3 Story Introduction to Lightning Wholesale

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Introduction To Lighting Wholesale

Lightning Wholesale is a mid- to large-size company that specializes in working directly with manufactures to bring sporting goods and equipment to mid- to small-sized retailers.  The company is located in Southern Ontario, Canada.  Lightning Wholesale acquires the goods, stores them in their warehouses, and distributes to retailers, who then sell to sporting enthusiasts across the province.  Suppliers are global, including from the United States.

There are a few main concerns for Lightning Wholesale management at the moment:  payroll needs review, revenues, costs and expenses need forecasting for the next fiscal year, the ski product line is considering reducing their line, cash flow and investment management, and it is time to negotiate a new contract with some unionized employees that is not going well, which could result in a three-month strike.

On their payroll, Lightning Wholesales has employees that are paid on a salary, hourly, commission, and overtime basis.

Lightning Wholesale cares about its employees and retailers.  Where mangers can assist their employees, they try to.  Where retailers need guidance, Lightning Wholesales tries to fill this gap as best they can.

More recently, Quentin, Manager of Human Resources, was approached by an employee, Katherine.  Katherine needed some extra cash and asked for advanced pay.  Although against company policy to provide an advance on pay, Quentin was able to have a chat with Katherine on other options to her current plan of working with a PayDay Loan company.

In working with its small retailers, many of which are owned and operated by sole proprietors, Lightning Wholesale assists the owners with their pricing to help develop promotional pricing plans and the amounts of the payments that can be advertised.  Lightning Wholesale freely offers the help, since it means more sales and increased profits for the company.  Typically, retailers will sell the skis at their list price.

Lighting Wholesale has a strong Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) program, with dollar-to-dollar matching, which they encourage their employees to take advantage of.  Where they can, they try to educate their employees on the ins-and-outs of RRSPs so that their employees have awareness and can manage their RRSPs appropriately.

The Finance Department is responsible to effectively manage the company’s money.  Due to its size, Lightning Wholesale, has a separate bank account for each of its departments from which all expenses, purchases, and charges are deducted.  This account has all revenues and interest deposited into it.  Currently, the manager of the sporting good department wants a summary of all interest amounts earned or charged to her department for current fiscal year.  This allows her to better understand and assess the financial policies of the company and make any necessary change for the next fiscal year. Lightning Wholesale invests in Treasury Bills (T-Bills) as part of their financial strategy.

In the warehouse, the forklifts need replacing.  The Purchasing Manager is working with Combilift to develop a payment structure.  Although Lightning Wholesale has the cash on hand, it is trying to figure out it is in their best interest to take out a loan instead.

With year-end approaching, Lighting Wholesale has many processes that they are wrapping up.  It is important that all departments are executing their responsibilities as accurately and seamlessly as possible.