This is a business plan for Manuals Ice cream.
• Section 1: Summary of business idea:
What sort of business is the idea?
What industry the business plan sits in and the nature of the business idea/start up.
You can also identify the nature of the competition and the key success factors needed in the industry
What is the target market and how will it be reached?
What is the annual market size?
What is your unique selling point?
What is the competitive risk?
What other risks do you face?
What is the source of funding?
What will your initial funds be used to purchase?.
Example using an Manuel’s Ice Cream Parlour
Business Idea
Manuel’s Ice Cream Parlour is an ice cream business dedicated to sustainable consumption. It offers plant-based ice cream in four flavours to customers. The flavours are vanilla, chocolate, banana and strawberry. The flavoured-ice cream is offered in two-scoop and three-scoop cups. The ice-cream would be served alongside vegan-coated wafer bars.
Mission and Objective of Manuels Ice Cream
The mission of Manuel’s Ice cream is to contribute to addressing one of the global challenges of our time, which is climate crisis and sustainable consumption(Vermeulen et al. 2012) . Consumption of foods from animal sources has been found to contribute to the climate change crisis and negatively impacts bio-diversity. This is because animal farming increases green-house emissions in the atmosphere (Clark et al. 2020). In the another study, researchers found plant-rich diet can contribute to cutting carbon emission from food sources(Arrieta and González 2018)
Therefore the objective here is to help consumers eat healthy, consume less meat and dairy products.
Besides the chocolate flavour, the other flavours have been found to contribute a lower environmental impact (Konstantas, Stamford and Azapagic 2019)
Industry
Manuel’s ice cream operates in the Frozen confectionary industry,[A1] where competition is based on location, price, quality, taste (Jovanov-Marjanova 2012).[A2] The UK ice cream market is worth over £1.3 billion (Statista, 2021).
Competitive Strategy and Target Market
The unique selling point is the sustainability-based concept enshrined within Manuel’s Ice creams. Manuel’s ice cream parlour recognises the shifting and evolving food habit of consumers who want to eat healthy while protecting the planet and the environment.
Many consumers have limited choices when it comes to flavoured ice creams that are produced from plant-based sources. Manuel’s Ice cream fills that gap in the market. Therefore, Manuel’s ice creams would be suited to vegetarians, vegans, diabetics, children, obese persons, people with lactose intolerance as well as children.
The Target market consist of a wide variety of consumers who appreciate plant-based ice creams. The target market is growing as more people are conscious of climate change and its devastating effects on the environment t. As more people go green and eat green, it provides and ample opportunity for Manuel’s Ice cream to tap into the niche market.
Mode of Delivery and Location:
The location of the business would be close to the University of Birmingham in Edgbaston. The location has been selected as it juxtaposed between the busy train station in Edgbaston, busy student accommodation in Selly Oak, Queen Elizabeth hospital and the ever busy University of Birmingham. See the map below.
The mode of delivery would be via brick and motar store and online delivery. Customers can order for cups of ice cream and this would be delivered
Competitive Risks:
There are existing shops which offers ice-cream and associated products. These includes Bubble waffles, Mr Gelato, Cheeky Joes and Boba Bars. Other competitors include grocery stores like Tesco express and Iceland. Although, these shops pose some competition, they do not offer plant-based ice-cream options.
Other Risks – Other risks include the likelihood of food contamination. The Covid19, a pandemic presents another source of risk. Further spread of the pandemic variant could result in more lockdowns and travel restrictions.
Adequate steps have been taken to ensure the environment is clean and sanitized always.
Sources of funding – Manuel’s Ice Cream would start with a savings of £50,000. £10,000 would come from savings and the remaining £40,000 was obtained as a loan from Lloyds Bank at an interest rate of 6.3% APR, payable over 60months and monthly payment would be £775.64 (LLoyds Bank 2022)
Initial Expenditure
The initial fund would be used to purchase
- An Ice Cream Retail Parlour with backroom factory – The retail unit is 615 sq ft and costing £15,000 per annum
- A mini Ice cream making plant; consisting of a mixer, homogenizer, a storage tank and a cup filling machine. The output capacity of the plant is 8000 – 12000pcs/hour. The set up cost for the machine is £22,000
• Outline and discuss of fixed and variable costs (brief yet appropriate)
Prepare a cost analysis for your business
List all the costs your own business might incur
Are these costs variable, fixed, semi-variable?
What will be the timing of these costs?
What will be the costs for the first year of operation?
You should firstly identify and then quantify the main costs that your business idea will incur.
You should try to ensure these are as accurate and realistic as possible, e.g., by referring to cost sources etc.
If you are making assumptions regarding the costs, these will need to be clearly stated
Example using an Manuel’s Ice Cream Parlour
FIXED COST
- Manuel’s Plc will incur the following fixed costs.
- Depreciation on Machine – A mini Ice cream making plant; consisting of a mixer, homogenizer, a storage tank and a cup filling machine. The output capacity of the plant is 8000 – 12000pcs/hour. The set up cost for the machine is £22,000. Depreciation would be charged on a straight-line basis resulting in £4400 charged as expense annually. This would be debited in ….XXXXX
- License – street trading fees for 2022-2023 set by the Birmingham City Council for annual outside of city is £2,357 plus application fee £271 (a total of £2628) (Birmingham City Council 2022).
- Manager salary – The salary of the manager would start at £30,000
- Assistant Salary x 3 – Five shop assistants would be employed and each assistant would be paid a salary of £22,000 per annum
- Insurance costs – insurance premium has been set as £100 per annum to cover both public and product insurance (BoughtByMany.com 2018)
Semi-variable Costs
- Electricity – as a small business, the estimated electricity use would range from 15,000-25,000kWh costing between £2500-£3500 (MoneySuperMarket.com 2022)
- Internet and telephone Bills – This covers the software cost and monthly telephone subscription/usage costs. This is estimated as £1200 per year
Variable Cost per unit
Manuels Plc shall incur the following variable costs
• Profit Forecast
Income Forecast –
Sales units Forecast – We forecast that we are going to sell 2.78m cups in the first year because special discount in the first month of operation as two new secondary schools have been approved to operate in the location where the shop is situated.
In addition, negotiations with a grocery retailer is at an advanced stage; to supply the retailer with Manuel’s brand of ice cream.
Sales Price – The price per cup would be charged at £3.00 for a two-scoop cup and £3.50 for a three-scoop
Following market research, we estimate that a scoop of ice cream regardless of the flavour would cost £0.80.
Profit forecast at the end of the year Dec 31
Manuels Ice cream would make an annual income of £8.9m, a gross profit of £3.25m and a net profit of £1.5m. The contribution to sales is 36%
• Cashflow forecast
- Determine the budget period – head up your worksheet with the relevant months
- Determine the sales revenue and when the money will appear in the company’s bank account- Remember, cash sales you get straight away in the month the sale is made. Credit sales may be in your account 1, 2 or 3 months later depending on the credit allowed.
- Determine the cost lines you need to include. This will always include the cost of sales.
- Calculate the net cash flow- Total cash receipts less total cash outflows
- Calculate the opening cash balance- This will be the b/fd figure in the first month of your cash budget
- Calculate the balance c/fwd figure-This will be the net cash flow figure for the month plus the balance b/fwd figure- Carry this on until the final month of the cash budget
Cashflow forecast
• Breakeven Point and Margin of Safety computation
The breakeven in terms of number of cups of ice cream per year is 1.57m, with 2-scoop cups contributing 563,627 cups and 3-scoop cups contributing 1.0m cups. With these figures, Manuels ice cream makes neither profit or loss.
The margin of safety is 2.7m cups, which indicates that Manuels ice cream produces more than its Breakeven number of cups and therefore, indicates a large margin of profit.
Section 5: Performance Measurement and Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s)
The vision, strategic goals, objectives and critical success factors alongside the KPIs are presented below.
The Balanced Scorecard model has been used to structure the breakdown of performance goals and measures. At least two indicators were chosen for each performance perspective.
Financial – survival and growth are the focus of the business, hence Manuel’s ice cream parlor has chosen revenue, profit and liquidity based indicators. No liquidity a company can’t survive
Customer – customer satisfaction and loyalty are the focus. With customer satisfaction and loyalty, the survival and growth of the business is assured.
Internal processes- Quality and hygiene are the focus as these helps to prevent errors and mistakes which affects customer satisfaction and the survival of the business
Innovation, growth and development – the focus is on employee morale, motivation and development. When employees are motivated and with better skills, they are apt to increase their productivity. This helps to achieve the growth and survival of the firm.
Recommendation
I would recommend that the demand and sales revenue be monitored closely. These includes the segment of the market generating the highest volumes, the highest selling flavour, the months of poor sales and the feedback received from customer. This would generate insight about risk areas and areas requiring improvement.
Conclusion
Based on the analysis of the location, profit and cashflow projection as well as the breakeven analysis, it is likely and feasible that Manuels’ ice cream palour would be viable over a 12 months period and beyond. It shows that the objectives of the business which includes survival and growth would be achieved.
• References
JOVANOV-MARJANOVA, T., 2012. Marketing research of the chocolate market in Macedonia. Marketing, 43(1), 62-76
industry stated [A1]
evidence is drawn from a research article [A2]
