Fruit of the Loom

B.H.

Needs, Wants, Goods, and Services

• Fruit of the Loom supplies men's and boys' underwear, women's and girls' underwear, printable T-shirts and fleece for the active wear industry, casual wear, women's jeans and children's wear.

• These products are necessary to maintain one’s modesty, and are classified as needs.

• All of the products that Fruit of the Loom manufactures are tangible objects that are sold to retailers and outlets to sell, in turn, to consumers. This classifies their product as a good.

Economic Factors

• Fruit of the Loom utilizes natural economic resources such as cotton and polyester to create most of their products.

Economic Factors

• Fruit of the Loom relies on human economic resources such as manufacturing workers, engineers to create and maintain necessary equipment, and guys dressed in fruit suits to promote their product.

Economic Factors

• Fruit of the Loom relies on capital economic resources in order to buy the raw materials for their product and to pay their workers. Most of their capital comes from their conglomerate parent company, Berkshire Hathaway.

Trade-Offs

• The trade-offs that a company such as Fruit of the Loom would make would be pertaining to deciding on new products, such as a new line of self heating underwear.

Opportunity Cost

• The opportunity cost of many of the choices Fruit of the Loom must make usually involves risk, such as taking risks with investments that are not guaranteed to yield profit.

Six Steps of the

Economic Decision Processpart I

• Hello I’m Sadimir Poutin’ and I am the President of Fruit of the Loom.

• I have to make the decision about whether or not to begin manufacturing self-heating underwear.

Six Steps of the

Economic Decision Processpart II

• I need to identify my choices—– Choice 1: Begin manufacturing self-heating

underwear– Choice 2: No risks, don’t be a hero, go with

the flow

Six Steps of the

Economic Decision Processpart III

• I assess the Advantages and Disadvantages of each choice:

• Choice 1: – Advantages – Make money from people who want warm

underwear – Expand demographic – No competition in self-heated underwear market

– Disadvantages – Requires capital – Have to justify to Berkshire Hathaway stockholders – Chance to fail and lose investment

• Choice 2:– Advantages – Play it safe; all of the disadvantages of choice 1

are advantages to choice 2– Disadvantages – You’ll never know what could have been

Six Steps of the

Economic Decision Processpart IV

• I made my decision:– We will begin manufacturing self heated

underwear

Six Steps of the

Economic Decision Processpart V

• I carry out my decision to make the self-warming underwear.– Patent the idea– Hire designers to create underwear design– Hire engineers to build manufacturing

machines

Six Steps of Economic Decision Process

part VI• I evaluate the decision to make the self-

warming underwear– I am very pleased… and rich.– Feels good man.

Countries of Business

• One free market country that Fruit of the Loom does business in is the United States of America.

• One mixed or command

country that Fruit of the Loomdoes business in is England.

Demand for Services

• The demand for Fruit of the Loom’s goods and services largely revolve around the need for people to have high quality underwear and shirts.

• Consumer set the demand for products by buying the amount that they are willing and able to buy.

Supply for Services

• Fruit of the Loom supplies the amount of goods at the prices that our customers are willing to pay. They establish the supply by making the amount of product that meets the demand in a way that maximizes profit.

Market Equilibrium Price

• The market equilibrium price for Fruit of the Loom’s Men’s cotton briefs is $9.10 for a pack of 3.

Benefits of Free Market

• Fruit of the Loom benefits greatly from competition, freedom of choice, private property, and profit.

– They are able to compete with their competitors.

– They are able to choose which products to manufacture to meed the demands of the consumers.

– They are able to own the property used to manufacture their goods.

– They are able to keep the profit from their investments.

GDP Component

• Consumer spending is the component of the GDP that Fruit of the Loom’s goods would fall into, because they are made for the average consumers. Who doesn’t wear underwear?

Employment

• Due to the stability of its’ enterprise, Fruit of the Loom has steadily increased the number of people it has employed over the last few years.

Productivity

• Fruit of the Loom increases its’ productivity by expanding to include more manufacturing centers, employees, and consequently, manufacturing more goods.

Effects of Recession

• Fruit of the Loom has been weathering the economic difficulty rather well, due to the necessity of its’ goods. No significant profit, but no significant loss, which is not something most other companies could say.

Inflation

• Fruit of the Loom’s prices can be used as a gauge for the inflation of the time due to their long-standing presence in the market. Their prices have gone up significantly since the start of their company, as have prices for everything (due to inflation).

Consumer Price Index

• The unadjusted percent change of Fruit of the Loom’s industry is about a decrease by -1%.

Interest Rates

• Interest rates impact Fruit of the Loom when the company is in need of a loan. Fruit of the Loom is large enough that it gets a considerably lower interest rate, but when interest rates go up universally, Fruit of the Loom will be unlikely to look for loans.

Corporate Bonds

• The status of Fruit of the Loom’s corporate bonds are good… so far

Company’s Stock Price

• 43% increase in profit from the previous year

• The price of a single stock from Berkshire-Hathaway (Fruit of the Loom’s parent company) is $107100.00.

Factory Locations

• Fruit of the Loom refuses to confirm all of their current factory locations, perhaps because of a controversy surrounding their use of sweatshop labor in the past.

Franchise/License

• Fruit of the Loom has both a franchise and license for the goods it makes.

Internet Article

• Fruit of the Loom - Can Bankruptcy Work? TIME Magazine

Sources• http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/replicate/EXID31244/images/

fruit-of-the-loom-logo.jpg• http://www.bombayharbor.com/tradeLeadImage/076520500117939

5981/Buy_Polyester_Staple_Fiber.JPG• http://www.cotton-bales.com/Bales%20of%20Cotton.jpg• http://ndnforum.com/blogs//media/blogs/News/Fruitoftheloom.jpg• http://www.learnbuffett.com/static/images/2010/01/

berkshire_hathway_stock_split.jpg• http://theinternetoncomputers.com/wp-content/uploads/

sadimir_putin.jpg• http://pics.blameitonthevoices.com/032009/small_decision

%20time.jpg• http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ldhp0kRzMG1qfz4xco1_400.jpg• http://www.electricalaudio.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?

f=4&t=56914&start=20• http://www.clotureclub.com/jobs/