Route 11 Potato Chips

Abstract

Route 11 Chips, a regional potato chip company, is struggling with whether to reduce the number of flavors it markets. Additional flavors add operational cost, but management believes that some of the flavors are important to Route 11's brand image and that trimming the line might damage the brand. Route 11 has also taken a price increase recently and management is interested in finding out if there is additional room to raise prices. To analyze these issues in the case, students have access to five years of data on sales by flavor and package size as well as actual price and margin information (in a supplemental Excel spreadsheet). Excerpt UVA-M-0810 Rev. Jan. 19, 2012 Route 11 Potato Chips In the short film Oyster Guanaca, a Salvadoran dishwasher suffered the derision of his kitchen colleagues as he labored over whether to give his wife the expensive treat of oysters for her birthday. In the closing scene, the man sits at a table in the midst of his family. The sunlit room surrounds his family as they joyfully eat oysters. The man slowly turns to the camera as if to say “look at the pleasure such a simple gift could provide.” Oysters were one thing, but could the lowly potato chip be a simple pleasure of a convivial table? Sarah Cohen, Route 11 Potato Chips owner and the writer and producer of Oyster Guanaca, thought so. And her chips had developed a cult-like following. Figure 1 shows a Route 11 potato chip bag. Figure 1. Dill Pickle potato chips. . . .