We're working on Eh-Llie's mobile experience! Right now, experience Eh-Llie on your desktop.
We're working on Eh-Llie's mobile experience! Right now, experience Eh-Llie on your desktop.
Nuku Cycles is a bicycle manufacturer based in Taupo that assembles and sells a range of e-bikes to several bike retailers around the country. An iwi-owned company, the manufacturer provides employment opportunities for the local community and sources components for its bikes from a number of other New Zealand-based companies. This is quite different from other bike suppliers, who typically import their bicycles from overseas providers. Nuku Cycles promotes itself as being a Māori-owned business that makes its own bikes in New Zealand.
The Nuku Cycles e-bikes range in price from $700 to $12,000. Their commuter e-bikes (which run on electric batteries) are very popular and there is often a wait list to purchase them, due to the high demand. Bicycle stores have recently experienced problems importing stock from overseas brands.
Nuku Cycles wants to promote healthy lifestyles and support the local community. Management believe they have a social responsibility to their community to ensure there are plenty of opportunities for people of all ages and backgrounds to ride a bike. Having this focus means that Nuku Cycles does not make as much profit as other bike manufacturers of a similar size, as it tries to keep the prices of some of its models affordable for the wider community.
Nuku Cycles has experienced significant growth in sales over the past two years, and its current assembly facility and workforce are nearing full capacity. Bike retailers are continually complaining about the time it takes for orders to be filled, and Nuku Cycles is concerned that this may affect its brand reputation and limit its potential sales.
To meet the increasing demand for its e-bikes, management are investigating the following growth strategies to increase both the capacity and productivity of its operations:
COVID-19: Global shortage of bikes follows turbo-charged, coronavirus-fuelled demand
New Zealand is facing a shortage of new bicycles and e-bikes as sales go “through the roof”... ... ... record high of 65,000 in 2019. That figure is widely predicted to rise to more than 100,000 in 2020.
Source (adapted): https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/123019534/covid19-global-shortage-of-bikes-follows-turbocharged-coronavirusfuelled-demand
Select TWO appropriate growth strategies below from Resource B that Nuku Cycles’ management could implement to address the increasing demand for e-bikes:
Why is each option considered a growth strategy?
How could each growth strategy help to manage the increasing demand for e-bikes?
Justify, with TWO reasons, how one growth strategy would be better for Nuku Cycles than the other.
Nuku Cycles is a bicycle manufacturer based in Taupo that assembles and sells a range of e-bikes to several bike retailers around the country. An iwi-owned company, the manufacturer provides employment opportunities for the local community and sources components for its bikes from a number of other New Zealand-based companies. This is quite different from other bike suppliers, who typically import their bicycles from overseas providers. Nuku Cycles promotes itself as being a Māori-owned business that makes its own bikes in New Zealand.
The Nuku Cycles e-bikes range in price from $700 to $12,000. Their commuter e-bikes (which run on electric batteries) are very popular and there is often a wait list to purchase them, due to the high demand. Bicycle stores have recently experienced problems importing stock from overseas brands.
Nuku Cycles wants to promote healthy lifestyles and support the local community. Management believe they have a social responsibility to their community to ensure there are plenty of opportunities for people of all ages and backgrounds to ride a bike. Having this focus means that Nuku Cycles does not make as much profit as other bike manufacturers of a similar size, as it tries to keep the prices of some of its models affordable for the wider community.
Nuku Cycles has experienced significant growth in sales over the past two years, and its current assembly facility and workforce are nearing full capacity. Bike retailers are continually complaining about the time it takes for orders to be filled, and Nuku Cycles is concerned that this may affect its brand reputation and limit its potential sales.
To meet the increasing demand for its e-bikes, management are investigating the following growth strategies to increase both the capacity and productivity of its operations:
COVID-19: Global shortage of bikes follows turbo-charged, coronavirus-fuelled demand
New Zealand is facing a shortage of new bicycles and e-bikes as sales go “through the roof”... ... ... record high of 65,000 in 2019. That figure is widely predicted to rise to more than 100,000 in 2020.
Source (adapted): https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/123019534/covid19-global-shortage-of-bikes-follows-turbocharged-coronavirusfuelled-demand
Discuss TWO problems that Nuku Cycles may experience during its intended expansion, and why these problems may occur.
How would EACH problem impact Nuku Cycles as a sustainable business in the long term?
Nuku Cycles is a bicycle manufacturer based in Taupo that assembles and sells a range of e-bikes to several bike retailers around the country. An iwi-owned company, the manufacturer provides employment opportunities for the local community and sources components for its bikes from a number of other New Zealand-based companies. This is quite different from other bike suppliers, who typically import their bicycles from overseas providers. Nuku Cycles promotes itself as being a Māori-owned business that makes its own bikes in New Zealand.
The Nuku Cycles e-bikes range in price from $700 to $12,000. Their commuter e-bikes (which run on electric batteries) are very popular and there is often a wait list to purchase them, due to the high demand. Bicycle stores have recently experienced problems importing stock from overseas brands.
Nuku Cycles wants to promote healthy lifestyles and support the local community. Management believe they have a social responsibility to their community to ensure there are plenty of opportunities for people of all ages and backgrounds to ride a bike. Having this focus means that Nuku Cycles does not make as much profit as other bike manufacturers of a similar size, as it tries to keep the prices of some of its models affordable for the wider community.
Nuku Cycles has experienced significant growth in sales over the past two years, and its current assembly facility and workforce are nearing full capacity. Bike retailers are continually complaining about the time it takes for orders to be filled, and Nuku Cycles is concerned that this may affect its brand reputation and limit its potential sales.
To meet the increasing demand for its e-bikes, management are investigating the following growth strategies to increase both the capacity and productivity of its operations:
COVID-19: Global shortage of bikes follows turbo-charged, coronavirus-fuelled demand
New Zealand is facing a shortage of new bicycles and e-bikes as sales go “through the roof”... ... ... record high of 65,000 in 2019. That figure is widely predicted to rise to more than 100,000 in 2020.
Source (adapted): https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/123019534/covid19-global-shortage-of-bikes-follows-turbocharged-coronavirusfuelled-demand
With rising manufacturing costs, due to increased employment expenses and parts being more expensive to purchase within New Zealand, Nuku Cycles’ management are investigating ways of maintaining profitability for the owners, while remaining focused on keeping its bikes affordable for the wider community.
Management are considering purchasing Nuku Cycles’ e-bikes partially assembled and unbranded from a cheaper overseas manufacturer, while still claiming that they are locally ‘assembled’, in order to maintain the perception that the company is a local producer. This approach would reduce the need for a large local manufacturing workforce, and thus also reduce material and production costs significantly.
Disgruntled employees of Nuku Cycles have informed a local reporter of management’s possible plans to reduce employment expenses and manufacturing costs in New Zealand, while trying to maintain a false perception that its e-bikes are New Zealand-made, which may be considered an unethical practice.
What are TWO possible negative consequences for Nuku Cycles in choosing to source the e-bikes overseas, and why might these consequences occur?
Explain how each consequence will impact Nuku Cycles as a sustainable business.
Nuku Cycles is a bicycle manufacturer based in Taupo that assembles and sells a range of e-bikes to several bike retailers around the country. An iwi-owned company, the manufacturer provides employment opportunities for the local community and sources components for its bikes from a number of other New Zealand-based companies. This is quite different from other bike suppliers, who typically import their bicycles from overseas providers. Nuku Cycles promotes itself as being a Māori-owned business that makes its own bikes in New Zealand.
The Nuku Cycles e-bikes range in price from $700 to $12,000. Their commuter e-bikes (which run on electric batteries) are very popular and there is often a wait list to purchase them, due to the high demand. Bicycle stores have recently experienced problems importing stock from overseas brands.
Nuku Cycles wants to promote healthy lifestyles and support the local community. Management believe they have a social responsibility to their community to ensure there are plenty of opportunities for people of all ages and backgrounds to ride a bike. Having this focus means that Nuku Cycles does not make as much profit as other bike manufacturers of a similar size, as it tries to keep the prices of some of its models affordable for the wider community.
Nuku Cycles has experienced significant growth in sales over the past two years, and its current assembly facility and workforce are nearing full capacity. Bike retailers are continually complaining about the time it takes for orders to be filled, and Nuku Cycles is concerned that this may affect its brand reputation and limit its potential sales.
To meet the increasing demand for its e-bikes, management are investigating the following growth strategies to increase both the capacity and productivity of its operations:
COVID-19: Global shortage of bikes follows turbo-charged, coronavirus-fuelled demand
New Zealand is facing a shortage of new bicycles and e-bikes as sales go “through the roof”... ... ... record high of 65,000 in 2019. That figure is widely predicted to rise to more than 100,000 in 2020.
Source (adapted): https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/123019534/covid19-global-shortage-of-bikes-follows-turbocharged-coronavirusfuelled-demand
Based on financial considerations and a price-sensitive market, management makes the difficult decision to source its e-bikes partly assembled from a cheaper overseas supplier.
Discuss TWO recommendations that Nuku Cycles’ management could consider to address negative consequences from choosing to source its e-bikes from overseas.
Identify TWO recommendations, and explain why each recommendation would manage negative consequences of choosing to source e-bikes from overseas.
How would each recommendation impact Nuku Cycles’ ability to promote healthy lifestyles and support the local community?
Justify, with TWO reasons, why one recommendation would be more effective than the other in managing the negative consequences of choosing to source e-bikes from overseas.