Title:                          HONEYGROW Catering Strategy Consulting Report

Subject Area:         Corporate strategy for extension

Region:                     United States

Industry:                  Foodservice

Company:                honeygrow

Challenge:             In January 2020, honeygrow, fast-casual eatery, began exploring the opportunity of breaking into the breakfast catering market. With successful store front locations in major east coast cities, and Boston’s expanding breakfast catering market, honeygrow was considering Boston as the location to trial a test launch. Utilizing our connections with the company, our Boston-based STRT4501 consulting group engaged with honeygrow to address a few core challenges on behalf of the health-focused eatery:
1. Validate breakfast catering as a viable value-add for honeygrow
2. Determine the best way to expand current catering operations to allow entry into the breakfast sector
3. Determine the best approach to this market entry, including where their breakfast offerings fit and positioning strategy

Elucidating Our Professional Core

As business students with a vested interest in the food industry, addressing challenges for honeygrow presents us with a unique opportunity to analyze problems many companies within the industry face.  Creating a strategy for honeygrow will allow our group to demonstrate our skillset and form connections within the industry

Embedding in the Business Realities. Developing Trust

The initial data collection began by reaching out to Rebecca Ridgway, as well as Leah Patrick and Libby Burgoyne from honeygrow’s marketing team, to discuss the initial inspiration for moving into the breakfast catering industry and to collect some preliminary data. We established the motivation and timeline behind honeygrow’s desired expansion into breakfast catering which greatly helped us shape our case background, research, and dilemma.

Outside of our interview with honeygrow, we utilized a variety of secondary sources to collect data on the external environment relevant to a breakfast catering expansion. We used government sources such as Massachusetts and Boston government websites and the US census to gather data on the political, economic, and legal backgrounds relevant to our case. For demographic information, social trends, and consumer spending habits, we utilized sources such as Zagat, CNBC, and artsboston.org. To collect data on the catering industry and the breakfast catering industry within it, we primarily utilized sources from ezCater, Hubspot, Statista, and competitors’ websites.

Generating Value: Analysing and Solving the Challenge

We completed a comprehensive consulting report detailing (1) research and findings, (2) in-depth analysis of data collected, and (3) consequent recommendations for the company. Research for this case included primary interviews with key internal stakeholders, and extensive secondary research conducted by our team. Collected data was utilized to conduct exhaustive analysis of the external and internal factors relevant to this expansion, and detailed this analysis for honeygrow using core decision-making frameworks:

1. Thorough market analysis using PESTLE framework
2. Comprehensive SWOT analysis with strength matching
3. Industry-specific analysis, leveraging Porter’s 5 Forces

It was from this intensive analysis that our team identified key findings to inform recommendations for the company including:

1. The Catering industry is growing at a rate that outpaces the overall foodservice industry growth
2. An increasing number of companies are investing in breakfast and lunch catering to incentivize and motivate employees
3. Metropolitan Boston, home to high performing honeygrow locations, has relatively low unemployment rates, high purchasing power, and high commute times compared to other metropolitan cities

From these findings we formulated detailed recommendations for honeygrow and outlined them in the final section of the consulting report. The core of these recommendations included a proposed action plan and detailed outlines of the proposed positioning and competitive strategies. Our proposed strategy covers:

1. recommended changes to organizational structure
2. policy changes that address anticipated threats
3. cultural shifts necessary for sustained success
4. management of input controls