Business plan
Our Company
Fresh Fruits is a Latina-Owned company founded in California, 2017. Fresh Fruits company provides wholesale distribution services under the highest quality and hygiene standards, and at the best market prices. Our team imports and supplies quality fruit to retail stores, industrial kitchen industries, restaurants, and hotels. We comply with the highest quality standards like ISO 22000, to benefit how we store our products, deliver our products, and most importantly serve our consumers.
Problem statement
Fruits play a major role in the health of human beings. The benefits of fruits are as follows; fruits help in controlling diseases, fruits are the main source of vitamins and minerals in the human body, fruits also enable the person to enjoy a variety of flavors and textures, and finally, fruits are important because they help to maintain both physical and mental health of a person. Lack of fruits in a particular country or a region can be a major issue. Lack of fruits can lead to the development of various diseases. Also, fruits are essential elements in the aging population.
The lack of fruit business in the country is due to ignorance and lack of information among the business investors. Also, the sector of agriculture needs to initiate strategies that enable farmers to be able to plant fruits in America.Most of the fruits that are used in the United States of America are being imported from outside countries. (Mostafidi, et al. 2020) This issue makes it difficult for investors to be able to invest in these business types. The solution to this is to improve/build the sector of agriculture in the United States of America. When the production of fruits is high, the supply of fruits in the United States of America will increase. This action will make it easier for many businesses to develop and prosper because they will be able to avoid the costs of importing fruits from another country.
In conclusion, it will be important for many businesses and also the economy itself to invest in agriculture. Businesses will be able to provide employment opportunities and the government of the United States of America will benefit from the revenue that comes from these businesses. Finally, the community will benefit more because they will have plenty of fruits to choose from to be able to live in a healthy and sustainable way. As the popular phrase goes "An apple a day keeps the doctor away".
The product we import and distribute
Our business currently deals with three products: bananas, avocados, and oranges. With these products, we believe that they will be able to satisfy the needs of our customers in California and across the United States of America. In order to obtain the full satisfaction of each customer, our purpose and our commitment are to provide the best solution using products of the best quality and competitive prices. The two fruits, bananas and avocados are imported from our neighboring countries. For instance, we import bananas from the three neighboring countries, these countries are Guatemala, Ecuador, and Costa Rica. While the avocados are imported from Mexico. Finally, the oranges are carefully selected, then purchased, and shipped from our neighbors in the East coast, Florida.
Our company complies with the highest quality standards such as ISO 22000, to benefit the way we store our products and deliver our products. Once these products arrive at our warehouse, we prepare their handling, picking, and distribution. In our stores, the correct storage of fruit, given its characteristics, is complex and requires the investment of resources and personnel for its proper functioning. Our company has storage facilities of 58,137 SF equipped with temperature control, ensuring proper storage and guarantees of food consumption. In addition, our company has a team specialized in picking: the ability to prepare and process orders in a personalized way for each customer. Correct packaging and preparation for transport are also ensured in this process. Finally, distribution and delivery: the transportation of fruit is a delicate process that requires vehicles to be adapted to our standards. At Fresh Fruits, we have 20 vehicles dedicated to distribution throughout California, equipped with remote location tracking through GPS and monitoring systems of temperature in real-time. When we need extra help due to high demand, we work with a third-party company that offers us solutions and resources to cover our supply chain. It provides us with economic benefits and a reduction in both logistics and personnel costs when managing the supply of fruit.
Our company initiates a strategy to sell the fruits as a whole and to make fruit juice from the fruits. With this strategy, our company will be able to associate with new businesses such as supermarkets in the distribution of our products. Also, we intend to open shops in major sub-towns in the state of California. This idea will enable us as the company to distribute our products and most importantly our customers will be able to get our products in season. This will create a greater customer experience hence resulting in improving our business.
How we import our products
Since most of our products are sourced from outside, our business imports the products in two ways. For the products that we import from outside our country, such as bananas and avocados, we usually use maritime transport and trucks as a means of transport. The international transport of goods is carried out mainly by sea. In addition, transportation with neighboring countries is carried out by the road. We have employees based in these countries in order to have closer contact with foreign suppliers. Their main duty is to look for these fruits, analyze their quality, buy them, and cargo them to the United States of America. While in the case of oranges, oranges are available in our country, our business currently uses trucks with a mode of transport from Florida. Fresh fruits work with five farmers who are able to send our product to California upon our request. The structure of our business is a partnership, we partner with various businesses in the states such as hotels and supermarkets. We sell our product to our partners at wholesale prices, so they can also be able to make a profit from our products.
Reasons why our plan is feasible
Our plan is feasible for the following reasons: first, there is a high demand for fruits like bananas, oranges, and avocados. This helps us grow as a company and strengthen ties with our business partners. The relations between our company and our national and international suppliers are very close in the field of cooperation. In terms of quality, our suppliers meet or exceed the expectations or requirements of our purchasing team. In addition to meeting our current requirements, our suppliers demonstrate a continual improvement in their performance. Thanks to the contribution of our suppliers and our quality policy, our company has an ISO 22000 certificate.
This ISO 22000 certificate helps us to the current prestige of our company. It allows us to reinforce trust between current and potential customers according to the company's ability to consistently supply our agreed products and/or services. Also, it helps us increase customer loyalty, through repeat business and the referral or recommendation of our company.
Finally, our plan is feasible because we have a skilled workforce. We have qualified employees who help us with the best management of the warehouse, picking, and distribution of our products in the region of the state of California.
The image of our company is constantly improving without forgetting the solid foundations that have characterized our company since its inception: Commitment, Quality, and Service
The expected outcomes that back our approach
The expected outcome behind our approach is; our business tends to open branches across the state of California. We strive to make our product accessible to our customers. Also, in five years, our business intends to extend our services to the states that are neighbors to California (Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, Mexican state, and Colorado). In a ten years period, our business intends to offer services in all the states of America.
Expand Your Business Plan
The business of selling imported fruits in the country may at some point prove difficult as it requires a lot of initial investment, for this reason, the management will need a sophisticated management plan to create the surety on the intended goals. The business must also have a good financial plan that will ensure every coin invested into the business is properly utilized and well accounted for. Our business will require a great deal of capital to start, thus a good plan must be placed with considerations of all the business aspects such as licensing and acquiring other permits for the business. As the business will be mainly engaged in import business it is important that a serious background check be done, and market prices compared.
Financial forecast
One of the most important goals of the business is to have a steady financial flow while profit maximization is the main objective. The business, therefore, has a forecast of profit-making right from the beginning of the business and can be achieved through various strategies. The main strategy of the business is to reduce the money channel process so that the finances are handled by a selective few. This will encourage accountability and promote transparency in handling finances. The management team will consist of a financial manager that will have a deeper insight into financial management. The chain will also include a sophisticated financial program such that all records are recorded safely in computers, the most suitable method will be the use of personal capital. This is an accounting system that allows the user to keep track of all financial accounts in one platform, such as bank records, mortgage, and investment accounts (Ragnedda,2018).
Operational plan
The operations plan includes the details of the daily activities that are to be carried out and how it should be conducted in the business. An operation plan is key as it determines the success of the business or any shortcomings that may be faced by the business. The business management will be in charge of allocating different duties to associated parties as this will promote the speed of work and avoid conflicts in the course of work. The team will comprise sections that will also need managers to help run and monitor the rest of the employees thus division of labor and specialization will be very important to implement (Tian,2021).
Competitors
The business must be well aware of the market status so that it may compete favorably thus guaranteeing survival in the market. The main competitors of the business are already established fruit sellers such as Gebbers Farms and Borton and Sons, these two companies have had a good run in the market, thus, are serious competitors in the market.
Customers and Marketing plan
The business looks to serve a very broad market. Fruits are very important for the healthy living of an individual therefore it is forecast that the majority of the public will provide a market for the business. Other than these, the business intends to supply fruits to hospitals in the country and schools as these places’ fruits are always in very high demand. Fruits provide the body with vitamins that boost the immune system of the body and produce energy in the body thus keeping the body and person healthy and vigil (Pal et al. 2021).
The business will use a simple marketing strategy to reduce costs while reaching the largest market possible. One of our first goals will be to establish a social media marketing plan. This plan must include an audit of the situation of Fresh Fruit's profile, the goals that we decide to meet in the future, and all the tools that we want to use to meet them. Developing a marketing plan on social networks will allow us to better evaluate the effectiveness of our actions, but it will also be a measure with which we can determine if we are being successful or not. In addition, the business will utilize radio stations in advertising and television channels occasionally. Also, the business will use gifts when a customer buys goods and offer packaging services. Posters will also be used to advertise the business and products thus ensuring a wider market.
Fresh Fruits SWOT Analysis
