Cheese Maker - Market Expansion Research In Australia

Closed
Cheese Maker
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Jeremy Bossio
Founding Partner
(1)
3
Project
Academic experience
50 hours per Student
Student
Canada
Advanced level

Project scope

Categories
Market research
Skills
cheesemaking tax laws trade agreement selling techniques market share research cooking
Details

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

We are ready to take our business to the next level. Presently we only exist in two markets but it’s time to grow! Our company requires some assistance in assessing our customer landscape, competition, relevancy, and plausibility outside of our current markets, Canada and the USA. We want to learn more about customer’s expectations and behaviors in Australia. It is important for us to stay up to date on industry standards to ensure that we research new locations fully and completely before choosing to enter. We have some ideas of where we would like to go in Australia, but we need to make sure that we consider all available options before making a decision. If we feel it is a Go, our goal would be to set up a distribution hub (contract a fulfillment center) that we would ship our products to for distribution across Australia with our ecommerce Shopify site as the cart.

KEY PROJECT ACTIVITES:

Our specific need is an outline of our Cheese Making Kit's expansion opportunities through location analysis. This report should include answers to the following questions:

  1. Most of our Cheese-Making kits (four of our current five) require a high quality milk to be purchased along with our Kit. 4L of Milk for every batch you make. The definition of high quality for us means less processed. Raw milk is the best, non-homogenized whole milk is next best, and homogenized whole milk is third best. All of these are fresh milks. Ultra-high temperature, or UHT, milk is ultra-pasteurized milk and will not work for making cheese. Similarly, milk that has been processed more, like ultrafiltration, additives in the milk, and skimming the milk all contribute to changing the milks properties and making it less viable for cheese making. Considering this information, does Australia sell Fresh milk that is viable for Cheese-Making?
  2. Is there interest in Cheese Making? Is there a relatively well sized DIY community or interest in cooking at home? Would enough people be interested in buying our kits for themselves or as gift for a fellow Australian member to make our product viable?
  3. What are the legalities of getting our product into Australia? We are somewhat considered a food item, but most of our kit is shelf stable and cheese-making equipment and supplies. Looking at what comes in our kits, what are the legal protocol or requirements for crossing the border into Australia?
  4. What is involved in adhering to tax laws when selling an ecommerce product in Australia? If our products are manufactured in Canada and then shipped to Australia, are we part of the free trade agreement with Australia?
  5. Does Australia have fulfillment centers that can accommodate our product? The culture packets in 3/5 of our kits need freezer storage. It is a very small amount of space. Our Canadian and US fulfillment centers just have a small chest freezer next to our inventory. Would a center in Australia work with us on this?
  6. Competition: Are there any companies in Australia doing what we do? If yes, what is their market share and how penetrated are they into the market? Do they have the same products or similar and what are the differences?

FINAL DELIVERABLE:

We are looking for a complete report that fully answers these questions, with each of these questions having their own section of the report. We have attached relevant source material for better understanding our products and business.

This report should be easy to follow, and clearly layout the pros and cons of the goal of expanding to the UK market.

If you require more detail about this assignment or more background, data, or direction, please email us at info@cheesemaker.ca or call Jeremy at 778-996-4336.

Deliverables
No deliverables exist for this project.
Mentorship

We have been in business for 7 years. We can offer some guidance and experience to any participants learning. We will have 1 on 1 meetings as well as group sessions designed to enhance the experience and allow for any questions or thoughts to be shared.

About the company

Company
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Sales, Retail, Marketing & advertising, It & computing, Media & production

We sell DIY cheesemaking kits and virtual events. The selling of our Cheese Kits is by far our primary revenue stream. Our retail sales are done through our ecommerce Shopify site, through direct sales at trade and craft shows across Canada & the USA, and our wholesales are done through our sales team here at Cheese Maker. Our corporate team-building events are done through 2 major vendors: Eventology, in Canada, and TeamBonding in the USA. We also offer our events on our website.