Criteria And Justification Of An Assessment Answer

Key Topics

• Introduction
• Criteria and justification of the selected benchmarks
• Benchmark measures and interpretation
• Adequate supply of land
• Right retail zones
• Small supermarkets in the activity centres
• Rezoning process
• Limit the third party rights for the development of application process
• Impact on competition
• Infrastructure Charges or contribution
• Recommendations for action stemming from benchmarking data

Select an organisation and undertake a benchmarking exercise to conclude as to the positioning of the organisation against its competitors in its industry.

Introduction

ALDI is one of the leading grocery store with its headquarter in Germany. It is one of the low price grocery stores operating in different areas of Australia, U.S., Denmark and many other countries. The company has more than 2500 stores in Germany and there are 35 regional branches of ALDI. It offers higher quality products at a cheaper price. The company serves more than 32 million customers every month with more than 1500 stores operating in 34 countries. Customers can purchase more than 1400 variety of products such as grocery and household items at a cheaper and affordable rate. Coles, Woolworths are considered to be the steep competitors of the organisation and the three companies are contributing in the development of their brand equity with the passage of time (LeBaron & Lister, 2015). This report will highlight the selection and justification of appropriate benchmark of ALDI. It will also discuss the benchmark measures and highlight different recommendations that rae considered to be important for the benchmarking process. 

Criteria and justification of the selected benchmarks

ALDI’s initial investment in Australia has helped the company to open more than 233 stores in the eastern seaboard and the company has invested more than $2 billion in the entire economy of Australia. The vast network of ALDI stores are altering the grocery landscape and thus trying to bring increased competition by lowering the price of grocery items for the people of Australia and thus creating new employment opportunities for them.ALDI requires a site that can help to accommodate an area of 1500 square metres and more than 80 car parking spaces. The store must offer a wide range of opportunity and there must be more than 1000 high quality private brand product that will help the customers to carry out the shopping activities. Previously, the customers used only a small number of deliveries with limited trading facilities and thus they have low impact on the local amenity.There are a large number of impediments and this has reduced the growth and the expansion opportunities of ALDI. It is the responsibility of ALDI to identify the shortage of zoned land that was considered to be the primary brake on the growth of the country. An effective and public response policy will help in addressing the situation and thus it will also help to remove the anti-competitive features of the organisation that was needed for the facilitation of a competitive environment. This played an important role for the non-incumbent retailers of ALDI.Limited incentives for provided for the net community benefit and thus it has helped in addressing the objections of the third party who are involved in supplying the relevant materials to ALDI. The fundamental and vexatious objectives and appeals of the third party was considered to be a major benchmark of ALDI (Serdarasan, 2013). 

Benchmark measures and interpretation

Adequate supply of land

There must be adequate supply of land in accordance with the location. The unavailability of sites in accordance with the particular location of the organisation is considered to be the most significant barrier for the ALDI stores in Australia. The most important issue that was faced by the ALDI stores was the unavailability of proper zoned or sized land. This lack of zoned or sized land helps in translating the significant advantage to the operation of the supermarket and thus it will help in the recognition process. Moreover, it will also address the different issues that are related to adequate supply of land. The planning authorities are trying to develop such type of activity centres that are considered to be future proof for the other activity centres of the organisation. The senior officials of ALDI must rethink on this process and thus they careful steps to cater the predictable growth of the organisation. There must be fragmentation of the targeted strategic planning and it is the responsibility of the local authorities to take them into consideration and thus help in the growth of activity centres. 

Right retail zones

The planning processes that are taken for the development of different ALDI stores helped in establishing or rationalizing the uniform zones in different locations. There are no such absolute zones that must be established and this has allowed the use of land in the right direction. The retail zones are established for the use of retail areas and supermarkets and thus ALDI can use them and thus obtain approval for development or construction of building in these locations. There is no such permit that is to be required in this particular zone and thus it is necessary to adopt appropriate design for building the store in the right way. These zones will help in establishing greater certainty for the development of supermarket and thus ALDI will receive positive response in such case (Fox & Vorley, 2004).

Small supermarkets in the activity centres

ALDI tries to adopt the concept of small format and thus introduced state or territory planning that is considered to be appropriate for the development of the organisation. This will help in providing further opportunities and thus lead to the expansion of non- incumbent zones that would help to compete with the other retailers who are involved in this particular field. The company must try to operate in limited trading hours and thus reduce the movement of trucks that were used qualitatively in different lines of the supermarket. 

Rezoning process

This is considered different in relation to the development process and there must be different approaches in appealing to the planning systems. A particular planning authority is responsible in the rezoning area and there must be no such statutory timeframes in the organisation. ALDI has approached the Victorian government and thus tried to seek assistance from them. There were six important sites that was identified by the government and this has helped in lodging the complaints to the Planning Minister and thus it has helped in assuming proper changes to the authority members. Victoria has gained economic benefits and this exceeded more than $60. The Advisory Committee was also structured and thus there were certain processes that have enabled ALDI to pursue the appropriate sites that was available for different council sites. The process did not help in solving the different problems of ALDI and thus there was chronic problem faced by ALDI in the particular strategic locations (van der Kloet, 2011). 

Limit the third party rights for the development of application process

It is necessary to minimise the opportunities for the different non-bonafide involvement of the third party organisation and thus take an active role in the development of different types of application and rezoning requests for ALDI. The local authority must take the initiative to compromise the political issues and thus help in the removal of uncertainty from the organisation that is considered to be vital in the planning process. On the other hand, it is also necessary to take the approach of constructive planning and thus this must be in accordance with the other forms of planning that are taken by the supermarkets of different countries. The status quo position in Australia will also help ALDI to compete in the other fields of business and to lodge the different forms of objections that are necessary to seek legal appeal for taking important decisions of ALDI. Although this process is considered to be inappropriate but it lays significant impact on the growth and development of ALDI in the long run (Burt et al., 2008). 

Impact on competition

Aldi has been concerned on the restrictions so that it becomes easier to access the appropriate zones and the located land in the planning framework. This land creates artificial scarcity and thus retail development is necessary across different regions in Australia. This is because of the failure to set the appropriate amount of land for proper retail use when carrying out different processes that play a vital role in the planning process. It is also necessary that these planning activities must be carried out in accordance with the development and planning framework and thus there might be unworkable restrictions on the development of retail industry either in terms of operation or other areas of work that plays an important role in the operational area of work.
The planning process also negatively affects the level of retail competition where it lays significant impact and thus helps in the development of better approval considerations or enable the retailers to hinder the process of development in the organisation. There are certain constraints on the development of retail floor of the organisation and this are faced by ALDI for retail development. There must be appropriate setting policy that is necessary for the development of new stores of ALDI and this must be facilitated by the planning policy of the organisation. The Government of Australia los needs to take into consideration the demand for retail floor space and give preference to the entire population who preferred to buy the products from the organisation. The trading experiences of ALDI highlight the existing undersupply of products because the demand floors continue to increase with the passage of time. It is necessary to be concerned and aware of the different reforms that are to be taken by ALDI and thus this help in removing the shortages in the retail space of the organisation. ALDI has estimated that there are more than 135 supermarkets that are currently in existence and thus they are trying to be operational and thus help in the development of the organisation. 

Infrastructure Charges or contribution

ALDI acknowledges that there must be retailers and developers who contribute to the process of infrastructure and this helps in undertaking new development process also in the construction of new outlets. ALDI is also concerned about the escalating changes that are considered to be of high nature and thus lack of consistency in the organisation must be levied across different regions. The nature of charges by ALDI is considered to be of different nature and the lack of certainty in the organisation results in the development of small scale and retail development and this depicts how the developmental process are calculated and thus this are to be considered viable for the organisation. It is also difficult to obtain the developmental finances of the organisation and ALDI must try to take a fair route that is necessary for the company to be successful in the long run (O'Sullivan, 2007). 

Recommendations for action stemming from benchmarking data

It is necessary to have a proper planning policy in Australia for ensuring adequate supply of land to set up ALDI stores in different locations of Australia. The planning authorities must understand that there is adequate supply of land in different strategic locations. This is to be considered not only in the main case but it must also be manifested in other leading metropolitan areas of Australia. The long term objective will help in expanding the supply of land and thus it will be beneficial to carry out the planning activities in the organisation. On the other hand the short term objective will allow flexibility in the organisation and in the planning system so that it will permit strong recognition and thus help in addressing the issues related to supply of land in the organisation. There must be sequential test in different locations where edge-of-centre or out-of-centre is considered to be the vital objective of the particular organisation. This approach will help ALDI in the rezoning process and thus the outcome is considered to be uncertain in those locations. Moreover, the work must be undertaken in such a way so that it becomes easier to take important decisions and thus there will be prohibition of different types of development activities that do not deal with the fundamental issue of ensuring adequate supply of land and thus help in catering to the future growth of the organisation.
It can be said that business zones must be developed and this will help in proper provision and to utilise in the land in the right way for the establishment of supermarket. It is aloes vital to ensure that the zones are set up in the appropriate locations and there will be different types of activity centre in the future that will act as an incentive for the growth and development of ALDI. In order to check that there is proper application of the correct zone it is necessary to identify the objectives of this particular area and the Government must try to facilitate appropriate policy or statutory changes that are considered to be viable for the business organisation. 
The distinctive characteristics of ALDI is considered to be acknowledged and understood in the best way and thus this must be assessed by the authorities of the supermarket. There are smaller formats of the supermarkets and there must be permitted use of right in such organisations. A permit is also necessary for building and development approvals and this will help in controlling the design and the different amnesties of the organisation. Moreover, it will also provide greater certainty and the retailers of ALDI can locate the existing activity centres that is considered efficient for the business activity. 
There were different options that have helped in implementing and improving the rezoning process of ALDI. The different rezoning processes could not be amended in the right way and there were different statutory frameworks and appeal by the local planning authority for different kinds of applications. This is considered to be an effective tool for ALDI and it helped in removing the current barriers and increases the level of certainty in the organisation. The committees that were established has helped to access the rezoning request and this constituted the planning experts, local government and representatives who assessed the rezoning request for the state and the local planning activities. This process will help in rezoning the different kind of requests and thus this is to be considered in terms of merits. The decisions and the aims also helped in reflecting the different issues of the organisation. There is lack of consistency between the planning authorities and the different issues on planning decisions were made and thus a creation of statutory environment has encouraged the formation of ALDI in Australia. In terms of investment or other related activities there was opportunity for better job creation and this has enhanced economic investments in the long run. However, all these issues were considered to be fundamental for the growth and development of ALDI in Australia. There was also a need to refocus on the different relevant matters and assess the development application that is considered for the initiation and the betterment of this industry. 
ALDI must also adopt the objector pay model and this model is preferred by those parties who want a certain developmental object in rezoning the different forms of request and pay the desired fee for it. This will lay discouraging impact on the retailers who are involved in the process of distributions and thus avoid baseless and vexatious objections. It is also necessary to monitor the objections from the retail players so that it becomes easier to ensure anti-competitive actions and achieve the desired commercial objectives. This will help the planning authorities to identify the different commercial activities and thus develop appropriate guidelines for it. It has been found that the developmental actions that are taken by ALDI will help in removing the unfair third party objectives and thus provide detailed information of it so that it becomes easier for the Commission to take these measures in a correct way. 
In addition to the undersupply in the floor space, it is necessary to develop appropriate planning framework that poses restrictions in relation to the particular location of the organisation and thus help in facilitation of the operational area. There must be desired policy push for all organisations to centralise that there will be future development of the organisation and thus lead to major retail development of ALDI. The practical effect of the policy is to increase the limit of land that is necessary for retail development. For example, in many cases, it is seen that the customers generally prefer to visit the supermarket and the other retail stores to carry out their everyday transactions that are considered to be convenient because of competitive price of ALDI. 
There are certain challenges that are faced by the organisation in the development of infrastructure in the retail industry. The charges of this development process are expected to increase with the passage of time and the increase in this magnitude must be considered to be on an average scale. The increase in the level of infrastructure development has led to the development of different kinds of projects of the organisation. In certain cases, it has been found that ALDI is trying to become a leader in the supermarket industry. There are similar development projects from Woolworths, another competitor of ALDI and thus it is necessary to take the important steps because both the organisations are in the hands of the same government and it is necessary to make significant contributions accordingly. 

Conclusion

Therefore, it can be said that increasing competition in the retail sector of Australia is considered to be critical and ALDI must try to explore the different recommendations. There must be appropriate and better application of the rezone areas and this will help to identify the areas with correct demand and competitive retailing. ALDI must try to bear the considerable cost of the proposed development and the considerable cost for the development and improvement in the long run. There must be limited connections built in this process of development that will help the organisation both in terms of infrastructure development as well as better cost in the organisation. The organisation must provide adequate information to the authorities concerned and this will help in granting the development of initial cost and the information requirements of the organisation. Thus, it is the responsibility of the government of Australia to facilitate the appropriate statutory change in the organisation and thus establish a viable business. 

Reference

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