Business Plan Of the 4Mat wrestling shoes - wweeddoo
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Business Plan
Of the 4Mat wrestling shoes
By Luo Yan, Louis Genillier, Stefany Ormeño and Mathilda Kreutzer
Table of contents:
1. Executive Summary ......................................................................................................................... 2
1.1. Mission ......................................................................................................................................... 2
1.2. Keys to Success ............................................................................................................................ 3
2. Company Summary ......................................................................................................................... 4
2.1. Company Ownership.................................................................................................................... 4
2.2. Suppliers....................................................................................................................................... 5
2.3. Products ....................................................................................................................................... 7
3. Market Analysis Summary .............................................................................................................. 7
3.1. Market Segmentation .................................................................................................................. 8
3.2. Target Market Segment Strategy ............................................................................................... 10
3.3. Industry Analysis ........................................................................................................................ 12
3.3.1. Competition Analysis .......................................................................................................... 13
4. Strategy and Implementation Summary ....................................................................................... 15
4.1. SWOT Analysis............................................................................................................................ 16
4.1.1. Strengths ............................................................................................................................. 16
4.1.2. Weaknesses......................................................................................................................... 16
4.1.3. Opportunities ...................................................................................................................... 16
4.1.4. Threats ................................................................................................................................ 18
4.2. Competitive Edge ....................................................................................................................... 19
4.3. Marketing Strategy International Exporting .............................................................................. 19
4.4. Sales Strategy ............................................................................................................................. 20
4.4.1. Sales Forecast...................................................................................................................... 21
5. Management Summary ................................................................................................................ 22
5.1. Personnel Plan ........................................................................................................................... 22
6. Financial Plan ................................................................................................................................ 23
6.1. Projected Profit and Loss ........................................................................................................... 24
1
1. Executive Summary
We chose to create 4mat because there is a real lack of products in the wrestling
outfit/shoes market. In any place, city or country where wrestling is known, the different
accessories needed for the wrestler are most of the time expensive. This is because
only famous sport companies have decided to launch products that could match
wrestlers’ needs. But the fact remains that low cost competitors are not present on the
market and not everyone can afford expensive items. This is why we decided to create
a business that will offer this cheaper shoes to these sportsmen. Young people who
just started to practice often do not want to pay the high price that are asked for the
shoes by the actual sellers, but it is dangerous for their practice and they cannot train
efficiently without shoes. We will import these from a Pakistan manufacturer and sell
them to European customers. The price asked by the supplier is enough low for us to
add a consequent margin that will match an affordable price that consumers are willing
to pay. Concerning our business scale, we focus on the French market, now, to start
our business. In the coming 5 years, we are going to exploit the markets of most of the
European countries, especially the East European countries.
1.1. Mission
To get clients, there are a few features of our product that we have to highlight
and the more consequent one is its price. The wrestling shoe market only presents
products of high quality that are rather expensive. As explained in the executive
summary. Beginners often practice barefoot and they can get injuries that way.
Concerning more advanced members, they need to have different pair of shoes
because hard and regular training is spoiling your pair and you need a solid and fresh
pair for the day of the competition. However, they cannot always afford several pair of
shoes. That is why that our new approach with a low cost product will please lots of
consumers and will work. Even if we are not a famous stylish brand of this sport, we
have something different which is the low price.
As a company, we are always thinking about what value we can provide to our
clients and our final customers. We, a wrestling shoes trading company, are always
trying to provide a pair of safe, comfortable, unique, available and affordable shoes to
our final customers, our sportsmen. And at the same time, as shoe stores and the
2
similar retailers are our close partners, we will share the business opportunity by
providing them with the popular and profitable products. In this case, we will do our
business in the best and ethical way.
Before all, we did a lot of market researches to find out the real needs of our
sportsmen, we did all the work based on suiting their needs. When it comes to
suppliers, we have to agree that low price is one of our key success factors, but we
never compromise in the safety or the comfort areas. Moreover, we also make great
efforts to offer our users a pair of unique shoes. Related to our clients, we will offer
them high quality products at a lower price, which will bring them a big profit space. It
should be pointed out that yet we are not a big company now, we are an ethical and
reliable company that will be good for all the parties. For example, our importing from
Pakistan will bring job opportunities to the local area, more or less.
All in all, we do bring good things to all the parties, that’s the foundation of our
company, on which our business is based.
1.2. Keys to Success
The keys to success for 4Mat are the low prices offered to its clients. No other
company in the European market has launched such products. Lowest prices are
around 35€ and it –most of the time- is for old shoes that have been on the market for
a long time. We want to sell our pair of shoes for a price from 20 to 25 euros. Even
with a low cost product, we did not forget the most role of a pair of wrestling shoes:
protecting the feet of the wrestler, and in the case of our pair, which is high, is also
safer for the ankle compare to lower ones.
Furthermore, with one of the founders of the company being a former
competitor in wrestling and thus knowing the consumers and the products, there is a
great knowledge of the market. This is really helping strategic to be aware of
customers’ expectations, to have seen it and to have actually experienced it. It is only
when you really comprehend the consumers that you can truly offer them what they
want.
3
To sum up, here are the keys to success of our brand:
Low Price
We offer shoes at an affordable price.
Safety
Shoes are protecting the ankle, which is the part of the body that gets most of
the impact while practicing this sport
Comfort
Good design, or even can redesign to suit special needs.
Unique
Never copy from others and new in European markets.
2. Company Summary
4Mat is a company that specialises in importing wrestling shoes from Asia and
reselling them in Europe. It focuses, then, on Asian European trade with a Pakistan
supplier. For the beginning, our major activity is to import wrestling shoes from Asia
and then sell them to the French companies and we are also in charge of everything
related with it. Other European markets will come after we got used to French clients.
Its customers are stores that sell sport clothing and shoes and final consumers. For
this type of product, it is common to go directly to the client to reach them. These
consumers are wrestlers that are any age (junior and adult sizes can be proposed),
and both girls and boys are concerned.
2.1. Company Ownership
4Mat has been founded in Clermont-Ferrand in 2017 by its four members. We have a
really professional team. For instance, our CEO and financial manager, Mathilda
Kreutzer, majoring in Finance, is really good at financial issues and as well as risk
control and long term planning. Our market manager, Louis Genillier, as a French man
majoring in Market, is very familiar with French market. And LUO Yan, our purchasing
manager, he is a Chinese and does well in Asian issues, which means that he is really
professional in importing goods from Asia and for the selling Department, we have
Stefany Ormeño.
4
As a modern company, our ownership structure seems reasonable. The biggest
shareholder has 55% of the share and this can make us more efficient, knowing that
the other three shareholders are sharing the rest, which is 45%, and that will help to
spread the risks.
2.2. Suppliers
We will import these shoes from a Pakistan manufacturer and sell them to
European customers. As is known to all, the labour cost in the less-developed
countries is really low, thus, the price asked by the supplier is low enough for us to
add a consequent margin that will allow us to attract more clients. In addition, we did
search for suppliers from many platforms, and we chose this supplier for the following
reasons. Firstly, the products are unique, comparing with the Chinese products
imitating or copying from Adidas or Nike. Secondly, the products from Pakistan will be
in a better reputation than others and more acceptable. Thirdly, the supplier is from
the less-developed area of Pakistan, which means their bargaining power could be
weaker. Last but not least, when importing the products into Europe, goods from
Pakistan could be more convenient than it from China, just in case of the political risk
and customs issue.
5
Company Name PIKA INTERNATIONAL
Marala Road, Nai Abadi - Murad Pur, Sialkot,
Operational Address
Pakistan
http://www.truetac.com
Website http://www.pikaboxing.com
http://www.pikaintl.com
Website on alibaba.com http://pika.trustpass.alibaba.com
Business Type Manufacturer, Distributor/Wholesaler
Boxing Equipment,Kickboxing Gear,Taekwondo
Main Products
Gear,Wrestling Gear,MMA Gear
Total Annual Revenue Below US$1 Million
Southern Europe 8.33%
Top 3 Markets Northern Europe 8.33%
Central America 8.33%
Total Employees 101 - 200 People
Year Established 2003
Export Percentage 91% - 100%
No. of Employees in
6-10 People
Trade Department
CEO
Mr. Amin Hussain
6
2.3. Products
Details of product
Place of Brand Model
Pakistan OEM PB - 2601
Origin Name Number
Upper Genuine
Type Wrestling Shoes Gender Neutral
Material Leather
Lining Insole Outsole
Cotton Fabric EVA PVC
Material Material Material
Spring, Autumn, Blue,
Season Colours Sizes 36 - 45
Summer, Winter Black, Red
Packaging & Delivery
Packaging Details As Per Customer Requirements
Within 35 days after payment
Delivery Time
confirmation
We contacted the supplier and he agreed to sell us the product for 9.85€ per pair EX
Works with 25€ of shipping charges.
3. Market Analysis Summary
The market for this business is the wrestling shoes market or more generally
the wrestling outfit market or the sport shoes market because wrestling shoes can also
be used in boxing or for people who work out at the gym because of its flexibility, and
for some of the shoes, its security for the ankle. We will focus on the French market
and the European market.
7The difficulties will be to launch products coming from a non-famous brand and
to gain credibility and, thus, customers. Wrestlers and stores/people selling wrestling
shoes are used to Asics and Adidas and, less frequently, Nike. These are the three
main suppliers of wrestling shoes and are associated to the mind of the customers as
the brands to buy from. Gaining customers will be a real challenge because the
products of these brands are already acknowledge for their quality and their style. That
is why we should focus on the low price aspect of our own product which is not
common in this market.
3.1. Market Segmentation
Concerning the market segmentation, with only one model of wrestling shoes
we cannot really differentiate the segments. However, we can forecast potential future
sales with new models that we could sell once that our business has started.
If we use a demographic approach, we can divide our business regarding
several strategic characteristics:
Gender: female shoes and male shoes. Basically, the features are the same
but there could be other colours for girls like purple or pink. Usual colours like
black, red, blue, green and white are appreciated by both genders but these
two other colours would only work with girls.
Style practiced by the consumer: freestyle (female wrestling is also freestyle)
or Greco-Roman wrestling (wrestlers are not allowed to touch the opponent’s
legs contrary to freestyle). The flexibility of the shoe can be slightly different
regarding the style because the movements made and the positions held by the
sportsman are different.
8These graphs show that girls represent a few part of the sample: 18% concerning
the English survey and 31% for the French one (which can be biased by the fact that
in France it was easier for the team to contact girls because of Mathilda’s contacts).
Plus, the total number of percentages is not equal to 100 because men can practice
freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling at the same time. Even though Greco-Roman is
the most ancestral sport out of these three, freestyle is now the most popular
worldwide. Actually, Greco-Roman is more popular in Europe than in other areas.
Some nations get results only in Freestyle and Female wrestling (Greco-Roman is still
in development).
Age: junior sizes should also be proposed. Children have -most of the time-
different rules for tournaments and some movements are forbidden because
they are more fragile than teenagers or adults. It means that the protective
aspect of the shoes should be different.
We can also take a geographic approach. There are areas in Europe that are
much more strategic than others, where more potential clients are living. For instance,
countries such as Portugal, the United Kingdom or Netherlands where wrestling has
not a lot of participants, it would not be necessary or smart to offer a wide variety of
models. On the contrary, there are places like Bulgaria, Germany, Ukraine, Turkey,
Russia and the Caucasian region where wrestling is much more practiced and where
selling different type of shoes could be successful and be appreciated by the
customers.
9Then, we could mix these two latter approaches, and focus on a large variety
of female shoes in Sweden for instance where there a lot of girls practicing. The Greco-
Roman models could be successful in Hungary, in Georgia, and so on …
Concerning the purchasing behaviour of this product, there are two critical
periods. Firstly, one international wrestling season starts on the 1st of January and
ends on the 31th of December. Then, the beginning of the year is a strategic moment
for sales. Secondly, such as in France, new adherents arrive around September-
October, because of school schedules and these months are also the period following
the end of the different Continental and World Championships for any age
category. This is when different people will need shoes, especially newcomers. Our
marketing strategy and our different actions to get customers will be important during
these periods. We will sell our product to sport stores but in wrestling it is very common
to go to clients, directly to their training place or to install a stand at the different
tournaments/championships that occur during the year.
3.2. Target Market Segment Strategy
As mentioned in the previous part, we are targeting both stores but also the
consumers. Concerning the BtoB approach, stores that could be our clients are sport
stores such as Decathlon, Intersport, GoSport, Sport 2000 …
And if we focus on the BtoC; potential customers (which are the final customers
in both cases) are wrestlers which are aged, at least, three. There are girls and boys,
but most of them are boys. This sport is much less practiced by girls. Even though
female wrestling is growing, most of players are men.
Some countries are more strategic than others and gather more members (and
more champions). If we only look on the European level we will have to consider
Russia, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Germany, Bulgaria and Armenia as strategic
markets. In these places, wrestling is much more acknowledged than in France or
other countries mentioned before. We could find a lot of clients and consumers in
these areas. The Caucasian area (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia and three regions (or
Republics) of Russia: Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan have the highest
10percentage of wrestlers and a really high percentage of actual champions. It is part of
their traditions and their habits.
More precisely, and to make it easier we can focus on the French market. There
are some places where there is no need to try to sell our product because wrestling is
not practiced there. Places where this sport is practiced are numerous: cities like Paris,
Besançon, Nice, Nîmes, Clermont-Ferrand, Lille (with a high percentage of girls there),
Sarreguemines, Le Mans, and Lyon. If we want to try to contact stores to resell our
product, we should focus on these cities first. The biggest and most famous teams
(which then gather consumers and attract new potential consumers at the same time)
are located there.
Moreover, wrestlers also typically buy this kind of products in events such as
international tournaments or regional/national/continental/world championships. An
interesting date for our business would be March 16-17. On this day, the city of Ceyrat
(6.6km from the ESC school) will be holding the French freestyle championships for
boys aged from 12 to 20, which is a really important event that gathers wrestlers from
all around France.
113.3. Industry Analysis
To make the industry analysis of the wrestling shoes market, we are going use
Porter’s five forces model which is complete and gives a great view upon the
market and how it works to enter it, the competition and the different pressures.
123.3.1. Competition Analysis
From the market survey that we have completed on Facebook (431 answered
collected from the 8th to the 14th of December including 130 from the French version
and 301 from the English one), we can see that the most important seller is Asics
(79.6% in France and 80.6% for the other countries), the second more popular is
Adidas with 60.2% in France and 39.7% abroad and the last big competitor is Nike
with 10.2% in France and 28.3% abroad.
Most of people who took the survey are from America (it was much easier to
contact them and get answers from them thanks to the different wrestling pages they
have), which explains the difference of percentage between Nike and Adidas in the
two surveys. The first one is an American brand and the second one a German brand.
That affects consumers’ choice. Other countries who answered (except the ones
mentioned on the graph) are Cyprus, Pakistan, Estonia, Russia, Georgia, France,
13Austria, Malta, Norway, South Africa, Slovakia, Mexico, Poland, Germany, Lithuania,
Netherlands, Italy and Israel.
Other brands have been mentioned like Brute but the percentage were very
low, we cannot describe those as main competitors.
Concerning these competitors’ ways of reaching the consumers, a few exist. They
sell to some sport retailers or in special events as explained before. But nowadays,
most of the sales are made from the Internet, either from their own website or on some
e-retail platform like Amazon. It is actually the case of Georgia, there is only store in
the capital (Tbilisi) that sells such products but it is not matching the local demand and
there are no sellers during their events so most of them buy from the Internet. If we
compare it to France, we have a famous wrestler who created his own brand Yalouz
and goes to the different competitions and resell Asics and Adidas wrestling shoes.
He provides a lot of wrestlers in France. And more precisely, for Clermont-Ferrand
there is one place to buy the shoes (Asics and Adidas). It is in Intersport at Lempdes
and the man in charge is M. Nicolas, a wrestler from the ASM team, who once a year
goes to the ASM gym with the shoes to reach the consumers directly. Even with
these men trying to sell to French wrestlers, choices in designs and prices
remain really low. That is why lots of beginners train for months without any
shoes.
144. Strategy and Implementation Summary
Key partners Key activities Value proposition Customer Customer
relationships segments
Our key The purchase, Our product will
partners marketing and allow beginners Retailers will have Customers can
include the sales phases and advanced the possibility to be sport
suppliers, the are the most wrestlers to have a directly contact our retailers or
logistic decisive and pair of shoes that salesperson. directly the
company that strategic part protect their feet And for the consumers:
will transport of our and ankle during consumers they can wrestlers (any
our product business. their training and give feedbacks on gender, any
and potential competition for a our website. age, and any
financial low price. level).
partners.
Key Channels
resources
We have the
Alibaba where possibility to go
we found our directly in wrestling
supplier, gyms or at the
phones, different
laptops competitions places
Internet to get clients (or in
platforms the stores if we want
where we are our shoes to be sold
present. there).
After, we should also
sell our product on
the Internet.
Cost structure Revenue streams
Purchases : 9.85€/pair + 25€ per shipping
Revenues : 25€/pair
12€ of marketing expenses for the first year
and then in 2019 10€ of interest expense
and 350€ of communication expenses
154.1. SWOT Analysis
4.1.1. Strengths
The 4mat wrestling shoes are a new type of shoes that will have a cost
leadership strategy. Most of the shoes worn by wrestlers in Europe belong to famous
and expensive brands. That is why beginners often do not wear shoes during training
but this problematic, it can causes injuries. Besides, the feeling is not the same, you
are at a disadvantage because you cannot react as good as your opponent. That is
why we decided to launch these pairs of shoes in Europe. They are cheap, flexible
and not too short, which means they cover the ankle and protect it from sprains.
4.1.2. Weaknesses
Concerning the weaknesses of our shoes, we could mention the low brand
image, which is not common or famous to be worn by any kind of star wrestler.
Additionally, the quality will be seen as lower than the usual pairs because of the
common idea of manufactured goods in China, India, and in our case Pakistan. Asian
products are not common on this market and could be seen by customers as not
reliable. That is why we should position this product as a beginning pair of shoes or a
second pair mostly used for training (the first pair which is more expensive and more
suitable being used for tournaments and championships). However, some consumers
actually pointed the fact that even famous brands’ shoes are manufactured in these
areas (for instance, Asics is manufacturing some of its shoes in Vietnam) and they get
spoiled easily. A few people are actually aware of that fact but for most of consumers,
it is not as clear in their mind and the logo and the name of the brand makes the
difference and the reason to buy it and to agree on a higher price.
4.1.3. Opportunities
Wrestling, of course, is not the most famous sport in Europe which makes it a
niche market, for our brand new pair of shoes, with a small number of competitors.
Moreover, in February 2013, wrestling had been removed from the Olympic Games
by the IOC (International Olympic Committee). It had been a scandal worldwide,
16wrestlers from all round the world mobilized to show that this sport was one of the
eldest one (it was part of the ancient Games held in Olympia), and “Olympic Games
without wrestling is like a tree without roots”. The mobilization has also included
changes in the sport, changes about the colours used for the mats, about small rules,
about the outfit of referees … All of this has been implemented in order to make
wrestling more entertaining because this is what it was missing: watchers, fans and
mediatisation. And this is how on the 8th September of 2013, wrestling has been
restored in the schedule of the Summer Olympic Games. Nowadays, thanks to the
constant improvement brought by the UWW (United World Wrestling) federation, more
and more people are watching and reading about this sport and also are training or
starting wrestling. With a more “mainstream” sport, it gives huge opportunities for a
product like ours to be successful. We have to think about the new incoming Olympic
Games in 2020 held in Tokyo which are always a source of inspiration and motivation
for young sportsmen hand push them to practice more.
Furthermore, as said in the previous part, we can take advantage of the fact
that our shoes could be a second pair for the sportsmen. It is pretty common to actually
have different pairs. Here are the information we could get from people who answered
the survey:
For the first survey, 72% said to have in their possession at least 2 pairs and
for the second survey 71%. Almost three quarters of wrestlers think it is necessary to
not have just one pair. Besides, the first graph shows that some are actually practicing
without any shoe.
17This other graph is about differentiating training shoes and competition shoes.
67% of the international people who answered and 82% of the French are actually
using their pairs for both (knowing that some do not have the choice because they
only have one). The reason can be that you cannot use a brand new pair for the
competition day because you are not used to it and the shoe has to adapt to your foot
or because they like all their pairs to actually use these different ones for the important
days. Knowing this, we can still position our good as a training shoe for the clients who
use different ones for the two activities (since the debut of the business will be face to
face it is doable) and present the shoe as suitable as any other shoe for actual fight
on the mat.
4.1.4. Threats
To talk about threats for our product we could first mention the fact that wrestling
makes no difference between professionals and amateurs. If we want to position our
product for beginners it could be a problem to actually find clients. Secondly, UWW
frequently posts videos showing different wrestlers (most of them are well known and
serve as examples for everyone) during their match wearing the usual pair of shoes
that now everybody knows. And young wrestlers who want to be as strong as these
wrestlers are buying the same shoes as they have. This is related to the last point of
this section which are Jordan Burroughs shoes. He has been, the last couple of years,
the most watched and mediatised wrestler. He is an American Olympic champion in
freestyle wrestling. He has created his own models of shoes (JB shoes) which are now
very popular and lots of wrestlers have bought it. Such products are pretty difficult to
compete with because they are famous and acknowledged. This is why the different
18features of our shoes presented in the strengths section should be highlighted
because they can suit a lot of customers. Contrary to JB shoes, they are cheaper and
cover better the ankle.
4.2. Competitive Edge
As a company, we truly believe in the success of our product because of the
different reasons that are going to be explained below.
First of all, as we have mentioned before, we have a strategy of low price, which
compared to our major competitors such as Adidas, Asics, Nike (well-known brands)
our product is much less expensive. Here is a table that will explain a little bit more the
difference.
The prices were converted from the original prices in dollar on Amazon with the
rate change of the 14th of December (1€=$1.18).
Secondly, another point for is that the product that we want to offer to our clients
fulfil the expectations that they need and want which are: comfort, safety in the ankle
and affordable price.
4.3. Marketing Strategy International Exporting
Our strategy to penetrate the market is pricing strategy. First we are going to
enter to the market through our low price offered, in order to call our customer’s
attention. We are going to start offering our product at 25 euros but then, once people
start to know more about us we will be able to increase the price of our product of 10%
to get a higher margin and thus profit.
19Concerning the online marketing, as we have mentioned before, we are
planning on sell our product to a third person (B2B) and we would also like to focus on
selling our product to consumers directly (B2C). To get to our customers and since
online shopping and advertising is still a growing trend we plan to make some
advertisement through social media or through combat sport/wrestling pages. This
would also be cheaper for us and pretty convenient since we are a company that has
just been formed.
The market survey created from the website freeonlinesurveys.com was shared
via Facebook: by messages for actual consumers that were known by the team and
by posts on different wrestling pages. In less than a week, more than 400 persons
answered it which means that potentially using social Medias could be worth it.
4.4. Sales Strategy
The first step we took was to define the sales process that we thought would
be the most successful. We outlined our unique value proposition, targeted customers
and presented the competition, the most common objections, the product features and
the benefits.
Our sales team has a lot of knowledge of the market and how business works.
The experience though is rather low but the first qualities mention with help us to reach
our expectations of sales and probably overcome it in a successfully way.
Our market survey had different questions that concerned the sales strategy.
Firstly, we had to know if the brand image was decisive or not. These graphs show the
willingness of consumers to buy an unknown product.
20It seems to be more acceptable abroad than in France but still about half of consumers
would consider buying it.
And the next question was about seeing how much they could pay for such a product.
Surprisingly (taking into account the fact they would be less willing to buy this
kind of shoes), French wrestlers would pay a higher price than international people. It
means they agree with paying more their current prices than the others.
It means that the selling price we chose to begin with: 25€ seems acceptable and
matching people’s expectation (especially abroad). Knowing that we will start with
France and that we just saw that French people would give more we can allow
ourselves to resell our good at 25 euros.
4.4.1. Sales Forecast
Our sales forecast for the next five years are the following:
Year 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
Sales forecast 40 100 200 250 300
For year 2018, we were thinking to focus on the French market that is why we
cannot get a lot of sales. To have an idea of the number of potential consumers, there
are, in 2017, about 200 people who signed up at ASM wrestling, 2000 in the Auvergne-
Rhônes-Alpes region and 25 000 in France. France is a small market, but it will be a
21good way to start the business, slowly but surely, and to avoid to contract too many
costs because of the lack of experience (how many shoes per size should be ordered,
how many of which colour …). The different events where we could sell would be the
Trophée des Volcans taking place in the middle of the month of November (every year)
in Clermont-Ferrand. It is held by the ASM team (Mathilda’s team) so getting a stand
there should not be too difficult. And later we can try to see with FFL (the French
federation of wrestling) to held a stand during the national
tournaments/championships.
In 2019, we plan on selling abroad, we could start with Germany, Belgian, UK,
Spain and Switzerland which are the closest and where we can speak either French,
English or Spanish. Hopefully, our website and our social medias pages will be
managed by an efficient employee, which could help us to be known in other countries
in Europe.
And starting from 2020, we will already have sold in different areas and be more
acknowledged by the public.
5. Management Summary
4Mat will keep its 4 funders to do the purchase, the marketing and the reselling.
An additional employee should be forecast to take care of the communication: work
on a website, manage the Facebook page and if needed also the inbox of our email
address. This is why we have decided to contact the HD Company, it is a company
that specialises in designing websites and which has a great knowledge in the security.
Moreover, we will keep our Pakistani contact for the purchase phase.
5.1. Personnel Plan
The management team include:
- Yan Luo, a Chinese native who specialises in import-export with Asian
countries who has a Bachelor degree in Economics at the Capital University of
Economics and Business in Beijing, China and a double degree in International
Management at ESC Clermont.
- Stefany Ormeño who has a double degree at her school in Lima, Peru a
22Bachelor in Business management and the International degree of ESC too. Her
domain is the sales phase. She can speak English and Spanish which would be an
asset when we will sell abroad (wrestling has been really developing in Latin American
countries in the last years)
- Louis Genillier who has a Bachelor degree in International Management
at ESC Clermont. He excels at marketing and communication. He has been used to
design posters or different events and creating logos. That will help us for the future
marketing campaign we will have to implement. He will be in direct relation with the
employee working on our website.
- Mathilda Kreutzer who also has a Bachelor degree in International
Management in the same school. She had the idea for this business being a wrestler
herself. She acquired the skills to manage her team and had the knowledge of the
market. It is an asset to contact the strategic places and target the corresponding
costumers.
Additionally, there is still the idea of working with HD Company, with its boss, who
explained us what could be the best solution for a company like ours, which just
started, and how to avoid too many costs and still being present on the Internet and
being able to resell our products there.
6. Financial Plan
Our gross margin would be at 58.5% for the first year and at 59.7% for the second
year and will increase for the following years (thanks to the economies of scale made
on the shipping costs). We have to consider that even if our partner has a supply ability
of 2000 pair per month, we might have to make different orders during the year
because one size is selling more than the others and we need more pairs or a special
colour, … If we have to make different shipments we will increase our costs and lose
point of percentage on our gross margin. That will depend on our customers’
behaviour.
When the subject of the website has been mentioned with our potential informatics
partner, he explained that implementing an e-business website would be too costly for
our company and that we could just having a website showing our products and prices
and the payment will not be done directly on the website (this is the costly part because
of all the security work that has to be done in the first place). The client just fills in a
23form and, then, we send him an order number and they make a money transfer with
this number and only then we can ship their good. This kind of business usually
charges around 2500€ for such a service. This is why we should ask for a financial
investor the amount required so that can improve our business with this tool. We can
forecast a 2500€ loan granted in our favour for a 2% interest rate (current rates in
France) with a payment on five years that will give the following expenses :
2500*2%=50€ of interest expenses to pay during the five years.
6.1. Projected Profit and Loss
Concerning the market survey expenses, it is something we had to pay to get
the results of the market survey shown in this report. We decided to put it in the
expenses of the year 2018 when the business will be starting. About the loan, we will
only start to contract the costs in 2019 because we will probably not need the website
in the beginning of 2018 and so we will contact a bank for the end of 2018 or the
beginning of 2019 when we will start to go abroad.
The sales and communication expenses are the annual cost for the
maintenance of the website.
Here are the forecasted income statement for the five next years :
We did not have planned any rent or insurance expenses for the moment. But if we
need a place to stock the shoes we will have to rethink our cost structure.
Concerning the wages, we do not have to hire anyone to manage the websites. Any
member of our management team can answer the emails and take care of the orders
(Stefany will probably the one in charge because she is the sales representative of the
team), the bank transfers will be dealt by Mathilda because of her financial
background.
24References:
Link of our product:
https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Leather-Wrestling-
Shoes_132053604.html?spm=a2700.7724838.2017115.93.52d079f0reQm5a
Link of competitors:
Nike shoes:
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-
keywords=wrestling+shoes+nike&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Awrestling+shoes+nike
Adidas shoes:
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-
keywords=wrestling+shoes+adidas
Asics shoes:
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-
keywords=wrestling+shoes+asics
French survey: https://freeonlinesurveys.com/s/0fzxWXvs#/0
English survey: https://freeonlinesurveys.com/s/jdhwFb7T#/0
Link of the International Federation of Wrestling: https://unitedworldwrestling.org/
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