Influences on Strategy (AQA A Level Business): Exam Questions

Source B: Eden Project

The Eden Project opened in 2001 in a former china clay pit near St Austell, Cornwall. Its giant biomes hold plants from the rainforest and the Mediterranean, and in February 2026 it welcomed its 25 millionth visitor. Eden Project Limited runs the site, its shops, cafés and events, including the Eden Sessions summer concerts. It is wholly owned by The Eden Trust, a registered charity whose mission is "to demonstrate and inspire positive action for the planet".

The company "exists only to deliver the charitable objectives of the Trust", and every activity, "including that which might ordinarily be termed commercial", is designed to educate people about the environment or inspire them to change. Visitors are described as "the primary source of earned income". Other income includes grants from funders and Gift Aid, a tax relief on donations which the charity reclaims and passes to the company.

Visitor numbers fell by more than 10% in the year to March 2025. In January 2025 Eden Project announced plans to cut its payroll by about 20%, affecting about 80 jobs. Its accounts describe "a programme of organisational change to simplify structures, reduce costs and strengthen operational control", including "workforce reduction and changes to leadership structures". The board endorsed "a stabilisation strategy, prioritising control, clarity and resilience", to lay the foundations for "scaffolded growth".

In the year to 31 March 2026 visitor numbers rose by about 0.4%, and the company said it had "halted the pattern of decline seen in prior years". It is also developing two new Eden projects, in Morecambe and Dundee.

Source: Eden Project Limited, Annual Report and Consolidated Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2026

Appendix D: Eden Project financial data

Visitors in the year to 31 March 2024: 604 000. Staff restructuring costs in the year to 31 March 2025: £587 000.

Source: Eden Project Limited and press reports

Appendix F: Income, funders and supporters

• The Big Lunch, Eden's national community programme, had over 10 million participants in 2024.

• Eden has over 13 000 members and regular donors, and about 100 regular volunteers.

• The 2026 Eden Sessions concerts attracted almost 60 000 people to 10 shows.

• Eden's carbon emissions fell 5.7% in the year to March 2026 and are 38.5% below 2019/20, which is behind its target of a 10% reduction a year.

Source: Analyst, using Eden Project Limited, the Eden Project Annual Review 2024/25 and press reports

Assess whether being owned by a charity is more of a strength than a weakness for Eden Project.

Calculate Eden Project's operating profit margin in the year to 31 March 2026 to support your answer. Give your answer to one decimal place.

Source A: Co-op Group

The Co-operative Group, known as Co-op, began in Rochdale in 1844. It is a co-operative owned by its members, who can vote at its annual general meeting (AGM). Co-op says that because it is owned by its members, it "can make decisions that other businesses can't, from our Net Zero goals to our community support".

It runs more than 2 300 food stores and supplies others through Co-op Wholesale, partners and franchises, close to 8 000 stores in all. It also provides funerals, insurance and legal services.

Changes in 2025 included:

• Prices. It price-matched over 100 everyday items to Aldi for members; these items reached 40% of members' baskets.

• Online. Its online quick-commerce business, selling through its own website and delivery apps Uber Eats, Just Eat and Deliveroo, grew by 15%. Online services were added to 279 more stores, and 90% of the UK population can shop online with Co-op.

In April 2025 Co-op suffered a criminal cyber attack. To contain it, Co-op restricted its own computer systems, which caused shortages of goods in stores. Group revenue fell 2.3% to £11 025 million, and Co-op made an underlying operating loss of £35 million. In 2026 Co-op says its market share has returned to or passed pre-attack levels in every business area.

Its Chief Executive, Shirine Khoury-Haq, stepped down on 29 March 2026, almost seven years after joining Co-op, and Kate Allum was appointed interim Group Chief Executive.

Co-op plans to remove £200 million of annual operating costs in 2026, and has set a target of 10 million active members by 2030.

Source: Co-operative Group, Members' Annual Report 2025 and 2025 trading update

Appendix A: Co-op financial data

• Costs. About £150m of cost increases in 2025, including £47m of regulatory costs from higher employers' National Insurance and new packaging charges, and investment in colleague pay.

• Investment. £318m in stores and technology in 2025.

• Distributions. Members were not asked to approve any distribution of profits for 2025.

Source: Co-operative Group

Appendix C: Members, colleagues and communities

• Communities. £15m shared with causes and communities in 2025; the Local Community Fund has shared £120m since 2016. Co-op supports 38 Co-op Academies.

• Suppliers. Over £700m spent with UK farmers and agriculture suppliers; 100% of fresh and frozen own-brand meat is British. Members' priorities led to a pledge to stop sourcing from countries where the international community has identified serious risks of human rights violations.

• Colleagues. A 30% colleague discount; physical assaults on colleagues in stores fell from 1 217 to 839 after new security measures.

• Target. 10 million active members by 2030, raised from 8 million.

Source: Analyst, using Co-operative Group

Assess whether a target of 10 million active members by 2030 is the right objective for Co-op.

Calculate Co-op's underlying operating profit margin in 2025 to support your answer. Give your answer to two decimal places.

Source B: Bretforton Facilities

Bretforton Facilities Limited was founded in 1989 by Anne Fielding in Bretforton, near Evesham, and is still owned by her family. Her son, Mark Fielding, is Managing Director. It cleans and maintains about 180 schools, 64 GP surgeries and health centres, and a number of offices across Worcestershire and the West Midlands, and employs 640 people, most of them part-time cleaners and caretakers.

Its mission is "clean, safe buildings, looked after by local people who are paid fairly". Since 2016 it has been an accredited Real Living Wage employer, which means it pays all its staff at least the Real Living Wage, a voluntary rate set by the Living Wage Foundation that is higher than the legal National Living Wage. Its objective is to reach £30 million of revenue by 2030 while remaining a Real Living Wage employer.

Bretforton Facilities competes for contracts against national facilities management companies, which can often offer lower prices. Its largest customer, a county council, wants to cut the price of its contract when it is renewed next year.

Anne Fielding is 71 and wants to sell the business. A national competitor, Corvane Group, has made an offer, and the family is also considering selling to an employee ownership trust.

Source: Bretforton Facilities

Appendix D: Bretforton Facilities selected data

Source: Bretforton Facilities

Appendix E: Pay and people

• In 2026 the company introduced an app that gives cleaners their schedules and lets them report problems with photos. Many cleaners are older and some have asked to keep paper rotas.

• Head teachers' survey, 2026: 88% said the same cleaners working in their school every week was "very important".

Source: Bretforton Facilities and the Living Wage Foundation

Assess whether being a Real Living Wage employer helps Bretforton Facilities to achieve its objective.

Calculate the extra cost a year of paying Bretforton Facilities' hourly-paid employees the Real Living Wage instead of the National Living Wage to support your answer.

Source B: Culverton Biotech

Culverton Biotech Limited was founded in 2017 by two scientists from the University of Oxford and is based at a science park near Abingdon, Oxfordshire. It has 46 employees. It is developing one medicine, CLV-201, for a rare inherited liver disease that affects about 1 in 25 000 people and for which there is no approved treatment in the UK.

Culverton Biotech's mission is "to turn rare-disease science into medicines that patients can actually get". Its objective is to have CLV-201 approved in the UK by 2029.

In 2025 CLV-201 completed a Phase II clinical trial. To be approved, it must now pass a larger Phase III trial, expected to cost £45 million over three years. The company has no revenue: it is funded by venture capital investors, who own most of its shares, and by research grants. It made a loss of £19.6 million in the year to 30 June 2026.

Two large pharmaceutical companies have approached Culverton Biotech about licensing CLV-201.

Source: Culverton Biotech

Appendix D: Culverton Biotech selected data

In the year to 30 June 2026 the company raised no new funding, so its cash fell by the amount of its loss. The board expects spending to continue at the same rate until the Phase III trial begins.

Source: Culverton Biotech

Appendix E: Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats

• Phase II result. CLV-201 reduced the build-up of harmful bile acids by 58% compared with a placebo; there were no serious side effects.

• Patent. Filed in 2018; patents last 20 years from filing.

• Team. 31 of the 46 employees are scientists. The company has no sales force and no manufacturing.

• Phase III. The board estimates a 55% chance that the Phase III trial succeeds.

• Patients. About 2 700 people in the UK and about 13 500 in the United States have the disease.

• Investors. The venture capital investors expect to sell their shares within five years.

Source: Culverton Biotech

Assess whether Culverton Biotech's strengths outweigh its weaknesses.

Source B: Gadderby Sportswear

Gadderby Sportswear Limited is a private limited company, founded in 2008 by Martin Ashworth, a former rugby league player, and based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. It is owned by the Ashworth family, and Martin's daughter, Jo Ashworth, is Managing Director.

The company makes custom kit, including shirts, shorts, socks and training wear in each team's colours with names, numbers and sponsors' logos, for about 2 300 amateur rugby, football and netball clubs and 410 schools. Its mission is "kit made in Yorkshire for every grassroots team".

Every garment is cut, printed and sewn in its own factory, which allows it to deliver an order in 10 working days. The company repairs damaged kit free of charge for the first season and keeps each club's designs on file for quick reorders.

Revenue rose from £12.6 million to £14.2 million in 2025, and the factory made 610 000 garments. In 2025 the company began supplying clubs in Ireland and the Netherlands, which are in the European Union. Three rules apply to sales to EU customers:

• Tariffs. UK-made goods are free of tariffs if they meet the "rules of origin" in the UK-EU trade agreement.

• Customs. Every shipment needs a customs declaration.

• VAT. EU customers pay VAT when their goods arrive.

Many competitors sell online and import kit from factories in Asia, at lower prices but with deliveries that take four to six weeks.

The company's objective is to reach revenue of £20 million by 2030 with an operating profit margin of at least 10%.

Source: Gadderby Sportswear

Appendix D: Gadderby Sportswear selected data

Source: Gadderby Sportswear

Appendix E: Customers, competitors and trade

• Trade with the EU. Goods made in the UK can be sold to EU customers without tariffs if they meet the "rules of origin" in the UK-EU trade agreement, but every shipment needs a customs declaration, and EU customers pay VAT when their goods arrive.

• Service. Gadderby Sportswear repairs damaged kit free of charge for the first season and keeps each club's designs on file for quick reorders.

Source: Gadderby Sportswear and UK government guidance

Appendix F: Making in Yorkshire

• 41 of the 165 employees have worked for the company for more than ten years; 12 apprentices joined in 2025.

• Club survey, 2025: 64% of club secretaries said "made in the UK" was important to their choice of supplier; 71% said delivery time was important.

• A partner factory would need about six weeks to deliver, and minimum order sizes of 500 garments.

Source: Gadderby Sportswear

Assess whether making all its kit in Yorkshire helps Gadderby Sportswear to achieve its objective.

Calculate how much more it cost Gadderby Sportswear to make its 2025 garments in its own factory than it would have cost to buy them from the partner factory to support your answer.

Source A: Red Funnel

Red Funnel Limited provides ferry services across the Solent between Southampton and Cowes on the Isle of Wight, trading as Red Funnel. It has served the island since 1861. It runs vehicle ferries between Southampton and East Cowes, a freight ferry, and the Red Jet Hi-Speed passenger service between Southampton and West Cowes. Its passengers include island residents, visitors, commuters and patients travelling to mainland hospitals, and for many of them the service is a lifeline. Competitors, such as Wightlink, operate other routes across the Solent.

Red Funnel's mission is "to be the preferred ferry service to and from the Isle of Wight". Its strategy includes:

• operating a safe, reliable and year-round lifeline service

• offering customer service that exceeds expectations

• gaining market share through a superior value proposition based on safety, reliability, service, price and value for money

• improving its environmental footprint on the pathway to Net Zero

• managing the business efficiently, with robust financial stewardship and investment discipline.

In 2025 Red Funnel carried 2.71 million passengers, including about 922 000 on the Red Jet, and 163 000 freight vehicles. Turnover rose by 0.7% to £60.4 million. Costs rose faster, including the effects of increases in the National Living Wage and employers' National Insurance contributions.

On 28 November 2025 the company was bought by a business controlled by Njord Partners, an investment firm, after government approval. As part of the deal, banks wrote off loans, the debt was restructured, and the owners provided new capital. The company says this provides a "materially strengthened financial platform from which to invest in operations, infrastructure and customer experience".

Source: Red Funnel Limited, Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 December 2025

Appendix A: Red Funnel financial data

Adjusted EBITDA in 2024: £9 893 000. In 2025: £7 220 000. Turnover in 2025: £60 380 000.

Source: Red Funnel Limited

Appendix B: Red Funnel operations and market

Red Funnel describes the cross-Solent ferry market as "highly competitive", which "limits the ability to pass on external cost increases". It says early bookings for 2026 have been "encouraging".

Source: Red Funnel Limited and Isle of Wight Council

Appendix C: Finance, fleet and plans

• Debt. In May 2026 the remaining bank loans were replaced by a single loan of £37.5m, repayable in September 2030. No cash interest is payable on it in 2026 or 2027.

• Vehicle ferries. Red Funnel's three vehicle ferries, Red Falcon, Red Osprey and Red Eagle, entered service in 1994, 1994 and 1996. The company says it is "actively reviewing fleet renewal plans" and will keep investing in refits, spare parts and engineering planning.

• East Cowes. Planning permission was granted in 2025 to redevelop the East Cowes terminal, which relies on a single linkspan (the ramp vehicles use to board). The plans include a new terminal building, automated check-in and a marshalling yard for more than 350 vehicles.

• Electric ferry. Throughout 2025 Red Funnel worked with partners, "on a no-risk partnership basis", on a zero emission electric passenger ferry: a 150-passenger hydrofoil being developed by Artemis Technologies, reported to cost £10 million to £12 million to build. It is also working with government and local partners to increase the supply of electricity to Southampton and the port.

• Digital. Investment will continue in technology that "removes friction from the booking and travel experience".

Source: Analyst, using Red Funnel Limited, Isle of Wight Council and press reports

Red Funnel's mission is "to be the preferred ferry service to and from the Isle of Wight". Its new owners have reduced its debt, but it must repay a bank loan of £37.5m by September 2030.

Evaluate whether Red Funnel should give priority to replacing its vehicle ferries or to redeveloping its East Cowes terminal.

Source B: Linbury Preserves

Linbury Preserves Limited makes jam and marmalade near Leominster, Herefordshire. It was founded in 1952 by Joan Ashby in her farmhouse kitchen and is still owned by the Ashby family; its Managing Director is Tom Ashby, her grandson. It employs 58 people and in the year to 31 March 2026 sold 3.02 million jars, mainly to farm shops, delicatessens and independent food shops, and through its own website.

The company's mission is to make "proper preserves, the slow way": every batch is boiled in open copper pans, and the fruit comes from farms within 30 miles. It buys its fruit from 14 Herefordshire growers on five-year contracts, at prices above the market price, so that the growers can plan and invest. In 2025 the family set an objective of doubling the company's revenue by 2030.

To be sold as "jam", a product must meet the legal standards for fruit and sugar content. In 2024 Linbury Preserves launched a range with less sugar; because its sugar content is below the legal standard, it must be sold as a "fruit spread" rather than as jam.

Many of its customers say they are trying to eat less sugar. At the same time, the company's costs have risen. The National Living Wage rose by 4.1% to £12.71 an hour from April 2026, employers have paid more National Insurance since April 2025, and since 2025 the company has paid fees on the glass jars and lids it uses, under new rules which make businesses pay towards the cost of recycling packaging.

Source: Linbury Preserves

Appendix D: Linbury Preserves selected data

Source: Linbury Preserves

Appendix E: What customers are buying

Jars sold, millions, years to 31 March

Survey of Linbury Preserves' website customers, 2026

Source: Linbury Preserves

Appendix F: Fruit, growers and costs

Source: Linbury Preserves

Appendix G: Three ways to grow

Source: Linbury Preserves

Linbury Preserves' objective is to double its revenue by 2030, and its mission is to make preserves "the slow way".

Evaluate two ways Linbury Preserves could achieve its objective and recommend which one it should choose.

Use information from Appendices D to G to support your answer.

Source B: Bretforton Facilities

Bretforton Facilities Limited was founded in 1989 by Anne Fielding in Bretforton, near Evesham, and is still owned by her family. Her son, Mark Fielding, is Managing Director. It cleans and maintains about 180 schools, 64 GP surgeries and health centres, and a number of offices across Worcestershire and the West Midlands, and employs 640 people, most of them part-time cleaners and caretakers.

Its mission is "clean, safe buildings, looked after by local people who are paid fairly". Since 2016 it has been an accredited Real Living Wage employer, which means it pays all its staff at least the Real Living Wage, a voluntary rate set by the Living Wage Foundation that is higher than the legal National Living Wage. Its objective is to reach £30 million of revenue by 2030 while remaining a Real Living Wage employer.

Bretforton Facilities competes for contracts against national facilities management companies, which can often offer lower prices. Its largest customer, a county council, wants to cut the price of its contract when it is renewed next year.

Anne Fielding is 71 and wants to sell the business. A national competitor, Corvane Group, has made an offer, and the family is also considering selling to an employee ownership trust.

Source: Bretforton Facilities

Appendix D: Bretforton Facilities selected data

Source: Bretforton Facilities

Appendix E: Pay and people

• In 2026 the company introduced an app that gives cleaners their schedules and lets them report problems with photos. Many cleaners are older and some have asked to keep paper rotas.

• Head teachers' survey, 2026: 88% said the same cleaners working in their school every week was "very important".

Source: Bretforton Facilities and the Living Wage Foundation

Appendix F: Customers and competitors

• The county council contract is worth £7.44m a year. The council wants a price 6% lower when the contract is renewed in April 2027, and has said it will also invite bids from national companies.

• Bretforton Facilities has never lost a school contract on quality, but lost four in 2025 to national competitors bidding about 8% lower.

Source: Bretforton Facilities

Appendix G: Two ways to sell the business

Source: Bretforton Facilities and HMRC guidance

Anne Fielding wants to sell Bretforton Facilities. Its mission is "clean, safe buildings, looked after by local people who are paid fairly".

Evaluate whether the Fielding family should sell Bretforton Facilities to Corvane Group or to an employee ownership trust.

Use information from Appendices D to G to support your answer.

Source B: Macknade

Macknade is a family-owned food hall on the edge of Faversham, Kent, on the site of a farm the Neame family began farming in 1847. The company, Macknade Fine Foods Ltd, employed an average of 82 people in the year to 31 March 2025.

In 1979 Patricia Neame and her husband Renato Cuomo, who was born on the Italian island of Ischia, opened a pick-your-own business on the farm. In 2001 the family stopped farming to concentrate on retail. Their son, Stefano Cuomo, the sixth generation to run the business, became managing director in 2013 and later Chief Executive.

The seven-acre site is dominated by a 10 000 square foot food hall, which sells:

• local and Mediterranean produce

• more than 100 cheeses

• meat from its own butchery, which opened in 2016 and buys whole carcasses from farms using regenerative "Pasture for Life" methods

The site also has a café and an outdoor food village of street-food traders. Other businesses rent space on the site, including a vet, a fitness studio and a sauna.

In 2021 Macknade's managing director said that "community is at our core". Its Chief Executive has described a shopper with a "dual shopping list", who buys some items in supermarkets and others from independent shops.

In 2020 Macknade opened a second shop, in Ashford, Kent. Its website now lists only the Faversham site.

Source: Macknade, Macknade Fine Foods Ltd accounts and press interviews

Appendix D: Macknade Fine Foods Ltd balance sheet data

• In the year to 31 March 2025 Macknade spent £107 559 on new fixed assets, including property improvements, equipment and fixtures, and charged £59 714 of depreciation.

• As a small company, Macknade is not required to publish its profit and loss account, and does not.

Source: Macknade Fine Foods Ltd

Appendix E: The Faversham site

• The site also offers an online shop for hampers and gift boxes, events, venue hire and catering.

• Macknade won a Farm Shop & Deli Retailer Award in 2023.

Source: Macknade and press reports

Appendix F: Customers and community

• Shoppers. The Chief Executive says: "We're seeing more of what we called the dual shopping list grocery shopper."

• Older customers. "They have cash in their pockets, they're loyal, but often get overlooked because they're not seen as the trend."

• Community. "What gels a community is regular grocery retail, and it is very difficult to do outside of the supermarkets."

• Travel. Macknade has promoted e-bikes, with test-ride events on site.

• Values. The family says its "heart is, just as it has always been, in our food and the people we share it with".

Source: Analyst, using Macknade and press interviews

Appendix G: Growing beyond Faversham

Source: Analyst, using Companies House and press reports

In 2021 Macknade's managing director said that "community is at our core". Its Chief Executive has said he plans to expand beyond Faversham.

Evaluate whether Macknade should open another food hall or continue to develop its Faversham site.

Use information from Appendices D to G to support your answer.