Business Plan
Research and Development Plan
Our organisation is called SPRINT and our vision is to develop and supply the European automotive industry with environmentally friendly luxury cars at an affordable price. We aim to reduce costs for consumers within the market.
Our mission statement is;
“Sprint is a manufacturer of sophisticated, luxurious machines which pin point perfection in every aspect in our product designs. We strive as a team to deliver the best with the customer’s best interests at heart.”
Our main objectives are that we would like to have increased our market share by 15% by 2015 through the launch of our city car. This car will be retailed at £14,500 and is a 3/5 door hatchback with a hybrid engine. We would also like to have increased our factory productivity by 10% each year leading up to 2015. We aim to modify our current product range to meet the new EU emissions law so research will be done to find out what these new laws are. We are not looking at making the cheapest cars, we are focusing on developing quality vehicles with a high value rate. We aim to make our cars more affordable than their competitors, without sacrificing the quality.
We will have to carry out in depth research in to the European car industry and the existing companies, especially those with a higher market share and those with lower market share but higher quality products.
Our main competitor for the city car is the Mini Cooper S which retails at £18,075 and the Audi A1 which retails at £13,420 – and are of a similar size.
Our main competitor for our second product, the larger car is the Audi A6, retailing at £30,145. With this product we will be focusing mainly on interior design and comfort.
In order to gain a competitive advantage over the other cars we need to beat them on price, increasing profit margins and keeping manufacturing costs to a minimum. We also need to create products of exceptional quality, which will give them an edge over the competitors. We will need to develop a brand image for the City Car that targets young professional students and individuals concerned about the environment.
In terms of the Large, saloon car, we aim to differentiate this product from our competitors with a diesel engine and a luxury package which will appeal to successful professionals and the older generation (40+).
In terms of investment policies, we will invest money initially in to the manufacturing of the city car, then use the potential profits to help develop the second vehicle, the larger saloon car. Depending on the success of the first, we will begin manufacturing the second later on. Launching both at the same time would be far too risky and very costly, and our budget would not allow us to feasibly launch the second until the first sees some success. This also means we can spread our products along the product lifecycle, hopefully achieving one in growth while another is in maturity.