Reference: Supervisor

Mr.Iftikhar Gourmet Joher town G I branch

Phone: 5304318

Who are we?

“Gourmet Bakers and Sweets” is the largest food retail chain of Pakistan. It
is based in Lahore, the second largest city of Pakistan known for its
traditional foods and passion for eating. With our 2 processing units and 28
sales outlets we outreach to a huge population for their food needs.
The company has shown an explosive annual growth of more than 25 % in
its business since 1987, when Mr. Muhammad Nawaz Chatha started this
unique business with only one sale outlet. With his commitment and
strenuous effort to provide the consumers with best quality food products in
a convenient and unmatched displaying manner, Gourmet has become a
success story of business growth in Pakistan. At moment we have more than
1700 employees working in the organization.

What we do?

We produce and sell all kinds of breads, buns, rusks, cookies, biscuits, cakes,
pastries, pizzas, patties, meat rolls, vegetable rolls, sandwiches, hotdogs,
nimko and doughnuts etc. In sweets, (traditional milk based Indian sweet
products) we deal in all sorts of traditional products like burfi, chum chum,
gulab jaman, rassgulla, patisa, jalebee, amrati, ladoo and rass malai etc. We
dedicate our shelves for retail of products like juices, soft drinks, pickles,
jams and jellies, dairy products, ice creams and desserts, baby formulas,
canned vegetables and fruits, drinking water and cereal products from the
world leading brands.

What we look forward to?

In pursuit of our continuing efforts to provide our consumers with maximum

range of quality products we are:
 1. Doing backward integration for the provision of best quality raw
materials for our products. In this regard setting up a self-milk
collection system and a dairy plant for the production of raw cheese
and khoya (the two main raw materials of all sweet products) is our
new move.

2. Constructing a start-of-the-art bakery plant, where the facility and

systems are being set up to meet all the requirements of food safety
system ‘HACCP”.

3. Extending our retail outlets in Lahore and other cities of Pakistan to

outreach the awaiting consumers all over the country.

4. Providing best services as third party retailer to sell innovative food

products to be sold out at our outlets.

Bakers and sweets

With a network of 2 Production Units & 28

sales outlets we spread out our presence in
every part of Lahore, the second largest city
of Pakistan. Consumer satisfaction in product
quality and service is the zeal of our business

Restaurant chain

In continuance of our business tradition of providing quality foods and

unmatchable service for the health and happiness of whole family, Gourmet
has set up a family restaurant chain.

Gourmet Family Restaurant, right in the middle of the city is our first
endeavor in this line. The ever-swarming situation around the clock is an
indication of unwavering trust of consumers in Gourmet.

Gourmet dairies

Gourmet Dairies is
another step forward
to provide its consumer with wholesome milk and milk
products. This is also a sort of backward integration for the
provision of dairy raw materials for bakery and sweets products
 of Gourmet. A self milk-collection system that has started to provide fresh
and pure milk to Gourmet’s sweets processing unit is a unique example in
this reference.

Outlet’s network

With a network of 25 sales outlets we spread out our presence in every part
of Lahore, the second largest city of Pakistan. Consumer satisfaction in
product quality and service is the zeal of our business.

Interview with Mr. Iftikhar (Supervisor of the Gourmet branch)

Place: gourmet bakers and sweets Joher town Lahore
Time: 12:30 p.m.

1. In which department you operate?

I am working in sales department of Gourmet Bakers and sweets

2. What is your job description here?

I am working as a supervisor in the Gourmet bakers

3. How much time have you worked here?

I have worked for about 3 years in this company

4. Does the company give you family benefits?

No, we don’t get family benefits here. Its all about how much you work you
are paid for that only but after working 5 years in the company they will
give us some discounts in some products.

5. Would you refer your friend to work here?

I m not taking any responsibility of how much satisfied I am he’ll be the
same but yes, it’s a good experience to work here.

6. Have you ever observed or experienced any discrimination at the

workplace?
No, there’s no discrimination on any basis in the workplace

7. How many supervisors work here?

There are two supervisors in the morning and two in the evening
8. What is the timing of your work?
Its 10 hour job and I work here in the evening.

9. Are you satisfied with your job?

Yes Alhumdulillah I am satisfied from my job.

10. What’s the relationship of your staff with the customers?

We take care of our customers on every cost and our we keep trying
fulfilling their needs on time ,giving them services on time and selling them
high quality products.

11. How do you deal with the customers?

We are very much trained about customer services and all the staff is
responsible for not returning any of our customers dissatisfied.

12. What do you do if a customer returns the good back?

If there’s not any fault in the product then we don’t accept the returned
good.

13. What if you are confronted with an aggressive customer?

We have a complaint manager for this purpose and all the complaints are
handled and processed by the complaint manager

14. What if any customers are touching your things that they shouldn’t
touch?
We ignore at the first attempt but we warn if the customer repeats the action
and there’s a danger of breaking of goods.

15. Do you give any post sales service to your customer?

Yes if the good that the customer have bought is having any defect than we
do consider it.

16. Do you sell quality products?

Yes we sell quality products and there’s no compromise in the quality of
products we sell. The major emphasis of our company is to sell quality not
quantity.

17. What advertising plans have been adopted by the company?

We have or own site www.gourmetbaker.com.pk for the advertisement of
products and company, we have introduced our Gourmet restaurant by
giving pamphlets to the customers, we haven’t advertised our products on
media, and our branches throughout Lahore is itself an advertisement of the
company.
18. In which major cities you have branches?
We only operate in Lahore

Branch Address Contact #

+92 42
Johar Town 40-B Johar Town
5176914
+92 42
12G Joher Town 12-G Johar Town
5304318
+92 42
Wapda Town 14 –F, PIA Society Near Wapda Town.
5181615
+92 42
Faisal Town 11-D Faisal Town
5164574
Link Road +92 42
89-K Link Road Model Town
Model Town 5851812
+92 42
Model Town 51/52 A Model Town
5866073
+92 42
Muslim Town 448-A Ayubia Market New Muslim Town
5866741
+92 42
Z-Block 310 Z LCCHS Defence
5731250
+92 42
H-Block 162 H, DHA
5898378
+92 42
K-Block DHA Lahore
5740747
4/1, 4/2 Abid Majeed Road Girja Chowk +92 42
Cantt
LHRCantt 6671722
H No. 1425-16 Ahata Kishori Lal Sadar +92 42
Saddar
Bazar 6663990
Shalimar Link +92 42
106, Shalimar Link Road
Road 6845866
Shop # 10 Lahore Tower Barket Market +92 42
Barkat Market
Garden Town 5889139
+92 42
18-G Iqbal Town 18- G Gulshan Block Iqbal Town
5418612
+92 42
Iqbal Town 654 Omer Block Iqbal Town
5415654
+92 42
Samanabad 476-N Main Road Samanabad
7560112
+92 42
Zahoor Elahi 25- A Block B Gulberg II
5871948
Ravi Road 103,Ravi Road +92 42
 7700545
+92 42
Davis Road 14- A, Davis Road
6309348
+92 42
Shadman 42/6, 42/7 Shadman Market
7560112
Ghari Shahu Railway plaza Allama Iqbal +92 42
Railway Plaza
Rd 6314656
+92 42
Rustam Park Omer Market Rustum Park Gulshan Ravi
7460668
+92 42
Hussain Chok 3A,C III Gulberg III Lahore
5753146
+92 42
Gulshan Ravi 162-A Gulshan Ravi
7462933

19. What’s your relationship with the suppliers?

We have good relationship with our supplier’s .They have never been late in
delivering the supplies, our upper management is very efficient and works
hard to solve these problems we have loyal suppliers .suppliers have never
disappointed us.

20. How you maintain your inventory?

We have full knowledge of after how much time we have to inform
management about our inventory gourmet products are freshly made and
then we have a good system of inventory check for the other goods.

21. How much profit your company earns in each month?

We are not familiar with the profits but the company earns good profit that’s
why they have decided to make chains in Lahore and they are also earning
excellent profit.

22. Who you think your competitors in this area?

Our company has few competitors Nirala, cakes & bakes etc but in this area
we have Good luck bakery is our direct competitor.

23. What’s your sale in the Eid season?

We have a large amount of customers in Eid days and large profits are
earned during the other festivals too.

24. Which product of your company is sold mostly in the festivals?

Our sweets (mithae) and cakes are sold mostly and sweets mostly as it’s a
traditional gift.
25. What do you offer for the children?
We offer cakes of different cartoon characters and we also prepare cakes
which the picture of the birthday girl /boy on the top of the cake.

26. What do you feel is your parking fulfills the requirement of the
customers?
No, we face problems when there’s high traffic, or large customers and
mostly in eid days.

27. Do you give concessions or discounts to customers?

No we don’t give discounts to the customers; prices are fixed for all
customers.

28. Do you give discounts to your staff?

Yes, we give discounts to our staff, there’s a card of 15% and 25% according
to the post and hierarchy of jobs and the persons who own that card from the
company have discounts on all good sold at Gourmet.

29. Do you allow your customers to borrow goods from you?

No, we ask for the immediate cash payments and we don’t give them goods
on credit.

30. How many sales person are working in your this branch?
There are about 15-16 persons working as sales persons in this branch.
Do you give training to them?
Yes, we have a training program for them, our 12 sales persons are fully
trained and the other 3 / 4 sales persons are kept for training / probation.

31. What if the customer complains about the product?

If there’s a serious complain then we send the product to the head office and
if the complain is not serious then we take the defected product from the
customers and change it with the new product from the store at the spot.

32. Any new products you offered?

Yes the company believes on developing new products of Gourmet, we have
just introduced our gourmet milk and gourmet ice cream.

33. So what was the response of the customers?

The gourmet ice cream gave very good response but the customers were
complaining about the milk .they were saying the milk is not of good quality
and it smells when the packet is opened .but now this complain is also
removed by the company. It’s also giving positive response.
34. What if the customers are frequently complaining about a sales person?
Then we fire him with the investigation of his performance. We are trained
for the customer services; even if there’s a fault of the customer we negate
the sales person in front of the customer.

35. Who is on the upper post from you?

It’s the Zonal manager of each branch.

36. What’s the turnover rate of your sales persons?

It’s 5% in a year. The turnover rate is very low in the company, all the
employees are highly satisfies with their jobs.

37. How is the environment of the shop?

The environment is very friendly .We enjoy working here

38. How is the relationship between the sales persons?

They are very helpful to each other; we are never confronted with any
conflict between the employees.

39. What do you do when there’s a large no. of customers in shop?

Then we distribute our sales person around the two sides and they are trained
not to suffer from being committed by fraud or mistake.

40. How do you greet your customers?

We greet them by saying Assalam alaikum sir/miss and what can we do for
you?

41. Do you have any feedback system so that you can improve your
systems?
Yes we have a segment of customer care in which the customers can give
feedback about the services or products .it can also be done through our
complaint manager.

42. Any other services you provide on internet/website?

Yes we have a segment of career support in which we have given the job
description of the employees we need for the company .and the interested
persons can contact us on the site .i.e. send your application with one
page CV on following address career@gourmetbaker.com.pk

44. Do your company does market search for R&D?

Yes, Our Company survey the new products required by the customers and
the new products the customers need. It also deals with the change in the
products or enhancement in the existing products.
45. Are you completely satisfied with the job?
Yes, I am completely satisfied with my job.

46. Compared to a year ago how would you describe your current job
satisfaction level?
I would be much more satisfied with my job.
 Analysis and recommendations

The analysis of the data provided by the supervisor shows that the Gourmet
bakers and sweets are striving to get a competitive advantage against its
customers but there are some problems too on which the company should
concentrate because they serve many other factors respectively

1. First of all the company should concentrate on offering incentives and

benefits to its old employees who are serving the company for more
than one year. they should be given family benefits and compensation
.by doing this the company could reduce its turn over rate. Because
when the employees are satisfied they can serve the customers more
efficiently and they are also committed to the job and company.

2. And secondly they should reduce the employee work hours.10 hrs job
is a long period and the employee gets bored and loose interest in the
sales .Therefore it should be 8 hrs .

3. The company haven’t advertised themselves through media; they

should have adopted some other source of advertisement to cater the
market. Well they are well known in the market but they should use
TV media for their advertisement, they could also advertise
themselves on the cable in the areas in which they are having their
chains.

4. The name of the company is easy to pronounce for those people who
know that they have to keep the ‘T” silent in the logo of Gourmet but
some people pronounce it with “T” and then the pronunciation of the
name of the company becomes very difficult.

5. The Gourmet bakers have their branches only in Lahore which is the
draw back of their marketing strategies. The company should also
open its outlets in other major cities. And spend capital on advertising
the company in those cities.

6. The employees of the company should be aware of the marketing

plans of the company; they should know that how much profit the
company is earning and what place they owe in the market.
7. The company has no system of motivating its employees. So that, they
could work with more interest.

8. The company is not planning for the loyalty of its customers. They
should give discounts to its regular customers. in this way the
customers sincerity with the company will grow.

9. The Parking area of the Gourmet bakers should be enhanced if their

customers face problems in parking .then the customer would prefer
to go on some other store to find convenience rather than buying for
the Gourmet.

10. The company should increase the quality of the new products the
company has offered (milk and ice-cream) and they should also
concentrate on the advertisement of the new product seriously.

11. The company should take feedback from the customers by personally
surveying home to home and asking questions about the products and
improvement they should do .they should concentrate on the
requirement of the customers.

12. As the people are weight and diet conscious today so the Gourmet
bakers should introduce sugar free sweets and cakes for those people
this will help in their promotion and it will give an impact that the
company is customer conscious. And it will also be a competitive
advantage for the company.

13. They should be concentrating on the quality of their products so that

the customers wouldn’t be returning the goods back and thus the
image of the company wouldn’t be lost in the eyes of the customers.

14. The company should communicate its goals to its employees.

University of management and
technology

Principles of Marketing

Submitted to: Mr. Waseem Alam