Chronodrive is a company which mainly deal food and hygiene products. It aims at supplying necessary products for families with children.
The special feature of the company is that they use the internet to sell its products. Effectively 98% of the orders are made by its website, the rest are made directly at the warehouse through terminals where the choice is more restricted. The Chronodrive concept was originally thought of by two men, Ludovic DUPREZ and Martin TOULEMONDE. Although it was thought of in the year 2000 this concept only saw its first shop opening in 2004 in Marcq en Baroeul, a suburban city near Lille, Nord Pas de Calais. Like most new concepts, the beginning was hard (about 100 orders by day). In fact, despite it being a revolutionary concept, consumers were at first hesitant about going to Chronodrive. This reluctance can be explained by the lack of communication from Chronodrive, using only word of mouth and also the fact that they were not seeing what they were buying.
[...] Figure 2.1 : Chronodrive organization chart As we can see, Chronodrive is structured as a divisional organization. Each store functions autonomously, as for example, recruitment. The company's division is also close to a geographical division. III. Management of the work force The Human resource management (HRM) Who are they recruiting? Chronodrive recruits young people, a lot of students. They are looking for dynamic and kind people who are between 20 and 25 years old, with or without experience. They offer contingent and full time jobs. [...]
[...] order to provide a service of quality, it is vital for the company that all the employees work in a good atmosphere. If something goes wrong between workers, the store manager acts immediately”. When asked for an example of such an instance, he told us about a problem he had with a superior first-line manager was behaving badly with me and others co-workers and the work atmosphere was getting worse every day. I reported this problem to the store manager, who noticed his bad behavior and fired him". [...]
[...] But to get the first clients, they use street- marketing. Like in Marcq en Baroeul, where people dress like Chronodrive employees and hand out flyers, most of them hung on cars. This is a good example of local communication, for a defined target of clients, who live or work close to the warehouse and use a car. b. Advantages that are promoted by the company: The availability of the service, the first advantage of the concept is that clients have the possibility of making their order 24/7, with a guarantee of conversation of five days, giving them enough time to take the delivery off. [...]
[...] Even if it doesn't happen often, it is something Chronodrive has to work on. V. The Way it is responding to competition Chronodrive competitors can be classified into two groups: Direct competitors: Express Drive (Leclerc), Auchan drive (Auchan), Coursengo (Leader-price). They are using the same concept, with the advantage that the brand is already known thanks to their classic supermarkets. Indirect competitors: Auchan direct, Ooshop (Carrefour) and Telemarket, Houra.fr (Cora). They are also using e-commerce, but they deliver products at clients' home. [...]
[...] was. Facing the significant growth of their clientele, Chronodrive never stopped recruiting new employees. In October 2006, to relieve the first store they decided to open a new one in Croix, a small town near Lille, where they also established their head office. In Croix too, the beginning was difficult (about 200 orders by day), but thanks to Marcq en Baroeul's reputation, in only five months, the number of clients increased. Since 2006, they have opened seven new stores. b. [...]
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