threats, a significant problem facing the company is stiff competition from other dairy companies within New Zealand as well as other milk-producing countries which may challenge the company's share in the world market. Once the company is not able to take care to ensure it maintains its position or even improves its place in the local and world market, the over NZ$90m ($74.43m) plant would face decline market share and could be in a risk of being thrown out of the market.

PESTLE Analysis

The Miraka Milk company's operation and existence are influence by several factors including political, economic, sociological, technological, legal and environmental. These are the ecological factors that influence an organization from outside. In November 2019, Miraka milk company joined Gen Less, an initiative by the Energy Efficiency Conservation Authority a government agency which brought together all the top New Zealand companies calling for them to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions as well as reduce the number of energies they used in their operations. In the same month, the company signed up to protect borders through a program created for primary business leaders to step up their biosecurity responsibilities as well as encouraging other business leaders to back the cause towards proper business risk management.

Economically, the company sources milk from farmers within a radius of 85km from its processing plant. The company introduced a program that calls for sustainable farming practices four years ago, and there has been significant change noted in terms of the milk that farmers bring in to the plant. Due to the adoption of the sustainable farming practices by farmers their milk supply to the company has increased increasing the output of the company hence growing its revenues. The company has received an inclining growth rate since its financial yeah 2015-2016, meaning that it has been on a stable and increasing state of the past four years. Socially, the company was founded on strong values that were based on the cultural believes of its founders and has grown fast and managing to get into the international market very fast since they company meets customer demands.

It produces top quality products making it a well-known company across the globe. It has excellent working relations with both their source farmers, its employees as well as their end consumers. This is reflected in how the company behaves in the market where there is stiff competition, but it manages to survive. Miraka milk company utilizes modern technology, and that is the main reason why they can process vast amounts of milk on its one base milk plant. They are also working closely with farmers to educate them about the modern technology which enables sustainable farming with minimal costs of production but increased outputs.

The company has employed modern technology in almost all the processes up to the sale of their products which they now sell online. Legally, the company is registered with the country's government agency dealing with industries operating within the borders of New Zealand and adheres to international business laws; hence it works legally. It employs sustainable and renewable geothermal energy and ensures it employs measures to reduce greenhouse gas emission to the environment. It employs measures to reduce energy use as an attempt to protect the environment. It is also working closely with farmers to ensure it can record and report all the carbon emissions from each of the 100 farmers that they work with.

Porter's Five Forces Model

According to Porter, every business or industry has competitors, and each business keeps on the watch to outdo all the efforts by the competitors to beat them in the market, so he identified five forces which make up the competitive environment and have the capacity to erode a company's profitability. Using these forces to analyze Miraka Milk company's position in New Zealand, it's clear that the company has a lot of competitors. The competitive rivalry of Miraka in New Zealand is that it has six competitors including Fonterra company, Tatua company, Westland company, Synlait company, Open Country company, as well as the Oceania Dairy company.

Some of the listed companies had existed way before Miraka company was started, and they all produce quality products since they have well dominated the market each having a good share of the market. On supplier power, Miraka has a hundred farmers who supply them with fresh farm milk. The company works closely with its farmers and supports them a lot to ensure that they adopted sustainable farming practices which will enhance their products. The suppliers live within an 85km radius from the company's processing plant which is useful for both the farmers and the company meaning that it would be costly for the farmers to switch from supplying Miraka with milk to providing to another company. On buyer power, the company has attracted the attention of many buyers both locally and internationally, and it's on a stable position where it would not be easy for buyers to drive down the company's prices. Due to its provision of super quality products, it would cost the buyers more to get such products at the same rates in the market.

Milk is mostly a basic necessity for most individuals across the globe, and there is no substitute of milk yet in the market hence there is no likelihood that Miraka's customers would substitute the milk products with anything else. This means that Miraka does not face a threat of substitution from its customers. Miraka faces the threat of new entry since a company could come in to produce the same products as Miraka but with mode advanced technologies meaning that the cost of production will be low. As a result, they will sell the product at a lower price which means it would take over Miraka's position in the market. The use of more advanced technologies by another company may help the company take over Miraka's place by reducing the prices of the products and having enough supply.

Before developing any strategies to figure out how to achieve business objectives as well as making the changes aimed at achieving the goals, it is essential first to conduct a situational analysis of the business. The reason is that a situational analysis helps in understanding the position of the company, its weaknesses, its strengths, environmental factors surrounding the market as well as the level of the business. Situational analysis equips the strategy developer with every knowledge of the company and enables them to come up with effective and efficient strategies to develop the business.