The international business environment

Contents
P1 3
The economic value 3
Imports and exports 4
Balance of payments/ balance of trade 4
Foreign investment 5
D1 6
P2 M1 7
Bibliography 8

P1
The economic value
Costa Coffee operates in the hospitality environment. The amount of coffee that is imported in to the UK in 2014 was 75.67million (http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-kingdom/imports).
The amount of coffee that costa coffee purchased in the UK in 2013 was 9000 tons. In 2014 Costa Coffee sold 400million cups of coffee in the UK. In the UK Costa Coffee employ 1,831 staff in the UK and 10,000 worldwide. A report shows that the UK is a nation of great coffee drinkers. Throughout the years the figure of people going to coffee shops has increased. As in 2009 1 in 9 coffee shop visitors visit coffee shops and in 2014 1 in 5 coffee shop visitors visit coffee shops drinking estimated 1.7billion cups of coffee per year in coffee shops. (http://www.hospitalityandcateringnews.com/2014/01/uk-coffee-shop-trends-for-market-now-6-2-billion-and-growing/). Statistics show that British men drink 1.7 cups of coffee a day whilst women drink 1.5 cups. They also show that 57% of coffee is drunk at breakfast but 37% is drunk between meals and mostly during working hours. (http://www.mvfglobal.com/coffee-machine-lead-generation-in-the-uk) Because of the increasing trends in coffee, now even non-specialist sectors provide coffee such as pubs, fast food and supermarkets. Because of the change in trend of coffee, many people now have coffee machines in their household which shows how popular it is. Costa Coffee is not just popular in the UK but is popular worldwide as they work with their international franchise partners in over 29 countries around the world. The international sales of Costa Coffee in 2014 was £602.4million which increased by 15.3% from the previous year. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-29122460).
Imports and exports
Imports are purchasing goods from another country. The total value of imports is $646billion. UK imports almost all of its copper, ferrous metals, lead, zinc, rubber, raw cotton, most of its tin, raw wool, hides and skins and many other raw materials. The main imports of the UK are consumer goods, food, fuels, industrial supplies, machinery and transportation. The benefits of import is cheaper suppliers, we receive goods from other countries that cannot grow ourselves such as bananas also the import tax goes to the UK government therefore it going to the UK economy.
Exports are selling goods to another country. The total value of exports is $481billion. The exports of the UK are telecommunications equipment, crude petroleum, automobiles, automatic data processing equipment, medicinal and pharmaceutical products, aircraft, engines and motors, transistors and valves, professional and scientific measuring equipment and motor vehicle parts and accessories. A benefit of export is that they will be able to make money on it as they will be paying export tax. The other benefits of export are expansion and allows them to reach out to the global market and lastly it brings a lot of money in due to job vacancies and taxes.
Balance of payments/ balance of trade
Balance of payments is the method countries use to monitor all international monetary transactions at a specific period of time. Balance of payments is important as all trades conducted by both the private and public sectors are accounted in this which allows them to know how much money is going in and out of the UK.
Balance of trade is the difference in value between the total exports and total imports of a nation during a specific period of time. It gives details of all imports and exports and it shows the goods that have been traded. It also shows how many have been imported and exported and where to. This is important because the balance of payments show the total value of the import and export accurately and they can then take this