Primark's Strategy Case Study
Key Learning Outcomes
By the end of the case, students should be able to:
- Apply the value chain to a real-world company using the example of Primark retail stores.
- Understand how to use Primark’s value chain framework to examine the sources of competitive advantage for Primark.
- Understand which value chain activities have helped Primark become a low-cost leader in the UK clothing retailing industry. While Primark’s value proposition of low prices isn’t unique, the company’s execution of particular activities including inbound and outbound logistics is comparable to none. You will discover what these are and much more…
1.0 INTRODUCTION
The value chain refers to a set of activities within an organization, which together help it create or produce a product or service (Grant 2016; Johnson et al. 2017). First developed by Michael Porter, the purpose of the value chain is to help firms identify value-adding activities they are undertaking, that either add (or don’t add) value to their product or service. Once disaggregated, such activities can help provide a more precise understanding of all firm activities and the capabilities corresponding to each activity so as to understand where competitive advantage is being derived (Grant 2016).
In this report, we examine Primark’s value chain to try and understand which activities have helped the company become a low-cost leader in the UK clothing retailing industry.
While Primark’s value proposition of low prices isn’t unique, the company’s execution of particular activities including inbound and outbound logistics is comparable to none, helping keep logistical costs very low and the processes very efficient, consequentially driving costs down. Few clothing companies have mastered distribution, logistical, and inventory management like Primark, the very areas of the value chain it has derived the most value.