Hbr Case

Debt Policy at UST UST business risks and attributes: Position and strategy: UST is the mart leader in smokeless tobacco business. Its strategy has been to entreat off competition by launching products similar to the competitions and not to cut prices. The effectiveness of this strategy is questionable as UST has woolly market share to price-value brands. The resignations of USTs CFO and president of the tobacco unit raise eyebrows as to whether the right strategy is macrocosm employed. Exhibit 2 shows USTs market share disapprove in the price-value segment: 199119921993199419951996199719987 Yr. CAGR Industry Premium market Share %99.0%97.9%97.2%96.3%94.9%92.7%90.9%89.2%(1.5%) bell Value Market Share %1.0%2.1%2.8%3.7%5.1%7.3%9.1%10.8%40.5% UST agree Market Share %86.2%84.6%85.1%83.8%81.7%79.5%78.2%77.2%(1.6%) lncrease/(Decrease)% (1.9%)0.6%(1.5%)(2.5%)(2.7%)(1.6%)(1.3%) Premium Market Share %86.2%84.6%85.1%83.8%81.7%79.5%78.2%76.6%(1.7%) Price Value Market Share %0.0%0.0%0.0%0.0%0.0%0.0%0.0%0.6%-- Litigation: UST had seven pending lawsuits at the end 1998.

This is much lower than the hundreds of cases that were pending against the fairy companies. Though the ligation against UST is smaller in scale than that against the tobacco effort as a whole, it is a concern as authorization financial penalties from the lawsuits make USTs future cash electric current risky. UST also had a pending antitrust dispute with Conwood Co. cultural Trends: If world-wide trends mimic the US, then international suppuration in the tobacco industry will slow down and international markets will not be a viable amplification option for UST. Financial Trends: As is shown below USTs growth has been slowness down when looking at the 5 and 10 year CAGRs. This indicates that competition and less consumer demand are slowing down USTs financial... If you want to get a practiced essay, order it on our website: Orderessay

If you want to get a full essay, wisit our page: write my essay .