Husky

Strategy

The Success of husky is due to its core strategy aimed at maintaining its competitive advantage in differentiation. Husky has positioned itself in the market through differentiation in its quality and variety of products as well as the level of services. Being among the first movers in the molding machine industry, the company has created a long reputation of providing systems, which are 'known for their speed, ruggedness, resin utilization and durability'. Husky's systems provide processors with better quality, thinner wall products at a faster pace and also the sole supplier of integrated systems consisting of machines, molds, hot runners and robots. And finally, Husky provides 'factory solutions for the plastics industry' along with training, integrated production systems. Another unique product is its turnkey factory.

Success of Husky's strategy

Michael Porter's five forces analysis could be used to analyse the market and the environment in which Husky operated. Positioning of the firm in the right niche market, PET perform molding systems at the right time helped husky to become a dominant player in the market. The industry was determined to be competitive with a fair amount of rivalry based on barriers to exit, market growth, strategic costs and high fixed costs. (Exhibit 1). Husky's raw materials were obtained at mostly competitive prices, while some specialized materials were provided by only a few companies and it 'relied almost entirely on outside vendors for most of its components. This would suggest that Husky's suppliers might have had some significant bargaining power. Husky's main customers were processors, who had the option of choosing products from fifteen different suppliers. While molds can be considered to be a commodity, the medium sized machines, customized machines and the thin wall molds were Husky's specialty. Husky's customers have relatively low bargaining power. Substitutes are non-existent in this case as no technological process is available for replacing the injection molding for complicated plastic shapes, thus, Husky faced no threat at this point of time. Barriers to entry are somewhat high as the capital requirements were high, governments establish regulations with regards to environment protection, access to processors are limited, costs of switching products are high and there are already established and reputable companies with brand identity in the industry, such as Husky.

The success factors, which had allowed Husky to maintain its strategy and hold this competitive position, are numerous. Constant emphasis on the Research and Development even when the company was in dire straits in the thinwall machine segment made the transition of husky from a manufacturer of a fully integrated thinwall molds to a manufacturer of series of machines for products including PET performs, thinwall containers, and certain end-uses in the closure, automotive and technical markets. Being the innovative and pioneer in the field, as exemplified by its Advanced Manufacturing Centre, it produces the top of the line machines i.e.: faster machines with low resin wastage, fewer blemishes and thinner walls. As such, it has a brand image associated with high quality machines and services. In its distribution, Husky uses a knowledgeable sales force from various regional offices, consisting of former and current employees to seal sale deals with processors in over 70 countries. With 300 employees, it has established a presence and a market in more countries than any of its competitors, providing 60% of the World's performs. It now has Technical Centres locations to facilitate the training and support of its clients. And to ensure fast replacements, it also has an inventory of parts and pieces for all models of its equipment. Husky's investment in its employees and corporate culture foster a supportive, task driven, passionate and hard working labour force; its employees' performance and work attitude due to its core values, caused the company approximately $11.1m in cost savings in comparison to the industry average.

Husky

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