A strategic management paper for Wilcon Depot, INC. / Sushmita P. Sigua.

Thesis (M.A)--Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, 2023.

A strategic management paper presented to the Faculty of the PLM Business School -- Graduate Program in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master in Business Administration.

Wilcon Depot, Inc. is the leading retailer of home improvement and construction supplies in the Philippines. At present, the company has a total of 83 branches in the Philippines, which includes 74 Depot stores and 9 home essentials stores spread throughout the nation. Wilcon provides a diverse range of products which includes appliances, building materials, lighting and electrical fixtures, furniture, housewares, furnishing, hardware and tools, paints, as well as plumbing and sanitary ware products.

The most important critical success factors identified in the home improvement and construction supplies retail industry were product variety, product quality, price competitiveness, strategic store location, customer service, effective marketing & advertising, inventory management, employees training & development, innovation, and financial position. Considering all these factors, Wilcon got a score of 3.54 CPM.

For the external analysis, Wilcon can take advantage of the growing construction industry in the Philippines, the government initiatives to promote infrastracture development and construction, rising demand for energy-efficient and environmentally friendly home improvement products. On the other hand, high inflation, price war among the other retail industries, consistent changing of consumers' preferences and trends are challenging factors for Wilcon. With these factors, Wilcon got an EFE rarting of 3.38.

For the eternal analysis, Wilcon depot's strengths involve having diverse product offerings, large retail network, effective marketing & advertising, increased loyalty program membership, being a multi-awarded retailer in the Philippines, effective inventory management, effective management through functional organizational structure, increasing trend in gross margin ratio. On the other hand, having a lack of smaller store formats, lack of community acceptance to new stores, high cost of training, high percentage increase in attrition rate, and having no expenditure for R&D are the weanesses for Wilcon. With these factors, Wilcon got an IFE rating of 3.007.

Upon studying both internal and external factors, the proposed overall strategic objective for Wilcon is market development through store network expansion in other regions in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The key strategy that will be implemented for Wilcon to expand the Wilcon Depot stores to 100 stores by the year 2025. This store expansion will help Wilcon to increase their revenues further and it will help the company to maintain its position as the leading retailer of construction supplies and home improvement products in the Philippines.