Task 4. Read the text and answer the questions below.

 

The success of Chopard Company on the world market

 

Chopard is the family firm that was founded in 1860 by Louis Ulysse Chopard in Sonvillier, Switzerland. In 1920 the manufacture moved to Geneva where it started to produce expensive and exclusive watches. They soon became popular due to excellent quality of the work and classical designs. It helped Chopard to become the official supplier of watches for the Geneva railways – the company famous for its punctuality. A new stage in the history of Chopard began in the 60’s of the last century. Poll Andre, a grandson of Louis Ulysse, decided that the efforts of the company should be concentrated on the creation of the jewelry watches, so he got acquainted with Karl Sheufele, the owner of the German company “Eszeha watches”. Afterwards Chopard was sold to Karl Sheufele; he expanded the business by transforming the company into one of the leading jeweler houses in the world.

The president of Chopard Karl Sheufele, his wife Karin and their children are dedicated to the family business. One of the reasons why the company has succeeded is its outstanding management policy. It is very important in any business to know how to organize work of a company, and how to develop a strategy which will allow strengthening its international positions. One needs much talent to recognize which project is necessary to start and which one is needed to be declined. Luckily, Carolina Sheufele, a daughter of the president, is an excellent designer. In 2001 a French magazine “Express” published a list of 100 the most famous citizens of Switzerland. One is likely to find there names of people from the most various spheres of business, and among them are P.Khajniger (Rolex), N.Khajek (Swatch Group) and Carolina. Marriage of Carolina Sheufele and Favaz Grouse, the head of the jeweler company “De Grisogno”, is a rare union of prosperity and success, wealth and family harmony. Having combined their talents and opportunities, together they realize the most inconceivable design ideas. The Chopard Company sells 55000 pieces of jewelry and 70000 watches annually. Its turnover is approximately 550 million Swiss crones per year. The firm has 79 boutiques and 1200 distributors all over the world.

 Carolina has already created for Chopard some very popular collections, but she does not stop at achieved and she is searching for innovative ideas and trends. “Casmir” collection has been based on the ancient Indian ornaments. “Pushkin” collection was created after a visit to Russia. «Lukovki” church domes amazed Carolina with their unusual form greatly and in autumn 1999 the world performance of the new collection of jewelry took place in the majestic Yusupovsky Palace in St.Petersburg. The world famous actresses visiting the Cannes Festival prefer “showing themselves” wearing Chopard items. Besides, Chopard is the official partner of the Cannes Film Festival and the jewelers of the company make its main prize – the well known «the golden palm branch».

Chopard is one of the largest jeweler firms in the world and it is among the major manufacturers of elite watches. It is one of the few jeweler names of the world whose products have passed the shortest way to become standards of classical style. World recognition of such popular collections as Casmir, Pushkin, Ice Cube, and Golden Diamonds brought the company a title «the jeweler of the stars». Chopard jeweler masterpieces impress anyone who has ever seen them; they are the works of art. The most popular female line of watches decorated with brilliants “Happy Diamonds” has celebrated the twenty-year anniversary recently. The first variant of this collection including watches, jewelry and perfumery brought «the golden rose of Baden-Baden» to Chopard in 1976.

Ice Cube is one of the most popular Chopard collections. The first model of Ice Cube watches was presented in 1997, and it became the most significant jeweler project of the year. Since then the range of its products has greatly expanded. Among the latest models there are watches with black diamonds, sapphires, rubies made of silver and gold. When the Sheufele were asked about the company’s success, the answer was “the combination of the traditional skills, creativity and the newest technologies made Chopard the world famous company”.

(Abridged from www.chopard.com)

1. What does the company produce?

2. When did a new stage in the history of  Chopard  begin?

3. Is it a family business nowadays? Who is the president of the company?

4. What are its most famous collections? What Chopard collection was created after visiting Russia?

5. What do you know about Ice Cube?

Task 5. Read the text and retell it according to the plan:

                                

The origin of the company

The range of products.

The company’s philosophy.

 

Samsung

 

On March 1, 1938 Byung Chull Lee started his business in Taegu, Korea. Mr. Lee exported products to the neighboring regions; he used to sell dried Korean fish, vegetables, and fruit to Manchuria and Beijing. Nobody realized that time that Samsung-- meaning "three stars"inKorean - would have its own flour mills just in a decade and ultimately would become a modern global corporation.

Today Samsung occupies a leading placeon the market ofinformation and digital technology. It has trade representatives in 46 countries of the world: France, Great Britain, Germany, the USA, and Russia; it has branches in the USA, Portugal, Mexico, China, Thailand; its exploratory laboratories are in the USA, Russia and Japan. There are more than 200 offices that employ 65 000 people. Nowadays Samsung specializes in the production of plasma panels, liquid-crystal television sets, mobile telephones, Web-telephones, computers, printers, monitors, hard disks, modules to memories, video cameras, DVD-players, DVD-VRC-players, refrigerators, conditioners, vacuum cleaners and other electronics.

The digital age has brought a lot of new opportunities and changes to global business. The Samsung Group has responded to these changes and it is currently upgrading its business structure, management policy and corporate culturetomeet the global standards. Samsung considers every challenge as an opportunity, and positions itself as one of the world's well-recognized leaders in the industry of digital technologies. Samsung Electronics is one of the world's "top 10" for four consecutive years, and it invests US$ 1.7 billion in Research and Development annually.

The company is promoting its brand value, a key engine of the business growth. Samsung brand value was increased to US $8.31 billion in 2006 from US $6.37 billion in 2005 and the company was recognized by Interbrand Corporation as the fastest growing global brand. Samsung succeeded in achieving the global competitiveness thanks to the improvements in its financial structure and profitability. The reduction of production costs and a hard work of its employees have greatly contributed to its progress in a way that Samsung Electronics has been noted by Interbrand Corporation for its stability and growth potential, so the company has received its second consecutive “A” rating.  

Samsung actively participates in different sporting events. As a Worldwide Olympic partner of the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Samsung provided 25,000 advanced digital wireless telecommunication devices including mobile phones. It was a Worldwide Olympic Partner in the 2006 Turin Olympics and will be an Olympic Partner in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Samsung is an active contributor to the Asian Games, Samsung Nations Cup Riding Competition, Samsung Running Festival, Samsung World Championship and many other sporting events around the world.

Since the foundation in 1938, Samsung has developed its management philosophy that can be described in the following way: "We will devote our human resources and technology to create the superior products and services, thereby contributing to a better global society. Our management philosophy represents our strong determination to contribute directly to the prosperity of people all over the world. Talent, creativity and dedication to work are the key factors for the company’s success. The strides we've made in technology offer endless possibilities to achieve higher standards of living everywhere. We believe that the results of our work entirely depend on how we manage our company. Our goal is to create our future with our customers”.

(Abridged from www.samsung.com)

Notes:

“ A ” rating – признание в качестве товара высшего качества

Samsung Nations Cup Riding Competition – соревнование по верховой езде на кубок нации

stride – шаг вперед, продвижение, прогресс

Task 6. Read the text and retell it according to the plan:

                                

The origin of the company

The range of products.

The world markets.

The Coca-Cola Company

 

 The Coca-Cola Company is a manufacturer, distributor and seller of con­centrates and syrups for producing non-alcoholic drinks. Coca-Cola beverages has brought a great popularity to the company and made it one of the largest corporations in the USA.

 Coca-Cola drink was created by a pharmacist John Pemberton in Atlanta, USA in 1886. He prepared syrup of caramel color, and he brought it to one of the biggest drugstores in the city. Pemberton named his creation as Coca-Cola because the syrup contained leaves of the coca bush from the South America, and seeds of the cola tree, a source of caffeine. Druggists began to mix the syrup with aerated water. Frank Robinson, a partner of Pemberton, designed the name Coca-Cola as well as the unique stylized print of this trademark.

In 1887 Pemberton sold a part of his company to Asa Grigs Kendler who registered the company as the Coca Cola Corporation in 1888. In 1930 Robert Woodraf became the president of the Coca-Cola Company. Since 2004 the president of the company is Neville Isdell. According to the Annual report 2007 the company sells soft drinks in more than 312 countries or territories all over the world. The report further states that more than 9 billion beverage products of all types are consumed worldwide every day, 4.5 billion of them have Coca-Cola trademark or licensed by Coca-Cola. They account for approximately 78% of the company's total gallon sales. These sales are distributed in the following way: 37% in the USA, 43% in Mexico, Brazil, Japan and China, and 20 % - throughout the world. The turnover of the company is $24.088 billion; the net profit is $5.080 billion. It employs 55 thousand employees.

The Coca-Cola Company decided to change its marketing strategy to attract a new generation of consumers and designed a revolutionary bottle. “We do not simply do the new packing - we change the concept”, – says its representative. “Coca-Cola will develop packing in “club style”; the drink will be packaged in the aluminum cans. Some cans will change their color depending on the illumination”. Actually, the Coca-Cola Company and its subsidiaries produce only the syrup concentrate and sell it to the various bottlers throughout the world who hold Coca-Cola franchise. Coca-Cola bottlers produce the drink from the concentrate in combination with the filtered water and sweeteners. The bottlers then sell, distribute and merchandise the resulting Coca-Cola product to the retail stores, vending machines, restaurants and food service distributors.

Today there are many varieties of drinks produced by Coca-Cola: Diet Coke, Cherry Coke, Diet Cherry Coke, Coke with Lemon, Vanilla Coke, Coke with Lime, Diet Coke with Lime and others. The Coca-Cola Company produces also a number of the other soft drinks including Fanta and Sprite. Fanta's origin dates back to the World War II when Max Keith, who managed Coca-Cola's operations in Germany during the war, ran out of the ingredients for Coke, which could be supplied only from the United States. Keith started to produce a different kind of drink-- Fanta, which proved to be a hit, and when Cola took over again after the war, the company decided to continue producing Fanta. The German Fanta Klare Zitrone ("Clear Lemon Fanta"), the variety of Fanta is Sprite, the company's bestseller.

Coca-Cola is the best-selling soft drink in most countries, however there are some exceptions. The Middle East is one of the world regions where Coca-Cola is not number one soda drink; nevertheless, Coca-Cola holds almost 25% of the market share. In Peru, the native Inca Kola has been more popular than Coca-Cola, this fact made the Coca-Cola Company start the negotiations with the soft drink's company and buy 50% of its stakes. In Japan, the best selling soft drink is not Cola; they prefer canned tea or coffee. Cola is supposed to be less popular in India because it is considered to contain the ingredients that may affect health. However, market share data do not confirm this view; in 2008 its market share was 60.9%.

(Abridged from www.cocacola.com)

Notes:

coca bush – кокаиновый куст

cola tree – тропическое дерево «кола»

aerated water – газированная вода