Food Lion SWOT Analysis

Food Lion Company is an American grocery store. It has its headquarters in Salisbury; California and it is operating in almost 1300 markets of the world. Food lion is the biggest subsidiary of the Delhaize Group.  This group is working as a food retailer junction of companies where different companies operate depending on category of food and global locations (Jobber, 2001). Ad this group comes in top food brands in US food markets.

SWOT Analysis

The upcoming part of the paper will show you the major strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for Food Lion Company.

Strengths

1. One of the major strength of Food Lion is its smaller sized stores which are more convenient for people to shop by putting less energy.

2.There are several different formats of operations in multiple forms like Food Lion, Bloom and Bottom Dollar etc.

3.Food Lion Company is working in markets and it is fully established but it is still exploring new and different markets to attract new clients.

4.Food Lion Company has very strong regional presence due to which it is being considered as one of the strongest brands in the markets.

5.Profits of Food Lion are increasing day by day due to its extensive expansion strategies thus it is one of its strongest strength.

Weaknesses

1.Major population of Food lion is flat in key markets during its operations thus allowing increase but at a lower level.

2.Food lion has appeared to be very inconsistent in stores execution it means that its old stores are easy to use while new ones are more complex in both structure and usage. So people who are use to old stores feel difficulty in operating new stores (Kotler, 2002).

3.Food lion is having not a good image on perishables which is letting the speed of company growth at a bit lower pace.

4.Although working well but it has still not gained the status of best real estate.

Opportunities

1.There are number of buyers but segregations of buyers in different groups and then catering their needs could bring huge benefits for the company.

2.Pricing strategy used by Food Lion Company can be improved and it can be made better thus to penetrate more successfully in the markets where it operates.

3.Food Lion should continue its banner segmentation strategy to choose its shoppers in a much better way.

4.By increasing private label & image (i.e., Guiding Stars Program) it can bring in huge benefits for the firm.

Threats 

1.As all other companies, Food Lion is also facing huge competitive pressures from its competitors like Wal-mart.

2.It is very difficult to maintain a competitive position in the Mid Atlantic markets which is currently threatening the company.

3.When company is investing higher amounts for the development of the company, than it requires high returns on investments so that company recovers all its costs. And this is now becoming a huge challenge for the Food Lion Company.

4.Labor unions are another major threat for the company.

References

1.The Bangkok Post. (2004). Food Lion pulls out of Thailand, Retrieved on 3rd  March 2011.

2.Delhaize to Convert Carolina Bloom Stores, (2011). Supermarket News.

3.Jobber, D. (2001). Principles and Practice of Marketing, 3rd Ed. McGraw-Hill Education

4.Kotler, P. (2002). Marketing Management US Imports & PHIPEs