Dear Management team member,

Congratulations on your new appointment to the board of Cuppa Char. You have been appointed to consider the challenges facing the company in the years ahead and to develop a new strategy for us.

As you know, Cuppa Char is currently a chain of cafes serving specialised and high quality teas, with three locations in Leicester. Though we remain a small company, our ambitions are large.

We hope that you will develop a strategy document mapping out Cuppa Char’s direction for the next five years. Your strategy MUST address each of the following areas:

• Who is our target consumer?
• How can we grow our customer base by improving or transforming the customer experience?
• To what extent should we integrate sustainability into our business model?
• Should we expand our business and, if so, how?
• What can we offer in terms of our business model that would differentiate us from our competition?
• What should our specific targets and goals be? And how shall we know if we’re achieving them?

In addition, we would like a section of your report to deal with:

• How best should we respond to the government’s shut-down of all cafes in the wake of the outbreak of Covid-19 in spring 2020.

Cuppa Char is proud of our history in supplying specialty tea to its consumers and is keen to maintain this side of the business. The steady collapse of various regional café outlets is of particular concern for the board. As the new management team, we expect you to identify lessons that we can learn from these closures and suggest ways in which the company can avoid similar issues.

Of equal concern to the board however, is the issue of sustainability and how CC might capture value from social and environmental opportunities. For example, the major café chain Starbucks claims it is now known around the world as an ethical company. Perhaps this is an issue we should consider in more detail.

We look forward to reading your strategy document.

Yours sincerely,

Sally Ford

Chairperson, Cuppa Char

May 2020