Azaels Seafood Shoppe

Situation: Azalea Seafood Gumbo Shoppe is a seafood company which specializes in 5 seafood products. Azalea's gumbo is their best selling item that accounted for 90% of its annual sales. Mike Rathle and John Addison are the co-owners of Azalea Seafood Gumbo Shoppe. The company has a just-in-time production process helped increase cash flow and kept costs low. However, because of their JIT production process they have very little inventory and often do not have any cases of gumbo available for individuals who stop by.

External Opportunities: The opportunities for Azalea Seafood Gumbo Shoppe are endless. They could potentially be sold in every grocery store and restaurant in the United States.

External threats: The common external threat that I noticed was that they always had to battle with their competitors for premium shelf space.

Internal Threats: A common internal threat is their employees. One employee cost them $100,000 in recalled gumbo because an employee mis-marked the gumbo to have an incorrect expiration date. Another internal threat is their size. Because of their small size Azlea had an unsecured supplier that had an outstanding account of $100,000 and they had no ability to recover the money. Their size has also caused them to loose potential customers. Both Cracker Barrel and Applebee's liked their product but were turned-off by the small size of their facility.

Actions: First, I would have a quality control inspector to double check every gallon of gumbo produced. Second, I would purchase a larger production facility so they can get an FDA certification that would enable them to produce not only seafood gumbo but also chicken gumbo and other products to expand their line. Finally, I would only sell to secured suppliers.