Ideal Standard France (ISF) has been in operation for 75 years, the two primary manufactured goods are heating products and sanitary china products. ISF has accounted for over one-third of the total sales and approximately one-half of heating business in Europe. Heating products make up approximately 90% of ISF's sales.
Strengths, weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT)
American Standard invested $6 million at an ISF site in the form of new equipment and machinery, which expanded the capacity of Aulnay by 50%. This additional ISF capacity is considered a key strength to increase production and sales. One of ISF's strengths is that it has been able to compete on its brand recognition and product design.
A large weakness of ISF is the strong increase in COGS in the last six months (of 1974), if it continues at its present rate it could reach approximately $124,960 a 21% increase over the 1973 value.
This is detailed by the first chart show in appendix A.
ISF prior management could have reduced employment too deeply and weakened their manufacturing capability; this is illustrated by the first chart in appendix A, which shows that the increase in COGS followed the decrease in employment. ISF's liquidity ratios show a declining trend could be considered a financial weakness; this trend is detailed in the second chart of appendix A. Another IFS weakness is the decline inventory turnover ratio; shown in appendix B, shows a reduction in how fast ISF is converting inventory into accounts receivable (4.65 to 4.61), this shows a small decline.
ISF has an opportunity to expand markets in Europe for boiler type products because there appears not to be a trend toward warm air or forced air heating systems as in North America. There may be an opportunity to increase sales if the economic...