1. Q: What is Father Daniel Mary's vision for the Carmelite Monks monastery? What role does Mystic Monk Coffee serve in that vision?
A: The vision that Father Daniel Mary created for the Carmelite Monks and Mount Carmel itself includes huge renovations, expansions and a business acumen. The brotherhood currently has 13 monks living in a small home. Farther Daniel Mary wants to turn this home into a 500-acre monastery which would host 30 monks, a gothic church, a convent for Carmelite nuns, and a center for visitors. He had discovered a ranch for sale in the same nearby area of Wyoming. The List price was a steep $8.9 million which presented a major financial obstacle. Their current money situation seems not to satisfactory. …show more content…
However, when envisioning the amount of money needed in the time period discussed to purchase this $8.9 million piece of land is just not possible. They have great potential to be a big money maker due to the variety of products they offer on their website. Some of the biggest constraints come from some of their activities having higher than normal costs due to a lower production level. Some of these high costs for activities include the 18% commission on sales to other sites for leading their customer to Mystic Monks website. This is a portion of the costs of goods sold model that could be reduced. I feel it was a great idea to work out this plan with other websites in the beginning of operations to drive up the customer base. However, now I feel they need to scale that 18% back in order to make a little more cash. The overall profit formula is bringing in a net profit margin of 11% per month. That is calculated as follows: having cost of sales about 30% of revenues, shipping costs of 19% of revenues, broker fees of 3% of revenues; accounting for a total cost of goods sold equaling 52%. Operating expenses (utilities, supplies, telephone, and website maintenance averaged 37% of revenues. So overall they have 11% net profit …show more content…
They use their website well in offering multiple products along with their coffee. The negotiations with other websites to offer them 18% of sales to drive up their customer base is a wise idea. At this time, they should re-evaluate that decision. They are also providing good value to their customers by providing a “coffee club” membership. They use high quality fair trade Arabica beans, ultimately providing competitive quality coffee for their customers. Overall, due to the low man power, a limited 6-hour work day due to prayer, and only a 130 pound a day machine to make coffee, I feel they need to purchase the larger roaster. Their current business model starts by investing in that new roaster which will make 130 pounds each hour instead of each day. Second it acquires MMC to set up wholesale sales to churches and coffee shops. By getting into other coffee shops will allow MMC to soar towards their goal of purchasing new land. At this time, I think Father Mary needs to focus on these smaller areas of improvement and scale back the vision just a