George Weston Strengths And Weaknesses

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George Weston Limited (George Weston, GW) is the largest food processing and distribution company in Canada and one of the largest in the United States of America (U.S.). The company was founded in 1882 by George Weston and was primarily focused on baked goods. It was not until 1947, when George Weston took over Loblaw Cos Ltd, that George Weston became grew to become a multibillion company. George Weston currently has over 250,000 employees in Canada and the U.S. George Weston is a public company sold on the Toronto stock exchange (TSX) for $110.12 a share. Last year GW had total sales of $43.9 billion and a total net profit of $3.4 billion, which is a 46% increase from 2013. The main reason for this increase was the acquisition of Shoppers …show more content…
One of the main weakness that George Weston has is that they are heavily dependent on the Canadian economy. Approximately 98% of its profits were generated in Canada. Should the Canadian economy start to decline or slow down, growth would slow down as well. George Weston has many growth opportunities which includes strategic acquisitions. For example, at the end of the first quarter, George Weston acquired all remaining outstanding shares of Shoppers Drug Mart, which is one of the largest pharmacy chains in Canada. This acquisition boosted their overall net profit by approximately 46%. One can see that with the correct strategic acquisitions, George Weston can expand its product offering to stimulate revenue growth for the following years. This paired with its strong product innovation and brand portfolio gives George Weston a serious competitive advantage over other companies. Strong innovation will allow George Weston to introduce new and better products faster than the competition, thus giving them a competitive edge in what is a very competitive market. The final strength that George Weston possesses that is crucial for foreign expansion is strong revenue growth. Not only is this important for having more cash on hand but it is also important to gain the confidence of investors to gain more capital as