Professional Documents
Culture Documents
HKB
HKB
Introduction
1.1 Introduction
Established in 1952 with the pioneer department store of the city, H Karim Buksh (Pvt)
Ltd., the owning company of HKB Stores consists of three large departmental stores
located in Pakistan’s historical and cultural capital, Lahore, a city of over 9 million
people. Employing over 400 dedicated team members, HKB enjoys the trust and
confidence of over 7 million customers annually
HKB has an air-conditioned selling space of over 70,000 square feet, with both stores
being located in the city’s premier shopping areas, in terms of infrastructure, access,
and affluent shopper traffic. The stores feature the following departments:
• Brand name imported and local Groceries including meat and vegetables
• Cosmetics,
• Fabrics (Ladies and Gents),
• Garments (Ladies, Gents and Children),
• Toys
• House Hold Linen
• Crockery
• Traveling Goods
• Variety of Leading Brands from all over the world in the Gifts section.
1.1.1 Values
HKB pride itself on simple, old-fashioned values of customer care, and pioneering new
ideas when others shy away from the risks. This forward looking vision has led them to
build constantly and provide the best value for the customer’s money. Building amid an
uncertain environment has its challenges, but HKB knows of no other way to make HKB
a grand shopping experience for the entire family.
1
1.2 Management
From its family origins over 50 years ago, HKB today is proud to boast a combination of
educated and cosmopolitan family top management and young professionals. The
company founder has held top positions in the local Chamber of Commerce and
Industry and the second generation Chief Executive is a graduate of the country’s top
business school. HKB enjoys the respect and support of leading businesses and
financial institutions of the country, and are proud of their spotless financial and
business reputation.
They are currently undertaking complete POS modernization featuring Retail-Pro and
are also building a company warehouse to ensure ready and complete supplies of
goods for our stores.
With their rapidly growing team of professionals and the systems development initiative,
HKB confidently positioned for high growth in a market that offers tremendous potential
to a well-managed retailer. It recognizes that much of this growth can, and should be
shared with leading foreign brands, and the association with Levi’s marked the first
tangible step in this direction.
1.3 Product
The wide and growing range of products available at HKB comes from years of trusted
and reliable sourcing. Whether it offers leading brands, sourced from local suppliers
both multi-national and indigenous, or whether they have to travel to the best known
wholesale centers of the world, it takes pride in personally ensuring that only carefully
chosen merchandise makes its way to the sales floor.
The amazing speed with which a mind boggling range of products become available
round the world has led us to constantly seek dependable and reputable suppliers.
2
Today HKB is proud to be working with over 1200 vendors from 12 countries. The
relationships have been long and reliable, which provides the customers consistency
and variety all year round.
1.3.1 Grocery
Brand name imported and local Groceries including meat and vegetables, freshly flown
in Haagen Dazs ice cream and choicest chocolates such as Lindtt, Cadburys,
Toblerone, and After-Eights …just shows the reliability it has built into its global supply
chain. Virtually every product the customers can imagine for their household and
kitchen, including a complete range of oriental cooking provisions is always available in
fresh and plentiful quantities. And no grocery would ever be complete without the fresh
fruit and vegetables that the land of five rivers, the Punjab brings forth.
With HKB’s hygienic meat processing under controlled cooling and ventilation it ensures
the finest and healthy cuts on the dining tables. No matter what the customer crave,
fish, chicken, veal, mutton, or quality beef, HKB promises never to feed its customers
what they would not place at their own tables. And as the customers broaden their
tastes HKB would not be left behind and now offer a growing range of organic products.
1.4 Competitors
The competitors of HKB include Al-Fatah, Pace, Jalal Sons, Decent Store, Tes Mart and
other small and big grocery stores.
2. Review of Literature
4
2.1 Ahsan Rehman (2002)
In 2002, when HKB was going very successful, a research was conducted by Ahsan
Rehman. At that time Al-Fatah and HKB retail stores were competing with each other.
Both of them were building strategies to dominate the other. The purpose of the
research was to differentiate between both the stores and to calculate the market share
of both the stores on the basis of the customer response.
Nauman and Suffian Asghar conducted a similar kind of research Their major focus was
on Pace Grocery section. They compared the Pace grocery section with both Al- Fatah
and HKB and in the end on the basis of research they decided that out of three which
one was most preferred by the consumers.
Uma Sekran wrote a book on Research Methods and Techniques. This book contains
methods that are quite useful for my research purpose. It has given the tools and
techniques that would help me during my research work. There were case studies that
were related to my research work. According to this book the research purpose should
be clearly defined and the steps in the research study should be followed. The first step
is to identify the problem, then write down the problem statement, data collection, data
analysis, evaluation of alternatives and then the research problem. The book also
contains a case study. According to this case study, the cradle of Indian handicrafts is
good example of how an organization can benefit through research because of solid
research they have many offices in different countries like Egypt, Italy and Taiwan, in
addition to full fledged working office in India with six staff members and a general
manager. Through research the India office supervises the artisans, places, production
orders, and ensures quality control and strict adherence to the specification of the
orders. It also attends to detail connected with shipment of goods deal with the local
5
customs and oversees the payments related to the shipments. Through qualitative
research they get many benefits which were best for their organization and its growth.
There are two basic kinds of health coverage. The health maintenance organization is
the best example of the prepaid group-practice type. This involves fixed monthly
payments directly to a group of doctors or clinic that is then responsible for all the health
needs coverage by the pain. The other type of coverage is the insurance type which
involves a company that collect premiums from subscribers, who can go to any clinic or
doctor they choose. The insurance company pays for the service covered by the policy.
In both cases there may be limit to the coverage of such items as hospitalization, drugs,
and office visits. The big drawback of HMO is restriction of the choice of physicians and
hospitals those affiliated with HMO. Generally, the total annual cost of HMO to the
consumer is lower than for group insurance plan. Once reason is that flat fee formula
discourages doctors from hospitalizations patients for longer than necessary Also, the
emphasis on preventative care produces fewer seriously ill patients.
All doctors agreed that one way to keep initial costs down was to concentrate one larger
employers group. This meant that a two-stage marketing effort would be required, first
to get employer to agreed to offer the HMO plan as a subsided benefits and then to
persuade the employees to switch from their present health care plan.
1. General attitudes and awareness with respect to health care and the concept of
prepaid plans; and specific attitudes and knowledge regarding existing health
plans.
6
2. Process by which present plan was selected; sources of information and
influence.
3. Satisfaction with present plan overall with respect to specific characteristics of
The plan and intention to change.
1. A telephonic contact was made with each household named in the sample to
determine the head of the household and obtain that person’s agreement to
participate. To minimize non response bias, at least five telephone call-backs
were made.
During the telephone call, arrangements were to deliver the questionnaires, and a pick-
up time was set.
The basic studies like exploratory, descriptive research, causal research are also
explained in the book in detail. Furthermore, suggestions are also given in this book for
the selection of appropriate method for a particular project. This book also highlights the
basis and techniques that should be used during the designing of a questionnaire.
These techniques were very important since in maintaining a response a good tool is
required.
Asad Ali conducted a research on the satisfaction level of the customers of HKB store.
In this research he compared the customers of Al- Fatah with the customers of HKB.
According to his research Al- Fatah customers were more satisfied as compared to HKB
7
customers. The basic reason was that the employees of Al- Fatah were more
knowledgeable and the store is more user friendly as compared to HKB.
Nasreen Khalid did a useful survey regarding the market share of different Retail stores
in Lahore. Her research was based on the preference level of customers of different
demographics and professional backgrounds. Her research findings showed that the
market share of Al- Fatah is the most, followed by HKB. The interesting point of the
result was that although Al- Fatah only has one branch, yet it is leading the market.
Business Monitor International published a report on April 16, 2009 about the current
food and drink industry of Pakistan. This report is very comprehensive and covers
different areas of the industry by having a macroeconomic overview of the current
scenario. It also gives details about the mass grocery retail business, its SWOT analysis
and the leading players in this business.
3. Research Methodology
HKB retail store is one of the best retail stores in Lahore. Still it is observed that some
people are not yet satisfied with HKB services. It is very important to evaluate these
dissatisfaction factors. It is very hard for three outlets to compete with so many
8
competitors. As compared to HKB, many retail stores like Pace, Decent Store are
increasing their branches. Hence the purpose is to evaluate the quality and
competitiveness of the grocery section of HKB. Research is Applied Research. The
research conducted will be both qualitative and quantitative in nature. Therefore, for the
purpose of research both a primary and secondary research will be conducted.
3.1 Specific
The basic emphasis of the research is on the quality of retail grocery section. The
quality would be measured on the basis of five quality dimensions responsiveness,
reliability, assurance, empathy and tangibles.
The data will be collected from both secondary and primary sources. The secondary
sources will be the available data from HKB annual reports. The primary sources will be
face to face interviews with people shopping at the grocery section of HKB and by
distributing questionnaires.
Target Population
9
The decision making regarding grocery items is normally done by the female category.
Hence, the target population will include all those people who will be purchasing from
the grocery section.
Sample Size
• HKB 1 (20)
• HKB 2 (20)
• HKB 3 (10)
• Total (50)
Sampling Procedure
The product nature would allow using non-probability sampling. The sampling will be
done on non- probability and convenient basis.
Descriptive statistics was the technique used in data analysis. These techniques were
helpful for the accurate findings. Descriptive statistics includes mean, median, mode
and range.
• Mean: x = ( Σ xi ) / n
• Median: (n+1)/2
• Mode: Number with most occurrences
• Range: Maximum value- Minimum value
Frequency tables will be used, along with pie charts and bar charts for better
understanding of results.
3.4 Limitations
11
3.4.1 Limitations for Secondary Data
• Biasness.
Research conducted in order to find the reasons of stagnant sales of HKB grocery
section gave useful results through primary and secondary data so that
recommendations should be given to overcome this problem.
Respondent differentiation means gender wise classification of the people who make
purchase at the HKB grocery section.
60%
50%
50% 44%
40%
30% Series1
20%
10% 6%
0%
Male Female Not
Mentioned
50 respondents were distributed the questionnaires. Out of those 50, 25 were male
respondents, 22 were female respondents and 3 respondents did not mention their genders. It
means that the respondents were almost equally differentiated on the basis of their gender.
13
30
mother
8
spouse
61
self
0 20 40 60 80
Most of the respondent surveyed about the household grocery said that they
themselves buy grocery for their household use i.e. 61% bought grocery themselves
and 8 % said that their spouse do the grocery for their home and 30% of the
respondents said that their Mother or Mother in Law did the shopping for their
household.
Purchasing regularity means the consistency with which the buyers come to the store
for their grocery shopping. This would tell about the repeat purchases done by the
customers of HKB grocery section and would help to solve the problem more
accurately.
14
Cumulative
Frequency Percent Valid Percent Percent
Total 35 100.0
The Table 4.1 shows that the respondents are asked about the frequency of purchasing
from HKB.
Customers have different perception about quality depending on various factors. Some
of these factors relating to the grocery store were presented to the customers in the
questionnaire for the quality measurement.
Convenience
Figure 4.3: Measurement
3%
of Quality
7%
Availability
25%
Environement
15
Employee
21% 26% Behaviour
Other
For the customers, quality is being measured differently. Figure 4.3 clearly shows that the
customer measurement of quality is different. The majority of customer believes that employee
behavior is most important factor for the measurement of quality. Similarly, Convenience and
Proper Functioning also have a greater effect on the customer’s perception.
The availability of brands means whether the desired products and different brands in
those product categories are present at the grocery section of HKB stores or not.
40.00 37.78
33.33
30.00
22.22
20.00
10.00
4.44
2.22
0.00
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Not sure
Series1 33.33 37.78 22.22 4.44 2.22
RATINGS
More than half of the respondents believe that the desired products and brands are available at
HKB. The respondents believe that the brand is available most of the time and they are satisfied
16
with the availability of the products and the desired brands but some were of the opinion that the
desired brands are sometime not available during the hour of need.
External environment means the availability and convenience of parking the vehicle outside
HKB store. The customers are not satisfied with the parking of HKB since they had to face a lot
of hazards regarding the car parking. 86% of the respondents were not satisfied with the parking
facilities offered by the store. This is a big issue that might affect the sales of HKB Store.
The internal environment includes all those factors inside the store and particularly in
the grocery section which also play an important part and affect the consumers in one
way or the other. The internal factors that were included in the questionnaire were
timely opening and closing of store, functioning of checkout counters, the internal
environment and waiting in the queue for billing process.
Figure 4.5: Timely Opening and Closing of Store Figure 4.6: Functioning of Checkout Counters
20%
26%
32%
Yes Yes
No No
54%
Don’t Know Don’t Know
20%
48%
17
Figures 4.5 shows that more than half of the customers are satisfied with the timely
opening and closing of the store and figure 4.6 shows that almost half of the
respondents are not satisfied with the functioning of the checkout counters.
Figure 4.7: Is Environment User Friendly Figure 4.8: Wait for Billing of Products
6%
26%
Figure 4.7 shows that half of the respondents are not satisfied with the internal
environment of the store and don’t feel comfortable enough while shopping and figure
4.8 shows that customers have to wait for too long in the queues for the billing of the
grocery products and this whole process consumes a lot of their time.
Advertisement and promotion plays a very vital role in the success or failure of a
product in today’s world. Any company needs to target its potential customers with
effective advertisements in order to attract them and make them buy the product
18
offered. If there are bi promotional tools used, the potential customers would never
know what the company has to offer them and they would never go out to buy it.
Figure 4.9:
60 52.2
50
40 32.2
10
0
Yes No response No
More than 50% of the respondents said that they have never seen any outdoor
advertisement from HKB and about 32% responded positively and said they have come
to buy from HKB after watching a certain advertisement.
Employee response means how the sales persons and other management employees
behave and facilitate them in purchasing the grocery items from the store. Employee
19
knowledge about the products and their overall attitude were measured in the
questionnaires which were distributed to the respondents.
2% 13%
45%
Figure 4.10 shows that the respondents are satisfied with the employee attitude. But figure 4.11
shows that majority of respondents believes that sales people does not have the required
knowledge about the products at HKB especially th.se who have been hired at the branch being
recently opened.
20
5. Conclusions and Recommendations
5.1 Conclusions:
• Parking is a big issue. The customer finds it difficult to park their vehicles.
• The employee behavior is satisfactory but their knowledge is not up to the mark
especially in the outlet that has recently been opened.
• Cash counter problem is also noted since the customer had to wait for a long
time for the billing of products.
• The customer feels quite pleasant when they enter the HKB Retail Store.
5.2 Recommendations:
Following are few recommendations to HKB for the solution of the concerned problem:
21
• The employees should have more product knowledge.
• HKB should give cuts, discounts on purchasing constantly its product like
membership discounts.
22
Bibliography
Electronic Sources
• Google.com
• Yahoo.com
• Datamonitor.com
• Magazines
• Akkar/Kumar/Day
23
Appendix 3.1
QUESTIONNAIRE
24
a) Yes b) No c) Don’t Know
Q: Do you think the attitude of the employees is friendly towards the customers?
Q: Does the sales people have required knowledge about the product?
Q: How much time you have to wait for the billing of products at the checkout counters?
25
Q: Have you ever seen HKB advertisements on either TV or outdoor media?
Yes No
a) 2 b) 3
Q: Do you find enough number of shopping trolleys/ shopping baskets in the store?
26