Thetownend.com

Remember that slightly odd post about pies a couple of weeks ago? Well it inspired me to change my business coursework idea to a Pie Shop. So I thought you nice people would love to lend me a hand..... currently I'm doing a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats), any ideas? Any suggestions, however ridiculous will be greatly appreciated.

strengths = pies

weakness = cakes

opportunities = pie variations

threats = brian howard

People on diets are a threat.

Maybe Brian Howard is Piemonte  :shock:

Isn't Brian Howard an opportunity? Surely he'd be an excellent source of money?

i thought brian howard would be a strength - good customer base and all
mind you the threat is he will explode, thus losing your entire customer base

no because he doesnt care about purchasing the pies. All he'd want to do is eat your stock without paying. Kind of like a bear stealing your picnic basket

That's a bit rude isn't it

well thats brian howard down to  a tea. he doesnt care about anyone as long as  he is full of pie.

I have heard Brian Howard is infamous for his non payment of pies, especially Mr Kipling's Apple Pies.  That's what he has for tea according to a very reliable source.

personally i think your business idea is all pie in the sky.......i'll get my coat  :arrow:

Maybe you could give a Swindon player a job there once he retires, maybe Sammy P-Igoe

A slice of humble pie for you then, Simon :wink:

now now let pie gones be pie gones

:Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick

I'm off out now, but I'm sure you'd all love to see how I'm getting on:

SWOT (http://www.cirencestercricketclub.co.uk/vtcb/SWOT.doc)

STRENGTHS -
-Full of meaty goodness
-Popular and traditional
- will cater for wide range of tastes

WEAKNESSES -
-Healthy eating drive by govenrment
-Snobbish Cirencester types may not eat pie (Caviear anyone??!?)

OPPORTUNITIES -
-Possible diversification into sandwich / pasty / bakery markets
-could launch a "healthy" range of low fat pies to combat healthy eating drive

THREATS -
- pre packed sandwich market
- other people realising there is a gap in the market
- Andy King putting Brian Howard on a diet, he may attack your shop in a gravy fuelled moment of madness
- Piemonte finding out where your shop is and ram raiding it in the night after becoming sick of my diet

I have a tractor Piemonte if you want to go pie shop ram raiding

Yes, that would be very helpful thank you.

I could attach things to it in an A-Team style and fire pumpkins and melons at people.

i think they should do a degree in pie appreciation. pieface could be professor of pie  8)

As a fellow pieman, you could be my assistant Simon.

Pie Undergraduate or something 8)

:P

Cheers pieface, you're a pro

I have to do that kind of stuff at work (SWOT that is, not ram raiding pie shops)

a pro...fessor of pie  8)

mmm pie

pumpkin pie ummmmmm

errrrgrhhhh

Pie should, in my professors opinion, contain either:

A) Meat of some description
B) Apple

or apple and blackberry

pumpkin  :nono

chicken and bacon  :eat

variants of apple based filling are acceptable :D

Pie's suck, too much pastry for my liking.  Having said that the best pies in the world can be bought at any 7/11 in Australia.  The steak pies are the best, just cos the pastry's tasting and soft.

oooh yeah chicken and bacon!!  8)

Chicken Balti aint half bad, although chicken and bacon is probably my personal favorite followed by beef and onion

strengths

- pies are not a normal fast food good, you'd be in a niche market with a USP

weaknesses

- other, larger fast food outlets with larger capital, more stores, generally more resources both financially and operationally

opportunities

- the health-pie market. this is a new niche founded by your pie shop, the fat free pie. you could have fat free options on all of your pie flavours on the menu
- rival boots' meal deal with your own - pie, drink and crisps/choc for £4 or something

threats

- mccy d's, etc
- the cornish pasy co. similar sort of good and their stores are popping up everywhere nowadays

must dash now, may think of more later

Cheers OF.

Threat to your pie sales may come in the form of EU intervention as to the intellectual ownership of the pie.....and when is a pie, a tart, a torte, a flan, or a  quiche?

 Such a debate is currently raging as to whether the M and S pork pie made in Trowbridge, but bearing the name Melton mowbray pork pie is strictly legal.

The same thing happend with Parma ham that wasnt manufactured in Parma didnt it?

Retail is a real cut-throat world though, competition is more fierce there than in almost every other form of business. There are lots of competitors in the world of catering to contend with and use of industrial spies is not uncommon.





 :wink:
(i think i got away with it!)

 In 1999, the Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Association, a group of seven local manufacturers, applied to the EU to have their products categorised as protected geographical indication (PGI). This would restrict the use of the name in much the same way that 570 other European foodstuffs, including Bayonne ham, mortadella, Cornish clotted cream, Scotch beef and Stilton cheese, have been granted protected status.

  Think Parma ham and probably parmesan cheese is in the 570.