Neptune Gourmet Seafood Case Study

Neptune's Gourmet Seafood is North America's third leading seafood producer. It markets and sells frozen and processed fish products, supplier of choice to restaurants and cruise lines, and owns a seafood market in Ft. Lauderdale.

Neptune has invested heavily in six new freezer trawlers with the latest technology that allowed only mature fish to be caught and superfreezing of the fish within four hours of capture. As a result of the new and existing vessels, the inventory was twice the normal limit and three times what it was a year ago. In addition, the new laws that had reduced their access to fishing close to the coast had force them to go further out to sea.

As a result of increased inventory, Rita Sanchez discussed with Jim Hargrove, Director of Marketing, that Neptune should drop its prices by 40% to 50% and offer a low priced seafood brand. After not making much headway with Hargrove, she put the issue on the Marketing and Operations Council Meeting (MOC). If this proposal is not accepted at lease it forces the inventory issue and a re-evaluation of the organization's strategy to be discussed by top management.

Hargrove believed Neptune premium brand, Neptune Gold line, will be affected if the organization launches Neptune Silver. Customers will wonder if the quality has decreased and if they have been overpaying for the premium brand. In addition, they could lose their accreditation and cause a price war within the industry.

The expert analyses and recommendations gave different opinions. It made you think about the "what ifs." I think that each expert's analysis was based on the previous experiences, but none of the analyst was from the fishing industry.

I would like to have seen forecasting data for one year, five years, etc to determine future strategy. In addition, financial data after selling