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Developing Exam Skills: AQA GCSE Business: Kingfisher Caravan Parks Ltd
1st May 2012
This is the first in a series of practice 9-mark questions for AQA GCSE Business Studies Unit 2. This one is on Kingfisher Caravan Parks Ltd.
Kingfisher Caravan Parks Ltd
Kingfisher Caravan Parks Ltd is a family run caravan holiday business. The business was established in 1964 and consists of 3 caravan parks situated in Northumberland, the Lake District and Cornwall. Each park has approximately 360 caravans, a small supermarket and a children’s play park.
The caravan and camping holiday industry is currently enjoying a revival as an increasing number of people are staying in the UK for their holidays due to the current economic climate. The Camping and Caravan club has recently reported that bookings on UK based caravan parks has increased by 21% with younger families being the main driver behind that growth. Traditionally the key target market for Kingfisher was holiday makers aged 50 and over.
Despite the recent growth in the UK caravan industry, Kingfisher has seen its visitor numbers decline. Customer satisfaction surveys have revealed that although the parks are in areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, many of the caravans are over 25 years old and as such lack the space needed to cater for younger families. In addition to this, customers have said that when the weather is poor, the parks themselves lack the necessary to entertain and occupy young people.
One of the directors of the company has suggested that they should float the business and convert to a public limited company.
Recommend to the owners of Kingfisher Caravan Parks whether or not they should convert to a public limited company. Give reasons for your answer (9 marks).
The above case study is longer than the general scenarios on the exam but provides plenty of hooks to allow students to root their answer in the context of the case study.
The download below provides a mark scheme for this exam-style case study…......