Introduction:
Levendary Café is an established soup, salad and sandwich restaurant. The former CEO
Howard Leventhal, was very strong in keeping and utilizing Levendary’s vision of
delighting the customer, the restaurant evolved into a multi-billion dollar firm comprised
of over 3,500 cafés nationwide. Howard Leventhal stated that “It’s wholesome soups,
salads, and sandwiches using high quality ingredients, and a commitment to service in a
comfortable, friendly, environment distinguished Levendary Café from other quick casual
restaurants.”
Levendary Caf falls into the so called quick casual Multi-unit Restaurant group and
provides more wholesome choices then its quick service counterparts and a more
self-service dining experience than its casual dining restaurants.” The company’s shared
commitment to healthful, wholesome eating was embolden in the company’s culture and
reflected in its successful advertising slogan “Tasty Fresh Goodness.” This was supported
by the company’s move to use only organic grains in its breads and hormone-free naturally
raised meats in its sandwiches.
Although Howard Leventhal had done well with Levendary’s domestic expansion, analysts
were concerned with the lack of future domestic endeavors and sought to expand on a
global level. Levendary then identified China as a great market to expand into the increase
in urban population. There is an affluent middle class and also a large increase of women
in the workforce which equate in a growing population trend to eat out.
To take the lead in the China initiative, Howard Leventhal selected Louis Chen. He comes
with a wealth of knowledge of the culture, consumers, local atmosphere, and business
connections to support Levendary’s expansion. Louis began modifying Levendary’s
signature menu items and the overall café environments without consulting U.S.
management which created friction between Louis and Mia Foster. As the expansion into
China grows Levendary’s new CEO Mia Foster is faced with a number of pressing matters
ranging from how to get Louis Chen and his team on page with those in corporate
headquarters and to standardization future Levendary Caf locations so they match the
domestic locations.
This article Levendary Caf: The China Challenge addresses one of the major issues facing
large companies today; How to successfully enter new foreign markets. Growth is essential
with any company and when they feel as domestic growth has begun to mature,
international growth becomes imminent. There are many external as well as internal forces
that affect such growth and development. The forces in the foreign environment are the
same as those in the domestic environment except they occur in foreign nations.
