...Surfside Leisurescapes is a family-owned business that has been operating since 1983 in Newmarket, a little town located 45 kilometers north of Ontario that has a population of 75,100. The company’s current product mix involves backyard products, such as barbeques, patio furniture, pools and pool toys and accessories. A. Key Issue: Steve Jentzen, Surfside’s general manager, wants to change some of the company’s current marketing actions in the hot tub department because the company has failed to meet its projected sales every year. Hot tub sales represent around 25 percent of the company’s total revenue, making the hot tub division a critical one. Since Surfside has no current marketing strategy nor competitive plan, Jentzen wants make a viable one in order for the company to retain its market share and its ability to be competitive. In 2004, more than 12 competitors have moved to Newmarket’s area, and the current climatic conditions were not helping the hot tub’s seasonal business. The general manager previous efforts to motivate sales included incentives, performance appraisals, apprenticeships programs and a program termed “a marketing revolution”. Jentzen has thought about a number of options to make his hot tub lines more profitable. Some of his thoughts are regarding whether the company should carry both of hot tubs lines of not. He has also thought about if investing more in human resources or if changings to the floor plan of the retail store could help generate...
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...CASE |CASE|"Boris, I understand your concern about the risks involved with expansion, but if we're ever going to realise our dreams and the | |STUD|potential of this business, we have to believe that we will succeed! Sure, the industry is fickle - one year you're on top while the| |Y |next year no one wants your designs. We've had some good years and we've had some bad years, but we survived everything the market | | |threw at us and we learned from our mistakes. I honestly think I now understand just what the market wants; with this knowledge we | | |should really be able to take off - if only we can improve quality control and shorten the delivery time. The expansion should take | | |care of these problems and enable us to attract a major market segment we are now only barely touching. You have the financial | | |training and know-how to analyse the economics of the project, and I'm not disputing that the analysis shows it to be risky. But | | |sometimes you must have the faith to look beyond the numbers - I vote that we go ahead with the expansion and never look back! It | | |will succeed; I just know it will!" | | | | | |Natasha Martini, who expressed the above sentiments, had worked for just two years...
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...Amusement Piers & WATER PARKS Kong RETURNs! APRIL APRIL MAY MAY JUNE JUNE JULY JULY AUGUST AUGUST SEPT SEPT OCT OCT 2015 Amusement Pier Operating Hours* 2015 Amusement Pier Operating Hours* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 11am-5pm 6pm-10pm noon-11pm 11am-5pm 6pm-10pm noon-11pm 6pm-11pm 2pm-10pm noon-5pm 6pm-11pm 2pm-10pm noon-5pm noon-midnight Mariner’s Landing Pier only. noon-6pm noon-midnight Mariner’s Landing Pier only. noon-6pm 1pm-midnight noon-10pm 1pm-midnight noon-10pm 1pm-10pm for Mariner’s Landing Pier. 5pm-10pm for Surfside Pier and Adventure Pier. 1pm-10pm for Mariner’s Landing Pier. 5pm-10pm for Surfside Pier and Adventure Pier. Adventure Pier opens at 4pm on weekdays and 2pm on weekends unless otherwise noted. Adventure Pier opens at 4pm on weekdays and 2pm on weekends unless otherwise noted. MAY MAY JUNE JUNE JULY JULY AUGUST AUGUST SEPT SEPT Morey’s Pier 1972 2015 Water Parks Operating Hours* 2015 Water Parks Operating Hours* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 9:30am-5pm 9:30am-5pm 9:30am-6pm 9:30am-6pm 10am-5pm 10am-5pm 10am-5:30pm 10am-5:30pm 11am-5pm 11am-5pm Raging Waters only Raging Waters only *Closing times and operating hours are subject to change at anytime based on various factors...
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...EMPLOYMENT-AT-WILL DOCTRINE Shawunda Baker STRAYER UNIVERSITY Gus Weekley, JD February 8, 2015 Employment-At-Will Doctrine Under the employment-at-will doctrine, employers have the power hire and fire employees for whatever reason. All 50 states however, have adapted statues that protect employees from wrongful termination. The theoretical philosophy laissez-faire provided the support for this legal rule. Employment at will is a legal doctrine that gives employers the freedom to terminate employees “for a good reason, a bad reason, or no reason at all.” This statute was developed in the 1800s and promotes the idea that employers have the right to dispose of what they own including their labor. An amendment to this law came in 1935 at a time when many Americans were fighting for labor unions and the right to organize. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that employers cannot use employment-at-will to terminate an employee as an attempt to prevent the employee from organizing. In the 1960s, the Civil right act prevented employers from using the law to fire someone based on race, national origin, color, religion, sex, age, or disability. Later, statues were enacted that prevented firing for reporting safety violations. In 2002 after several financial scandals made headlines, Congress passed laws that included provisions to protect workers that report financial fraud. Many companies issue cell phones to their employees to conduct business. This is considered company...
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...was then calculated using the formula (FCF= NOPAT + Depreciation-∆ Net Working Capital -∆Fixed Assets) which was evaluated at $21,240, $26,727, $ 22,097, $25,473 and $29,545 for the years 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 respectively. The Cost of Debt and the Cost of Equity The next step was to determine the coast of debt, using the assumptions made by Mr. Liedtke which outlines a tax rate of 40%, the cost of debt of 6% for a leverage of 20% debt. The after-tax cost of debt (RD) was determined to be 3.6% [using RD =(R*(1-Tax Rate), where RD =after rate cost of debt, R= cost of debt] The cost equity estimated using the CAPM approach, Surfside Footwear was selected as a comparable company since its EBIT Margin of 9.3% was the same as the average consolidated EBIT Margin of Mercury Athletic for period 2004-2006, the Equity Beta for Surfside from Exhibit 3 was 2.13. The risk free was determined to be 4.69% using US...
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...Executive Summary The footwear industry is highly competitive industry with fairly stable profit margins. Active Gear is a profitable firm in the industry; however Active Gear is a smaller firm than many other competitors and its small size is becoming a competitive disadvantage. The rise of large retailers has also endangered Active Gear’s growth. Mercury Athletic Footwear designs and distributes athletic and casual footwear dominantly to the youth market. Mercury competes in four main product lines: men’s and women’s athletic and casual footwear. Men’s athletic footwear is the leading product for Mercury Athletic. Women’s casual footwear is Mercury’s worst performing product and post-acquisition the line may be discontinued by Active Gear. The acquisition of the Mercury Athletic division has sources of potential including an increase in Active Gear’s revenue, an increase in leverage with contract manufacturers, boosting capacity utilization and expanding its presence with retailers and distributors. Upon the review of the opportunity to acquire Mercury Athletic Footwear, the results of the financial analysis below indicate Active Gear should proceed with the acquisition. Based on the Free Cash Flow Method, considering the financial projections and assumptions for Mercury Athletic, indicate the acquisition has a positive net present value of $112,778,000 [Present Value of Future Cash Flows (59,440,000) + Terminal Value ($276,921,000) – Purchase Price ($223,583,000)]. There...
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...Executive Summary The footwear industry is highly competitive industry with fairly stable profit margins. Active Gear is a profitable firm in the industry; however Active Gear is a smaller firm than many other competitors and its small size is becoming a competitive disadvantage. The rise of large retailers has also endangered Active Gear s growth. Mercury Athletic Footwear designs and distributes athletic and casual footwear dominantly to the youth market. Mercury competes in four main product lines: men s and women s athletic and casual footwear. Men s athletic footwear is the leading product for Mercury Athletic. Women s casual footwear is Mercury s worst performing product and post-acquisition the line may be discontinued by Active Gear. The acquisition of the Mercury Athletic division has sources of potential including an increase in Active Gear s revenue, an increase in leverage with contract manufacturers, boosting capacity utilization and expanding its presence with retailers and distributors. Upon the review of the opportunity to acquire Mercury Athletic Footwear, the results of the financial analysis below indicate Active Gear should proceed with the acquisition. Based on the Free Cash Flow Method, considering the financial projections and assumptions for Mercury Athletic, indicate the acquisition has a positive net present value of $112,778,000 [Present Value of Future Cash Flows (59,440,000) + Terminal Value ($276,921,000) Purchase Price ($223,583,000)]. There are...
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...flow was then calculated using the formula (FCF= NOPAT + Depreciation-∆ Net Working Capital -∆Fixed Assets) which was evaluated at $21,240, $26,727, $ 22,097, $25,473 and $29,545 for the years 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 respectively. The Cost of Debt and the Cost of Equity The next step was to determine the coast of debt, using the assumptions made by Mr. Liedtke which outlines a tax rate of 40%, the cost of debt of 6% for a leverage of 20% debt. The after-tax cost of debt (RD) was determined to be 3.6% [using RD =(R*(1-Tax Rate), where RD =after rate cost of debt, R= cost of debt] The cost equity estimated using the CAPM approach, Surfside Footwear was selected as a comparable company since its EBIT Margin of 9.3% was the same as the average consolidated EBIT Margin of Mercury Athletic for period 2004-2006, the Equity Beta for Surfside from Exhibit 3 was 2.13. The risk free was determined to be 4.69% using US Treasury Bills Yield given in the case Footnotes on page 7. The 5 year T-bill...
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...MEMO Date: August 13, 2013 To: Thomas Carroll, CEO From: Jose R. Pizarro Jaimin Modi George Triarchou Monica Balbuena Shuyuan Qiu RE: Mercury Athletic valuation and acquisition recommendations We believe that Mercury is an appropriate target for AGI since an acquisition can be an excellent growth opportunity. First, through the acquisition AGI can take the advantages of some existing synergies. Acquiring Mercury would expand AGI’s business size and consequently produce the “one plus one is greater than two” effect. This acquisition would double AGI’s revenues, increase its leverage with contract manufacturers, and also help to expand its presence with key retailers and distributors. Moreover, if negotiated well, AGI could acquire Mercury for a lower price than the actual price of Mercury; earning more than what they’ve paid. This will be discussed further in the recommendation. Secondly, acquiring Mercury is a lower risk way for AGI to increase their growth rate. Mercury has a high growth rate of revenue, which may compensate for the low growth rate of revenue for AGI. Further, since the women’s casual line is going to be closed or consolidated, the rest of the three segments of Mercury show prosperous future prediction in margins and growth. This reflects a good acquisition opportunity. Finally, acquainting Mercury is ease of integration. This is because Mercury and AGI both are the footwear industry. And the main products of...
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...4050 SEPTEMBER 18, 2009 TIMOTHY A. LUEHRMAN JOEL L. HEILPRIN Mercury Athletic Footwear: Valuing the Opportunity In March 2007, John Liedtke, the head of business development for Active Gear, Inc., a privately held footwear company, was contemplating an acquisition opportunity. West Coast Fashions, Inc. (WCF), a large designer and marketer of men’s and women’s branded apparel had recently announced plans for a strategic reorganization. The plan called for a divestiture of certain non-core assets and a renewed focus on WCF’s higher-end business, business-casual, and formal-wear apparel businesses. One of the divisions WCF intended to shed was Mercury Athletic, its footwear division. Liedtke knew that acquiring Mercury would roughly double Active Gear’s revenue, increase its leverage with contract manufacturers, and expand its presence with key retailers and distributors. He also expected that Active Gear’s bankers would quickly approach the company about a possible bid for Mercury; consequently, he wanted to complete his own rough evaluation of the opportunity before hearing the bankers’ pitch. Athletic and Casual Footwear Industry Footwear was a mature, highly competitive industry marked by low growth, but fairly stable profit margins. Despite the industry’s overall stability, the performance of individual firms could be quite volatile as they vied with one another to anticipate and exploit fashion trends. The market for athletic and casual shoes remained...
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...VALUATION IN CORPORATE FINANCE BUFN 750 Case 1: Mercury Athletic Footwear Section: 0502 Group members: Wenqi Fan (114332905) Shuhan Luo (114016706) Ruidong Li (114212986) Siyao Tian (114218377) Shuang Yang (114349156) Executive Summary: Mercury Athletic is the footwear division of West Coast Fashions (WCF), a designer and distributer of branded athletic and casual footwear, targeted at youth market. Due to strategy reorganization, WCF wanted to shed this segment. In the meantime, Active Gear, Inc., (AGI) looked to acquire Mercury from WCF, believing that the purchase would double its revenue and provide greater leverage with manufacturers and distributors. This case illustrated that Liedtke used base case assumptions to value Mercury, and also wanted to consider the value of possible synergies as well to justify that whether investing in Mercury would significantly improve AGI’s business. In order to achieve the above set goal, our group estimate financial data of the merged company from 2007-2011 based on each’s historical data. Regarding the DCF model valuation, using a WACC of 12.17% and long term growth rate 7.42% for the terminal value, then we concluded value of $458.31 million at the end of fiscal 2006. In addition, we primarily considered potential benefits and opportunities based on horizontal acquisition, which could bring about scale effect and resource complementary. Finally, these possible synergies should be taken into account to adjust...
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...Exclusive brands for Nordstrom – 119 !iT Collective | 1.State | 1:Face | 10 Crosby Derek Lam | 1901 | 2(x)ist | 2550° | 32 Oral Care | 3LAB | 47 Brand | 4moms | 6397 | 7 Diamonds | 7 For All Mankind® | A Gold E | a. drea | Acorn | Adam Tucker | aden + anais | adidas Originals | Adina Reyter | Adrianna Papell | Aetrex | Agave | AHAVA | Ahnu | Aigle | Alainn | Alberto Fermani | ALDO | Alegria | Alex and Ani | Alex Evenings | Alex Woo | | ALEXANDER OLCH | Alfred Sung | Algenist | | Alivia Simone | Allen Edmonds | Alo | ALOR® | ALTERNA® | Alternative | | American Needle | Ames Bros | AMI Alexandre Mattiussi | AMITY HOME | | Amour Vert | Amsale | Anastasia Beverly Hills | ANATOMIC & CO | | Andre Assous | | ANDROID HOMME | Anita International | | Anna Beck | Anna Sui | Anne Klein | | Another Line | Anthony | | Anyi Lu | Anzie | Apolis | Aquatalia by Marvin K. | Aramis Gentlemen's Collection | Aravon | Arche | Archipelago Botanicals | ARCONA | Arc'teryx | Arc'teryx Veilance | Argento Vivo | Ariat | Ariella Collection | | | Articles of Society | | ASHISH | ASICS® | | ASTR | Athena Alexander | | Attilio Giusti Leombruni | Austen Heller | | Aveda | AX Armani Exchange | AYR | B. the Product | Babiators | Baby Aspen | Baby Jogger | Baby-G | Bacco Bucci | | Baggu...
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...Research Paper: How, When, and Why (possible concerns)flash sale sites be used in lodging industry? HRIM602 Interactive Hospitality Service Marketing 10/30/2012 Qin Bian Executive Summary In the lodging industry, operators typically struggle with excess inventory because of the seasonal nature of consumption. This is further exacerbated at times of economic downturns and market slowdowns. These conditions together combined with the reach of the Internet has spawned a relatively new business model called “flash sales” where websites tie up with suppliers to offer deep discounts to customers based on optimal economies of scale. store the excessive inventory goods by offering deep discounts on everything from luxury fashion to home goods to local services to travel experiences, which represent the fastest growing part of the online retail sector. A recent study showed that up to 20 percent of leisure travelers bought some kind of travel service as a result of a “flash sale” or time-sensitive offer from provider such as a hotels and airlines (YPartnership Report, 2011).With time limits on sales, this trend has generated a whole new market—the online impulse travel deals purchase. For the hotels, the special deals help to fill empty rooms that might be hard to sell because of off season or a room’s undesirable location. Meanwhile, the sales offer travelers an opportunity to learn about a new property or a first try in a high end hotel that would normally beyond their financial...
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...History Creating ABC From the organization of the first true radio networks in the late 1920s, broadcasting in the United States was dominated by two companies, CBS and RCA's NBC. Before NBC's 1926 formation, RCA had acquired AT&T Corporation's New York City station WEAF (later WNBC, now CBS-owned WFAN). With WEAF came a loosely organized system feeding programming to other stations in the northeastern U.S. RCA, before the acquisition of the WEAF group in mid-1926, had previously owned a second such group, with WJZ in Newark as the lead station (purchased by RCA in 1923 from Westinghouse) . These were the foundations of RCA's two programming services, the NBC "Red" and NBC "Blue" networks. Legend has it that the color designations originated from the color of the push-pins early engineers used to designate affiliates of WEAF (red pins) and WJZ (blue pins). After a three-year investigation, the FCC in May 1940 issued a "Report on Chain Broadcasting." Finding that NBC Red, NBC Blue, CBS, and MBS dominated American broadcasting, this report proposed "divorcement", requiring the sale by RCA of one of its chains. NBC Red was the larger radio network, carrying the leading entertainment and music programs. In addition, many Red affiliates were high-powered, clear-channel stations, heard nationwide. NBC Blue offered most of the company's news and cultural programs, many of them "sustaining" or unsponsored. Among other findings, the FCC claimed RCA used NBC Blue to suppress competition...
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...Site and Area Review Proposed Hotel on Brickell Bay Drive, Miami, FL Site and Area Review Site Considerations Introduction The site is located on an undeveloped parcel of land on high-end Brickell Bay Drive, just south of SE 12th Street, on the east side by the bay. The available land is divided into two parcels. The hotel will be on the Southern portion of the side. There is no existing structure on the land, just a patch of grass, and it is fenced and closed off. There are hotels on both sides of the property and all along the same street. So it is assumed the area is well set up to provide the appropriate utilities services. The new hotel is planned for opening on January 1, 2015. Plans for the hotel include: 400 guest rooms 20,000 square feet of meeting and banquet space, Two restaurants: one a Bistro type restaurant (casual or linen table service depending on the meal period) to open from 6 AM to midnight (100 seats); and a fine dining restaurant with 80 seats. A bar/lounge with entertainment A pool and outside patio area. Two 1000 sq. ft. gift shoppes inside the hotel 2 – 1000 sq. ft. gift shoppes inside the hotel The developer is planning to develop the hotel as an independent hotel, not as a brand. 1 Thunderbird Consulting Group Site and Area Review Proposed Hotel on Brickell Bay Drive, Miami, FL The Brickell area has long been the financial center of the City of Miami. Located just south of Downtown Miami, Brickell Avenue, from which...
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