Case Overview

Steinhouse Knitting was founded in 1929. A family business, that specialized in the manufacture and sale of men’s sweater. The company produces three different brands: Steinhouse, Etcetera and Espana. The three brands do not differentiate on the basis of style, price, or fabrication. The company had been on St.Lawrence Street for 30 years. They built their own plant and moved, in May 1989, to Chabanel Street, in Montreal.

Mission

Steinhouse Knitting manufactures and sells high-quality men’s sweaters to satisfy their customers’ needs and wants.

Objective

1. They want to stay in business and make profit.

Symptoms

2. Men’s sweater is not as fashionable as they were.

3. The independent stores are quickly disappearing (losing customers).

4. Customers prefer well-known brands over the lesser-known brands such as Steinhouse.

Situation Analysis

Strengths

5. The sweaters are cut piece by piece as opposed to cutting in piles.

6. They take out the shrinkage.

7. All the yarn is NAFTA-approved.

8. They produce most of its sweaters to order (avoiding having too much overstock).

Weakness

9. They don’t have an in-house designer.

10. The equipment and machinery in Steinhouse Knitting is different from what is available in Europe, so the products they make do not look exactly like the samples purchased.

11. They use a lot of acrylic to produce their sweaters, so customers perceive cheaper garments. However, the sweaters of Steinhouse Knitting are in the upper price range.

12. Steinhouse Knitting does not do any market studies.

13. Their machines cannot produce higher gauges of knit as consumers’ demand.

Opportunities

14. Steinhouse Knitting does not pay any duties on sweaters shipped to the United States.

15. They have very good salespeople, so they don’t