¶ … Supply Chain (Barbecue Grill) Barbeque Grill Supply Chain Analysis

The Brinkmann Corporation is a leading manufacturer of outdoor cookers, smokers, outdoor lighting, hand-held lighting, lawn and garden products, pet products, camping equipment, boat covers, and fishing gear. The company's strong position on the market relies on its quality, selection, innovation, performance, styling, and reliability. The Brinkmann Corporation develops new products, and improves designs in order to provide customers quality, value, and customer satisfaction (Brinkmann, 2014). The company provides a wide variety of grills, like charcoal smokers, gas smokers, and electric smokers.

The biggest dilemma for some of barbeque chefs is whether to use charcoal or electric grills. This analysis focuses on the charcoal grill segment. The barbecue grill market seems to be stable, reaching a $1.373 billion in 2011. The market is dominated by warehouse home centers. More than half of barbecue grill sales are attributed to such centers.

Regarding the grill segments, gas grills reveal the highest growth, while charcoal grills are customers' second favorite type of grill and their market evolution remains constant.

The market segment distribution in the barbecue grill industry is the following:

Source: www.homechannelnews.com

Competition Analysis

The most important competitor of Brinkmann Corporation on the grill market is represented by Weber -- Stephens...

Weber grills have a 35% market share estimated by U.S. retailers (Cahill, 2013). Weber's market success can be attributed to its high quality products, but also to its national sales and distribution network that manages to introduce Weber grills in most retail chains.
Another barbecue grill manufacturer is MAK Grills. The company manufactures superior products that attract customers with their durability. This is a good product to invest in by customers that have frequent barbecue and need reliable products.

PK Portable Kitchen is another U.S. barbecue grill producer. The quality of these grills relies on their functionality, but also on their esthetics. Customers that purchase and use PK grills can refuel them with charcoal or wood chips.

Supply Chain Analysis

Upstream Supply Chain

The main components of the Brinkmann charcoal grill are the grill cover, main burner, air shutter, bottle opener, cart assembly, charcoal ash tray, charcoal grate, charcoal hood, control panel, cooking grid, firebox, and legs. The raw materials required for manufacturing these components are represented by porcelain, iron, stainless steel, different types of plastics, and others. The packaging of the grills requires paper, card board, plastics, and different printing materials. These raw materials are used in the grill manufacturing process of most barbecue grill producers.

Downstream Supply Chain

The Brinkmann Corporation uses several…