SWOT Analysis

Bergey’s breadbasket is a locally owned and family operated establishment. They sell a variety of food, ice cream, and baked goods made homemade from the supplies of the farm animals they keep. Bergey’s is located in Chesapeake on Mt. Pleasant road and is alongside a two way road and farm land for a few miles. Their main strength is that they are a family owned business. The Bergey’s have had this farm and business running for 75 years and counting. People love to see family owned businesses and to support them and they make it well known that they are family owned. Another strength is that their food and sweets are fresh and homemade. This gives people a sense of security knowing where their food is coming from. The last major strength they have is that they allow customers to go into the back to pet the farm animals while they enjoy the food, or just for fun. This key feature makes the establishment kid friendly so the whole family can enjoy a day out there.

Bergeys has one major weakness that might deter people from visiting. Their website is hard to read and not well put together. Having a bad website can make people think that they are not professional or that they do not care about the website itself where there is a lot of important information about them on there. Another weakness is that they have very limited hours of operation. Monday through Saturday from 11am to 6pm. Having only seven hours open could be detrimental because a lot of parents work 9 to 5 on the weekdays, leaving them only available to come on saturday which is the most popular day of the week. Staying open an extra one or two hours a day could have them see a boost in nightly sales. The last weakness is their popularity. It seems like only people who live in Chesapeake know about Bergeys and others do not really hear about it except word of mouth.

Bergeys has many opportunities to expand and make more money. The first one would be an advertisement. Getting the word out that they exist and are family owned. Whether it be by commercials, on the radio, or hanging up flyers or billboards about their farm. If more people know about it, then they will see an influx of customers because a lot of people love farms and homemade food. The second opportunity would be to host birthday parties. Since they are not open Sundays, they could possibly designate certain Sundays to host those parties where they have the farm all to themselves and the kids could taste test all the different types of ice cream and have fun petting all the animals. The last opportunity that would be beneficial for them is to maybe allow volunteers or create a little ‘summer camp’ type thing where parents drop off their kids for the day and they learn how to take care of the animals and learn to cook or make the ice cream. The kids would be learning life skills and also parents could use that time to have their kids be doing something during the summer while they are at work. This would generate income as well as help running the business so it is a win-win situation.

The threat of Bergey’s would be that it is in the middle of nowhere. It is a long drive from the city to get there and even longer if you do not live in Chesapeake. From Virginia Beach it is about a 30 minute drive just to get there. This could deter people away because they do not want to spend an hour driving to be at a place for maybe an hour. Another threat would be that some may see where the animals are being held and think that they do not have a good life. Their animals are well kept and well fed but there will always be a person who thinks that there is a problem, especially having all the animals out for everyone to see. The last threat I can see is that there are a lot of other farms in that area since it is out in the middle of nowhere. A lot of other farms have a place to get fresh milk and eggs and have goats and horses for show. They are competing with other farms.

The event that Bergey’s should host is ‘make your own ice cream day’ held in July since it is considered national ice cream month. Since Bergey’s is most known for their ice cream, allowing people of all ages to participate in trying to make their own ice cream would be a huge hit for the company and would get a lot of new customers if they do the advertisement right. It would be held right at the farm and anyone would be welcomed to join, young or old. The proceeds raised would go to the local farms around the area.

Bergey. (2023). Family fun. Bergey's Bread Basket. Retrieved March 25, 2023, from https://www.bergeysbreadbasket.com/family-fun/