Starting a business venture is never an easy task; a lot of decision-making is involved beginning with identifying the sector in which the investment is to be made, arrangement of the investible capital and building of required infrastructure (Gyamfi, 2007). The viability of a business venture is dependent on many things, customers being one of the most important factors who are going to buy the products (Botha and Robertson, 2014). The selection of target customer is an important decisive factor because that creates the required market space for a new entrepreneur to enter market and reduces risk burden (Bressler, 2012).
The city of Sutton Coldfield offers a great place to open a Caribbean restaurant. There has a significant growth of Caribbean cuisine all over UK but people of Sutton Coldfield are still waiting for their first Caribbean restaurant in the vicinity (Independent, 2014). Sutton Coldfield is one of the most prestigious locations in Birmingham (Visit Birmingham, 2016). There are many restaurants offering various cuisines like Greek, Indian, Thai, Italian, Mediterranean and other Asian cuisines in Sutton Coldfield (Town Centre, 2016). However, this will be the first outlet offering West Indian cuisine and not just from a particular type but customers will be able to have a taste of all the delicacies from 28 Caribbean islands.
A survey in the form of questionnaire was done in order to gauge the response of the people towards this business idea and a detailed analysis of the market and viability of the business has been presented in this paper. It also focuses on the opportunity analysis of opening a Caribbean restaurant in Sutton Coldfield.
The restaurant will be serving authentic West Indian cuisine and would be a family restaurant with separate counter for serving liquor. The target consumer group will thus be people belonging to the age group of 18-64years of age. Sutton Coldfield consists of a number of restaurants but there is no outlet offering Caribbean cuisine. The owner can take it as an opportunity of introducing a specialised product which has no immediate competition. This will be highly beneficial for the variety loving population of Sutton Coldfield to get the taste of delicious Caribbean food. It will be three storey establishments with rooftop banquet for parties, office conference and other social gathering.
The entrepreneur needs to provide customers an opportunity to get a glimpse of Caribbean culture differentiating it from its competitors. Hence, the ambience will be aligned to coastal setting with West Indian reggae music playing in the background or band performance on Sundays.
The ground floor and basement will be reserved for parking, the first floor will be available for serving food and the second floor will have the bar. The owner has left a spot for take away but the final decision is yet to be taken.
The restaurant is going to be situated in central Sutton Coldfield. The one-stop eatery will cater to the desire for great food, drinks and cultural bonding. This will not only pull in families, but will also offer a place for business gathering, expanding the revenue source. The location has been chosen so that not only it is close to the rich residential area but also is in close proximity to corporate offices.
Product/ Services: The visitors of this restaurant will be able to taste the food from all 28 Caribbean islands. The bar will consist of liquor from beer to premium liquors. Cocktails will be served along with food, but for other alcoholic drinks the customer will have to visit to the bar. The availability of parking gives the restaurant an added advantage to cater more customers because other restaurants in the area have open parking space allowing customers limited time to enjoy their meals. However, covered parking offers more security, so that the customers can enjoy their food in a relaxed manner.
Target market: The restaurant targets people belonging to the age group of 18-65 years. The bar serves as an added feature since customers will not have to go to a separate place for consuming alcoholic drinks. The restaurant will offer a great place for family gathering because of a large dining hall and for privacy the restaurant offers separate booths. The people of UK have over the years developed a taste for spicy food which has resulted in the growth of West Indian restaurants in many parts of UK. This has encouraged the entrepreneur to invest in a Caribbean restaurant. The place of Sutton Coldfield has been chosen, since the place consists of people with high standard of living and there is no Caribbean restaurant in the area. Sutton Coldfield is also a tourist attraction and has a number of prestigious hotels. This offers a great opportunity for the entrepreneur to exploit relatively less competitive market, since it will associate with a greater revenue earning.
The market segmentation will be same as the target market, individuals, families and offices holding conferences.
Michael Porter has devised five criteria to evaluate an industry’s competitiveness. The effective strength of each force determines the intensity of competition in a market (Schermerhorn Jr, 2009). As the competition gets intensified, it acts as a hindrance relating to an entrepreneur’s power to increase prices of products (Harris, 2005). Once the entrepreneurs decide upon which industry to enter managers are required to analyse how strong or weak is the competitive industrial environment (Lee, Kim and Park, 2011)
