Carefully read the attached case study and answer the following questions: Vusis Sausage Company (VSC)

Having moved from Cape Town, Vusi missed the diverse types of high-quality sausages available in the mother city. In Gauteng, sausages were viewed primarily as meat to be served with breakfast or a sidedish with a braai. Vusi began making custom sausages out of the kitchen in his home in the middle of 2005. His original customers included friends, associates, and patrons at the restaurant where he worked as a bartender. Customer demand soon exceeded his production capabilities (maximum of 200kg per week), so he made plans to open a full-scale sausage company from his home. Vusi's Sausage Company (VSC) was established on November 1, 2007, when Vusi signed a six-month lease for space in a commercial building. This marked the beginning of a long journey, filled with numerous challenges. Although the space leased had once been used as a facility to manufacture sandwiches, it required additional renovations to meet the City Health and Safety regulations to produce sausage on a commercial scale. Vusis first opportunity to market his fledgling company came when the Sandton Convention Centre hosted the Gauteng International Food and Wine Festival. The festival spotlighted exotic meat and cheeses and thus presented an ideal opportunity to introduce and market his newly formed company. He rented a booth from which to sell his speciality sausages to festival attendees. Sales were brisk, and Vusi received a lot of very favourable comments from the festival participants. In 2010, Vusi opened his doors to businesses, with sales to the Woolworths grocery chain and local restaurants. Sales to local restaurants quickly took priority over those to Woolworths. While he focused much of his attention on sales to local restaurants, Woolworths, and Pick n Pay, he also developed a flyer that featured his speciality sausages and could be sent or given to his ever-expanding individual customers. By late 2014, VSC had sales of over R3 800,000 due to larger-order quantities from an expanding customer base, including two newly established casinos. VSC staff included a plant manager, a full-time sausage maker, and a part-time salesperson. Over the past decade, the establishment of casinos in Gauteng had an incredible economic impact. The local and surrounding economies were boosted by the growth of the tourism industry on a much grander scale than in the past. The dinner sausage industry is a competitive market with 15 to 20 major brands that are sold in the Gauteng retail market. In the retail segment, his major competitors include Enterprise and Escourt. While competition among the companies often centres on price, other competitive features included special promotions, advertising, and the variety of product offerings. Price competition in the food-service segment is probably more severe because sausages typically lost its brand identity as it was prepared and served. Large supermarkets control over 60 percent of the available supermarkets in the Gauteng area. Thus, ever-increasing numbers of consumers are shopping at the large supermarkets. Large organisations with centralised buying and professional buyers makes business more difficult for the small sausage producer. As the market for dinner sausage continues to grow, new entrants are expected. As evidenced by VSC, it is possible for a new company to enter the industry in a relatively short time. Suppliers provide meats, spices, and packaging material and they have relatively little ability to extract higher-than-normal profits from manufacturers. Sausage manufacturers can improve their purchasing position and lower costs as their volume increases. The larger regional and national companies, such as Escourt, and Enterprise, has a difficult time competing with the speciality dinner sausage products from small local producers such as VSC. Small companies can offer a wider variety of speciality sausages in smaller volumes. VSC prides itself on producing high-quality premium sausages in a variety of different forms and flavours. Vusi is committed to producing exceptional, distinctive-tasting sausages. His strategy involves purchasing only top-of-the-line ingredients, requiring employees to take extra precautions when producing the various types of sausage, and insisting that every aspect of the production process followed a specific set of procedures he personally developed. The price of VSCs sausage is pegged at the upper end of the spectrum, usually averaging a few cents above competitors' prices. While this approach established the company's position as a leader in the market, it is problematic in that no one knows how much, or even if, profits were being realised on the different varieties of sausage, let alone on individual orders. Methods for establishing prices lacks consistency. An accurate product costing system does not exist in VSC. Source: https://www.curiouscuisiniere.com/boerewors/ QUESTION 1 Before VSC can start planning marketing strategies, it is important to analyse the macro and micro environments in which it operates: With reference to the case of VSC above, discuss the elements of the macro environment where VSC operates. (30 Marks)