Enterprise and EntrepreneurshipBridgetown Newsagents: A Small Business Case StudyIntroductionDillons Newsagents is a late closing local store with a 'Mini-Mart' service. The "Mini-Mart" side of the business is franchised by Dillons to a registered company - Mr Charles Pettifer and Mr Marc Devis. Full services are provided in the store, paper delivery service is also available along with the full set of groceries, fresh sandwiches, sweets, video cassettes, cigarettes and alcohol, etc. The newsagent is located in Stratford upon Avon, on Birmingham Road, about half a mile from the city center and is located in a very residential area. Tesco is the direct merchant of the newsagents. Nine years ago, the newsstands were expanded with the intention of providing local residents with a convenient and friendly service. The lack of competition at the time provided excellent stability and expansion potential that was enjoyed until two years ago, when a hypermarket opened nearby that posed a major threat to business. Business growth, structure, strategies and competition will be addressed in the following document. All information sources and research are obtained from two years of part-time work at Dillon Newsstands. Growth of Dillons: In 1988, Dillons hired Mr. Charles Pettifer as operations manager, from this date the store exclusively stocked newspapers and magazines for approximately eighteen months. During this period Dillons was developing its own 'Mini-Mart' theme and as such decided to expand the facilities to provide a range of groceries and other common consumer goods as well as the usual news. The store's opening hours were also increased from start to finish. regular evening license hours of 5.30pm, up to the more substantial one at 11pm. At this point, Mr. Pettifer decided to embark on franchising the store offered by Dillons with the help of a silent partner, Mr. Devis. Mr. Devis owns shares in the company, but does not have the authority to make unsupported decisions. Franchising allowed Mr. Pettifer to obtain many newsstand products at discounted prices. The entire store was the responsibility of Mr Pettifer, provided that Dillons standards were not breached. In the phase of development outlined here, it can be seen that the Dillons newsstand is similar to phase one of the business g......half of paper...ton management, store location and no similar stores in the environment local. At all stages of the business life cycle there appears to never be a major financial threat to Mr. Pettifer. During the expansion, nearly all of the risk involved was presented to Dillons management and Mr. Devis in their capital investments. Since the expansion, good trading and a good relationship with the main supplier of the store's products have enabled a sell-or-return method on all products (within a reasonable period of time). This method proved ideal as it lessened any anxiety about developing the store's product range and ensured that there would be no loss of profit resulting from over-ordering of goods, reduction in quantities or changes in market culture. The pricing strategy was governed by the motivation of increasing profit margins. Short-term risks, such as the time it takes to turn a profit on turnover, have been reduced, while the risk of being drastically undervalued and driven out of the market has increased exponentially. Ironically, this risk factor, being the main reason for the crisis, was not recognized. The external problems exasperated Dillons due to the.