Turnover and Number of Companies in the Stationery Industry of Germany

Germany has a very well positioned stationery market with respect to other European countries. As per the research conducted by the Trade Association for Office Supply and Writing Materials, it has been observed that the stationery industry of Germany has a total turnover of around €14.8 billion each year. This implies that the spending of each individual of Germany on stationeries is more than €182 in a year. Almost €35.2 from the €182 is spent on materials of writing and drawing. These statistics have made Germany the second highest spender for stationeries among all the countries belonging to the European Union (malaysia.ahk 2016).

There are almost 2200 companies dealing with wholesale stationeries in the stationery industry of Germany. Half of these wholesale companies experience a net turnover of €500,000 or less. Wholesalers dealing with the selling of office supplies, papers, business to business intermediaries and writing instruments are also included in this 2200 companies (malaysia.ahk 2016). The wholesalers dealing with the selling of office supplies, papers, business to business intermediaries and writing instruments have opportunity to deliver directly to the customers as well as to the wholesalers. Due to the merging of certain companies and exiting of some companies from the market, the number of wholesalers are decreasing from the market (Isokane et al. 2017). The strategies that the wholesalers are adopting gradually are delivering to the commercial customers directly without the help of the retailers. This results in widening their scope of business (malaysia.ahk 2016).

The correlation coefficient (R) has been obtained as 0.73. This indicates that there is a very strong correlation between total sales and years. The total sales increases on an average as time approaches. The relationship between year and total sales is given by the following equation:

Sales = (6500 * Time) + 162000

It can be seen from the graph that the R² value has been obtained as 0.5348. Thus, the model developed can explain 53.48 percent of the variation in the total sales. Here, 2015 has been considered as 1, 2016 has been considered as 2 and so on. Thus, the predicted sales for the year 2018 is given by:

Predicted Sales for 2018 = (6500 * 4) + 162000 = €188,000

Thus, the predicted sales for the year 2018 is given by:

List of International Standards that are applicable to Duque’s activities are given below:

• ISO 618:1974
• UNE – EN 12858
• DIN EN 12858
• DIN 4999
• DIN EN 1010 – 3

• The monthly cost of repaying a mortgage of €200,000 for a period of 30 years at an interest rate of 10 percent per annum is €1755.14 

• The monthly cost of repaying a mortgage of €200,000 for a period of 30 years at an interest rate of 10 percent per annum and when the interest is applied to the loan amount every month is €1691.78. Here, instead of the rate of interest of 10 percent, Annual Percentage Rate (APR) has been considered to calculate the monthly repayment cost.

Donald has the belief that average value of the orders that his firm receives in a month is €240. A lot of orders are received by his firm every month. Thus, it is not possible to check each of the orders as there is a time constraint. Hence, to check the orders of the clients, a random sample of size 50 has been considered.

Sales Trends and Wholesalers in the German Stationery Industry

Let,  is the sample mean,  is the mean value that has been hypothesized,  is the standard deviation of the sample and n is the sample size. In this study,

Sample mean () = €230

Hypothesized mean () = €240

Standard deviation of the sample () = €43

Sample size (n) = 50

Degrees of freedom (n-1) = 49

Level of significance (α) = 0.05

To test his belief, the following null hypothesis (H₀) and the alternate hypothesis (H_A) has been defined:

The test statistic for this test can be given by the following formula: 

The null hypothesis will be rejected if the tabulated value of t statistic is less than the observed value of absolute t. The tabulated value of t for a two tailed test with a 0.05 level of significance is 2.0096. The observed value of the t-statistic has been found to be less than the tabulated value of the t-statistic. Thus, there has not been enough evidence to reject the null hypothesis. There has thus been enough evidence to support the belief of Donald. The mean value of the orders received by Donald’s firm is about €240.

(a) The survey questionnaire that has been developed in this study is quite short. There are no unnecessary questions in the questionnaire. Most of the questions are also closed ended. There is only one open ended question in the questionnaire which has been asking for the feedback of the customers. Thus, no improvements have to be made on the part of the questionnaire. The response rate has been less than 5 percent in the previous years. Thus, to increase the response rate, improvements have to be made in the methods of distribution of the questionnaires.

The questionnaires are sent to the customers in the form of emails. Before sending the questionnaires to the customers, an information mail can be sent to the customers stating that they will be emailed a survey form and are requested to fill it. The purpose of the research should be stated clearly to the customers so that they do not feel hesitant to answer the questions. It has to be kept in mind that time is valuable and thus, it should be informed prior to the respondents how much time will be required to fill in the questionnaires so that they can figure out accordingly when to fill the questionnaire. A little incentive or discount can also be allowed to the customers the next time they will visit to take the services of the company if the questionnaires are filled. The respondents who have not submitted the filled in questionnaire must be sent one or two reminders to fill up. If all these changes are adopted by the company, it is expected that the response rate of the questionnaires will increase.

Correlation between Total Sales and Years

(b) 20 complete questionnaires were returned in the year 2017. The responses of the 20 customers on different services such as customer support and service, quality of the products and services, sales staffs and price of the commodities. Descriptive statistic measures of the ratings given by the customers on each of these four different types of services have been evaluated.

It can be seen from the table of descriptive statistics given in table 7.1 that the average rating for customer service is 3.5 out of 4 which is quite high with a standard deviation of 0.76 which is low. This indicates that most of the customers are satisfied with the customer services provided by the company. Similarly, the average rating for quality of the products provided by the company is 3.15 out of 4 which is quite high with a standard deviation of 0.37 which is very low. This indicates that most of the customers are satisfied with the quality of the products provided by the company. Again, the average rating for sales staffs working for the company is 3.45 out of 4 which is quite high with a standard deviation of 0.83 which is very low. This indicates that most of the customers are satisfied with the sales staffs working for the company. Finally, the average rating for the price of the products introduced by the company is 1.95 out of 4 which is extremely low with a standard deviation of 0.51 which is also very low. This indicates that most of the customers are not satisfied with the price of the products introduced by the company.

Thus, the customer satisfaction for the product prices have been observed to be extremely less. This is matter of concern to the company. They have to review the prices introduced to the products so that the customers are satisfied with the prices also along with the other three factors. This will increase the overall customer satisfaction and will in turn help in the profitability of the firm as with the satisfaction of the existing customers, new customers will be recommended by them.

Table 7.1: Descriptive measures of Customer Satisfaction

	CUST_SERV	QUAL_P&S	SALES_STAFF	PRICE_VALUE
Mean	3.5	3.15	3.45	1.95
Standard Deviation	0.76	0.37	0.83	0.51

Donald in interested in expanding the business to other European Countries. For the expansion of the business, it is important to improve the facilities and thus a building which is highly suitable and available to be sold has to be bought. For that reason, capital is required. Donald is interested in putting some of his existing assets on mortgage and repay the loan. Two different mortgage schemes are available for 30-years repayment policy. One scheme implies 10 percent interest rate per annum and the other scheme implies the same interest rate applicable each month. It has been seen that the monthly repayment amount is less for the interest rate applicable monthly. Thus, the scheme involving the interest rate applicable monthly is beneficial for Donald and that scheme should be adopted. 

References

Isokane, M., Tadokoro, C., Sasaki, S. and Prakash, B., 2017. Influence of Ink Composition on Tribological Properties of Ballpoint Pen. Tribology Online, 12(5), pp.257-261.

Malaysia.ahk.de. (2018). MGCC Perspectives – A Chamber of Commerce magazine. [online] Available at: https://www.malaysia.ahk.de/fileadmin/ahk_malaysia/Perspectives/MGC047-Mar.Apr16_iPAD.pdf [Accessed 27 Apr. 2018].