Question SWOT Analysis

Q Maximillian Lazlo (known as "Max" or "86" to his friends) was the marketing

manager for Lazlo Vitamins Pty Ltd. Lazlo made a variety of vitamins and nutritional supplements that it sold to retailers throughout South Australia. Lazlo had been established in Adelaide in 1986 by Max's father, Augusto. The

company began life in the back room of the Lazlo's Croydon home. Max's father was a chemist by training, who also had an interest in the use of therapeutic herbs. During the day, Mrs. Lazlo would operate the small tablet-pressing machine and at

night, the family would spend several hours packing the vitamins and other herbal tablets into small containers. Augusto sold the vitamins and health tablets in his Chemist shop situated at Bowden in Adelaide's Western suburbs. Max had always wanted to be in the business, during his school years and at University while he did his Bachelor of Science degree.

By 1998, demand for Lazlo products grew to the point where Augusto was able to sell the product through three other retail pharmacies in the local area. Over the next five years, Lazlo products were taken up by several retailers. By 2004, Lazlo was selling $2,000,000 of product each year. Of this total, three quarters was Vitamin supplements (namely Vitamins A, B, C (Lazlo's best seller) and Vitamin E. The remainder was mineral supplements or herbal remedies. Lazlo sold seven of

these products: Calcium, Zinc, Iron, Magnesium; as well as Glucosamine (thought to be good for human soft tissue), Valerian, and lastly horseradish tablets that were thought to ease hay fever.

The Lazlo product line is manufactured in Adelaide's North-West, at a new facility considered to be state of the art. Augusto had always believed in re-investing back into the business, primarily in manufacturing equipment and systems. A team of

about 12 staff operated the plant. Lazlo imports raw materials from all over the world, and manufactures the end product under strict supervision from a graduate from UniSA pharmaceutical science degree. Recently Lazlo had purchased new packaging equipment, which, while expensive, helped reduce unit costs and made production runs somewhat faster. Lazlo bought the packaging (containers, etc.)

from a local plastics supplier and other paper-based packaging from Amcor. The factory ran on weekdays, 8 am to 5 pm and at approximately 70% of full capacity. The company's small call centre for phone-in orders and customer service was

located at the same premises. Two part- time staff run the call centre, which readily copes with incoming enquiries, enters customer orders into a computerized system which tracks the status of the order and generally results in a 90% fulfilment rate within 24 hours. This is considered to be good performance by Lazlo clients. Lazlo has reasonable awareness among SA consumers, more specifically older ones, as indicated by market research. Resellers also consider that the product is good

overall, and that the company is sound. Some customers like it because it is SA based, but to many others this is not particularly important. Many consumers perceive Lazlo as a good brand from the point of view of scientific expertise, from Augusto's forays into the media. In the late 1990's and early 2000's Augusto was sought out by local news and current affairs programs on TV and radio, for his extensive pharmaceutical and natural remedy knowledge. But he had not been on 1

All names are disguised June 2014the airwaves for around ten years, as he entered his seventh decade he felt he could not keep as up to date as before and had less to contribute.