Azalea Seafood Gumbo Shoppe
"Azalea Seafood Gumbo Shoppe"
John Addison and Mike Rathle's performance as chief managers of Azalea Seafood Gumbo Shoppe from 1991 to 2004 has been remarkable, and they have shown considerable strategic wisdom by addressing some very important questions about the future of their company and possible adjustments to their original vision and subsequent changes in their strategy.
John Addison, Mike Rathle and Bill Sibley purchased Azalea Seafood Gumbo Shoppe in 1991 and by the end of 2003 they had successfully transformed Azalea from a small, local retail food shop to one of the largest producers of gumbo in the U.S with sales of more than one million dollars. After losing their lease for the original location of Azalea after less than one year of purchasing the company, and subsequently moving into a new larger location, the partners decided to follow a new direction for the business. Rathle and Addison aggressively marketed their products to supermarkets and food service accounts. The new location provided them with the ability to expand production but would not support retail sales; thus confirming the partners vision to transition to value-added seafood products. Sibley sold his interest in the business to the other two partners in early 2001.
In 2000, Azalea experienced a 15% drop in sales when Jitney Jungle, a major customer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and subsequently closed down, leaving Azalea with an uncollectible $100,000 in outstanding money owed. In addition, sales figures for that year were adversely affected when a kitchen worker erroneously stamped more than $100,000 worth of gumbo with a date stamp instead of the lot number stamp, necessitating a recall of the entire shipment. Sales dropped an additional 14% in 2001.
While these events created a major setback for Azalea, the company rebounded, and revenues began to increase again in 2002 with a total of $974,911, up 8.7% from...
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