International competition and risk management of Ultra Electronics Holdings - Essay Example

To a large extent therefore, a company that wants to compete effectively must be in a position to identify what customer needs are, how other competitors are meeting up with these needs, and devising strategies to counteract the provisions being made by their competitors. This way, we say a competitive advantage has been created (David & Desheng, 2008). But what is more interesting is the fact that as companies try to create competitive urge over their competitors, a not too pleasant situation with risk sets in, creating the need to management the risks alongside the creation of competitive advantage.

In this paper therefore, how Debenhams Plc undertakes international competition and manage risk are critically discussed. Company description Listed on the London Stock Exchange and a member of the FTSE 250 Index, the eighteenth century founded Debenhams plc now has over 172 locations across the UK, Denmark and Ireland (Fredriksson and Patrik, 2009). The company operates mainly as a retail chain with a departmental store outlook in the United Kingdom. There are also a number of area monopoly stores in other countries, making Debenhams a trading international company faced with the task and need to engage in international competition.

Stores in UK, Ireland and Denmark serve as the major market segments for the company. Some of its international franchise however includes 68 stores that are operated under license in as any as 25 countries. This means that for each of the countries, the company establishes its market presence firmly there by having 2 to 3 operating stores (Biasi, 2011). in the next 5 years, the company has plans of increasing its international franchise stores to 150 so that it can be a more vibrant competitor and have an increased market share as it currently lags behind some key competitors whose major competitive advantage is in their market visibility (Chapman, 1996).

Debenhams plc is mainly engaged in the departmental stores industry, trading in products such as shoes, accessories, fashion clothing, cosmetics, electrical, gifts, home furniture, electronics, and toys. With an employee strength of 29,000 as of the close of 2012, the managed to raise revenue of ?2,229.8 million in the same year period, out of which ?125.3 million was their net income with operating income of ?158.3 million (Biasi, 2011). Latest market reports indicated an average of 0.45% growth rate over the last 6 months, but not being strong enough to equal market share growth rate for the same period last year (Davis, Eppen and Mattsson, 2004).

For example, as of November 2013, the company’s price in GBX was 93.40 with 1.72m shares traded representing a beta of 1.5. This value is however a declining growth for the company as the share traded in 1 year represents a change of as many as 20.10%. As a departmental store, the company is not directly involved in manufacturing but in retailing. To this end, it does not deal with suppliers who are directly into raw materials but engages in outsourcing of finished products in the areas of products that it trades in as has been stated above.

Financial Performance Profitability Performance Financially, the performance of the company over the past five years can be said to have been a mixed one. This is because there has often been rises in revenue and growth at some point in time, and at other times, falls in revenue and g