Venetian Ices Ltd is a Private Limited Company which began trading in London in 1948. At this point in time the company was owned by Toni Seghini who came to London from Italy. It was the Italians that had the reputation for producing superb ice cream and Toni wanted to bring their success to London. His ice cream business soon became successful and expanded, increasing its market share.

Business activity Venetian Ices Ltd intends to run a successful business and provide a sound product to the consumer. They are also exploring the idea that there is a business opportunity in franchising ice cream parlours. They are a Private Limited Company who have a moral duty to provide their shareholders with a good return on their investment. Business functions to be addressed in this unit The theoretical issues that will be addressed in subsequent tasks will include. Organisational structures, aims and objectives of the business, and, internal and external constraints to the business.

Research To aid me in my investigation I will need to gather information from a number of sources, these sources will be other ice cream businesses. The information I will need to gather will include: the business activity undertaken by different businesses, the organisational structure of different businesses, the ways in which other businesses market their products, the aims and objectives of other businesses.

Upon gathering such information I will be able to relate it to Venetian Ices Ltd and the position they are currently in. It will give me an insight into other businesses in the same market and how they operate. This will be a huge help when producing my reports. The methods of gathering information that I will use will include: sending letters and e-mails, having direct telephone conversations, and meeting directly with people. I will also gather information from certain web sites, the web site that I will be looking at will be: Beechdean Dairies – www.beechdean.co.uk

De Roma Ice Cream – www.deromaicecream.co.uk The Ice Cream Alliance – www.ice-cream.org Ben & Jerry’s – www.benjerry.com Walls Ice Cream – www.walls.com Cadbury – www.cadbury.co.uk Organisational Structure This is a suggested organisation chart for Venetian Ices Ltd: This organisational chart shows that Toni Seghini is the company owner and is responsible for the managing director. The managing director has a span of control over four directors who are all of equal rank.

Each of these directors is responsible for all of his/her departmental managers. For example the personnel director would be responsible for an employment manager, a training manager, a salaries manager, a company relations manager, and a safety and welfare manager. These managers would each be responsible for the workers within their department. This organisational chart shows a clear chain of command, from the directors, to the managers, to the workers.

To complete this task I used my existing knowledge of Business Studies theory along with the pre-reading material. The pre-reading material helped me by giving me an initial insight into the organisation of the business. Aims and Objectives The aims of Venetian Ices Ltd could be to, increase/make a profit, to expand, to improve the awareness of their product, to fight competition, and possibly most importantly, to survive.

The objectives which will help Venetian Ices Ltd to achieve these aims will include:  To increase their market share, to increase the number of shops at which their ice cream is available, to increase the amount of ice cream that is produced. These objectives will help Venetian Ices Ltd to meet their aim to expand. If Venetian Ices Ltd were to increase turnover and to reduce their costs, then this would help them to achieve their aim to increase or make a profit.