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Holson Forest Products Ltd.: The Challenges of International Markets
Case 9 40 2017 012
Case published in the International Journal of Case Studies in Management, Vol. 15, No. 4
Languages : 
  • English
Keywords: 
  • SME,
  • Strategy,
  • Government involvement,
  • International expansion
Year of production : 
2017
Registration date : 
2017-10-05
Teaching notes included : 
Yes
Abstract

This case is set in June 2016. Ted Lewis is the owner of Holson Forest Products Ltd. (Holson), one of the largest suppliers of lumber on the Northern Peninsula. In 2008, due to increased shipping costs, Holson’s largest customer, Corner Brook Pulp and Paper Ltd. (CBPPL), decided to stop buying logs from the Northern Peninsula. Following CBPPL’s decision, Lewis was forced to diversify his business. In 2011, after a feasibility study confirmed the potential of opening a wood pellet plant to produce finished products for local, national, and/or international markets, a pellet plant was completed in a remote area of the Northern Peninsula. Unfortunately, the lack of nearby port facilities to ship the product to international markets prevented the company from launching full production. In addition, because forested lands on the Northern Peninsula were not certified as sustainable forests, Holson’s premium products could not be sold to residential markets in Europe. Lewis was faced with many challenges in an uncertain global market.

Lewis needed a strategy that would allow him to confidently launch production of wood pellets. His strategic analysis had to take into account both external markets and internal issues related to resources, operations, marketing, human resources, and the management challenges of sustaining a business in rural Newfoundland. It also had to consider Lewis’s values and commitment to the people of the Northern Peninsula.

Primary domain : 
Management  - Strategy
Secondary domain : 
Not available
Sectors : 
  • Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting
Source : 
Elsewhere
Type : 
Traditional case (Decision-making case)
Type of data used in the production of the case : 
Factual data that is public and free of potentially litigious content
Event location : 
Newfoundlant and Labrador, Canada
Year of start of the event : 
2008
Year the event ended : 
2016
Business size : 
Very small business
Main themes covered
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Owner-operated sawmill
  • Wood pellet venture
  • Role of external forces on SMEs
  • Internationalization strategies
Teaching objectives

Learning objectives include the following:

  1. Challenging students to consider strategic direction in an uncertain, complex, global environment;
  2. Developing students’ ability to conduct an environmental or external analysis using a variety of strategic tools.
  3. Developing students’ ability to conduct a resource or internal analysis using a variety of strategic tools;
  4. Fostering students’ ability to make a strategic choice with the available information.
Concepts and theories related to the case
  • Internationalization strategies
  • Challenges of SMEs, in particular in rural areas
  • Use of the PESTEL framework to analyze a company’s external environment