5N1390: The Workshop of Swift Furniture Co., Though Small, was doing a Thriving Business: Personal Effectiveness Assignment, OU,

Task 1 (Case Study):

The workshop of Swift Furniture Co., though small, was doing a thriving business, and had a solid backlog of orders that ensured continuous production for some time. Profits, however, had not kept pace with production and rising costs, (e.g. machines, timber, wages and overheads) had contributed to this decline.

Mr. Swift was naturally concerned about this situation and had thought about raising the prices of many of his products, but this was not really feasible because the prices of most items had already been increased over the last 6 months. He thought of various alternatives, among which was opening an outlet to retail his own products.

The Swift Furniture Company was established by John’s father who had started a small wood-working business in his garage 10 years ago. John joined the business 5 years later, by which time the workshop had been moved to a warehouse on the outskirts of Dublin.

At that time, much of the space was used for the storage of materials and finished goods, but over the next 5 years, more and more of the storage area had been taken over for equipment and workspace and in time an additional store had been constructed. The payroll had grown to 9 craftsmen, supervised by a craftsman foreman. John and his wife did the purchasing, accounting, and sales work.

The workshop had begun on a special order custom basis selling principally to local residents and tourists. Over the years, a standard line of Irish Dressers had been developed, which now accounted for 78% of sales but on which only slim profits were made.