Introduction
"In-n-out" San Paulo is a fast food restaurant based in America having numerous locations particularly in the southwest part of the United States and the Pacific coast. The restaurant was founded by Harry and Esther Snyder in the year 1948 in Irvine, California. The chain currently has its headquarters in Irvine, California but has gradually made expansions outside the Southside of California to extend into the other parts of California. Lynsi Snyder is the current owner of the restaurant (In-N-Out Inc, 2016). As the restaurant seeks to expand into Brazil, it is imperative that a business plan be laid out to smoothen the process of setting up in the foreign land. The following is the business plan of expanding the restaurant into Brazil.
Executive Summary
The plan will detail on the mission and vision as well as the goals of the restaurant. It will provide a detailed account and analysis of the Brazilian market and proceed to suggest the best strategies to getting into the market. Brazil is a foreign market that offers certain challenges to newcomers especially those from foreign nations and these challenges shall be addressed in relation to strategies the restaurant can use to properly expand into the territory. It is well to appreciate the target market and the nature of the market in the host country in a bid to appreciate the means of curbing upcoming potential setbacks in fulfilling the dream of the restaurant. In this regard, an in-depth analysis will be done prior to the suggested strategies and the implementation of the same. Finally, an evaluation shall be outlined for the restaurant to discover its progress in the market.
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Mission
The In-N-Out restaurant wishes to provide customers with the best quality hamburgers, cheeseburgers and Double-Double snacks to the fulfilment of the clientele.
Vision
To be the leading snacks producer and provider in the world with the largest customer base in the global arena.
Analysis of Market
Brazilians love their own foods and mostly the traditional meals like the pousadas. According to Geromel (2012), the main restaurants in the region offer traditional meals and even the setting and ambience they have is traditional. It is observed that the restaurants there have been in existence for longer than 18 years making them really old. However, every person appreciates diversity in meals and as such the people are quite receptive to meals as long as their traditional meals are also available. It makes it a suitable platform for the foreigners or gringoes as they commonly called, to invest in the restaurant business and bring in a new look to the menu. The most welcomed meals include fish and chips although the Brazilians are welcome to western hamburgers and cheeseburgers.
Strategies
Operation Strategy and Implementation
The strategy is to set up a restaurant in Brazil and franchise a name of a restaurant that is performing very well in the country. According to research by Geromel (2012), the best way of any foreign restaurant to get into the Brazilian market is to franchise. Otherwise, people will never walk into one’s restaurant. Remember, the Brazilians prefer the old and traditional restaurants. Therefore, franchise will do well for the “In-N-Out” restaurant so that it gains customers before it changes its name back to “In-N-Out”. The purpose of having to franchise is to get customers first, afterwards customers will not care about the name because they would have already gotten a taste of the meal served by the restaurant and that is why they will remain loyal clients.
Operational Strategy
Consideration will be given to the most lucrative and famous restaurant in Sau Paulo Brazil and one whose menu closely resembles that of In-N-Out. The purpose of this will be so that it becomes easier for In-N-Out to switch the menu and meals they provide once the customers start coming in. It is important that the restaurant realizes the challenges it faces and as such it will be imperative if it conducts the research to obtain details pertaining to the most renowned restaurant in the region before it gets into the market.
Make or Buy
A new market is always a risky venture and thus one needs to take a calculated risk so that they are able to either make it in business or get out of the business immediately they realize it is not a viable venture. In regards, to this it is best that the restaurant buy because that will be cheaper than buying.
It is quite costly to make things from the ground up in a new country because of the numerous protocols and policies involved for the foreigners and particularly those that come from America. Therefore, the best option would be for the restaurant to buy an already established building but look for one that looks as if is diminishing in value so that they renovate it slightly maintaining the traditional touch that Brazilians fancy in their restaurants everywhere they tend to go.
Own/Lease
As mentioned above, it’s costly to start up from the very beginning and more so on new grounds. It is thus crucial that the restaurant leases a building from where they will conduct business for a period of two years. Two years is recommended because it marks just the amount of time that it requires to evaluate whether a business is viable or not. Furthermore, two years is the least amount of time that a rental building can be leased for at a discount.
Considering the nature of the customer base that Brazil provides, the restaurant needs to put all its focus on saving on cost and invest more on innovative ways of luring clients to their chain of restaurants. This can be achieved if the money spent on other ventures like buying and acquisition were substituted for less costly ventures such as leasing the areas from where to operate. Leasing is recommended in regards to this case and sits properly with the objectives of the restaurant to have effective growth with less expenses in a span of two years after getting into Brazil.
Expat/ local Staff
One thing that the operations department must understand is that it is very difficult to sell a new idea to persons that are used to and enjoying the ideas they already have. Therefore, it is best to have expats work at the senior level so that they can facilitate the idealization of the American restaurant serving Brazilian customers but best to have the subordinate and supervisors as well as daily functional managers be locals.
Local staff understand their people better and are more likely to invite friends and family over to the restaurant. They know how to entice the locals and get them to try out the new place. It is thus recommended that the restaurant employs the locals as part of the larger staff. It comes with numerous advantages and makes it less tedious to obtain clients in the new country.
Training
The restaurant will have a training program that will run for three months. The purpose of the training program will be to equip the staff on the ins and outs of the restaurant, understand the culture of the restaurant and how best to integrate the American cuisine with the Brazilian culture so as to have customers. The training program will run for three months every time the restaurant will have at least five new employees at whatever level of staff be it managerial or subordinate level.
Training also helps in ensuring that the firm continues to run even after the eventuality of a sudden turnover. It is well to appreciate that training will ensure the company goes a long mile in expanding into Brazil because it will open and pave ways for the merging of Brazilian and American cuisine. The program will also entail teaching innovative ways of ensuring that meals best suit the description of the restaurant and that of the locals to ensure that there is no lack of the two thus ensuring all persons are satisfied.
Evaluation
The evaluation will be carried out after the first year of settling into Brazil. The above strategies will be measured against their goals and achievements to determine the progress made. The evaluation will entail studying the number of clients received, the number of customers that have proven constant and hence permanent and the rate of new customers against the goals established at the beginning. Secondly, the finances will be counterchecked against the buying and building estimates to investigate on whether the costs saved were worth the doing and whether it would have been better if the alternatives had been taken.
Conclusion
The business plan aims at assisting the “In-N-Out” restaurant settle in Brazil and be able to conduct its business over the new territory. It is considerate and important that the plan be considered and implemented to ensure the restaurant picks up and thrives in Sau Paulo, Brazil. An assessment insists that it is difficult for foreign firms to make it in Brazil but the strategies suggested will do well to ensure the business takes off in the new region.
References
Geromel, R. (2012). Franchising: The Best Way of Investing in Brazil. Forbes, 1-4. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/ricardogeromel/2012/07/27/franchising-the-best-way-of-investing-in-brazil/#2a8bbfee3a51
In-N-Out Inc. (2016). In-N-Out Burgers Inc. Company Profile, Information, Business Description, History, Background Information on In-N-Out Burgers Inc.. Referenceforbusiness.com. Retrieved 26 April 2018, from http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history/He-Ja/In-N-Out-Burgers-Inc.html