Question

MANUTAN INTERNATIONAL MAIL ORDER EUROPEAN SUCCESS

Manutan International S.A. is a specialist mail-order business providing industrial and offi ce equipment and supplies to the business-to-business, collective, and public sectors. Based in France, Manutan has built up a pan-European network of 24 subsidiaries in 20 countries, from Portugal to Russia and from Sweden to Italy. Manutan also has a strong online presence with 18 e-commerce websites and a workforce of around 1,500 staff . Manutan’s more than 200 catalogues feature over 200,000 items and serve more than 600,000 customers throughout Europe. While mail-order houses had been in operation in France for many years, they have tended to focus primarily on the consumer market. In 1966, however, André Guichard, joined by son Jean-Pierre, set up a company dedicated to providing mail-order services to the business sector. Th e company’s major innovation was in its choice of goods, that of industrial equipment, especially materials handling equipment. Manutan quickly recognized the potential of entering other European markets. Th e company’s fi rst choice was the United Kingdom, where, as in France in the 1960s, the market for mail-order materials handling, lift ing, and storage equipment was more or less non-existent. Manutan’s success in the United Kingdom led it to quickly move into a large number of new foreign markets aft er 1974. Manutan focused on its mail-order operations until the early 2000s. In 2001, however, the company expanded and established a presence on the Internet, launching its fi rst e-commerce-enabled website. Th at site later provided the platform for the rollout of 18 websites targeting each of the company’s markets. By 2005, the company had posted more than €1 million in sales through its e-commerce sites. During the recent global fi nancial crisis, Manutan made a strategic decision not to cut its marketing and commercial investments. On the contrary, Manutan maintained its promotional expenditure, and refocused part of its staff on direct selling, thereby increasing the multi-channel contact with their customers. Th is strategic insight seems to have paid off : the company recorded revenues of €563 million during the 2010 fi nancial year, an increase of 15.2% over the previous year.

3. Suppose the customer satisfaction survey included a question on the overall quality of Manutan measured on a scale from 0 to 10 where higher numbers indicate greater quality. Company managers monitor the fi gures from year to year to help determine whether Manutan is improving customers’ perceptions of its quality. Suppose random samples of the responses from 2011 customers and 2012 customers are taken and analysed on this question, and the following Minitab analysis of the data results. Help managers interpret this analysis so that comparisons can be made between 2011 and 2012. Discuss the samples, the statistics, and the conclusions.

	A	B	C	D	E	F	G
1	Two-sample T for 2011 vs 2012
2			N	MEAN	St DEV	SE MEAN
3		2011	75	6,466	0,352	0,041
4		2012	93	6,604	0,398	0,041
5
6	Difference = mu (2011) – mu (2012)
7	Estimate for difference: –0.1376
8	95% CI for difference: (–0.2535, –0.0217)
9	T-Test of differenc = 0 (vs no= ):
10	T-Value= –2.34 P-Value =0.020 DF = 166
11	Both use Pooled StDev = 0.3782

Answer 1