McDonalds announced that they would no longer serve Heinz ketchup in their stores after they found out that it is owned by the same man that recently bought Burger King. Not wanting any business to be done with Burger King – their most dangerous competitor- they decided to cut their supply of Heinz ketchup. McDonalds thought that by providingHeinz with the information such as how much ketchup they need and perhaps some advertising they would include in the packaging would imply that their greatest competitor would have access to their information and somehow gain advantage.

This may be seen as McDonalds being slightly paranoid of competitors gaining information through their supply of ketchup. However, using one of the tools provided in class I came up with the conclusion that according to the SWOT analysis, the amount of threats and weaknesses increase if they remain their supply of Heinz ketchup. Therefore to cut the risk of being controlled by another company they simply cut their purchase of Heinz.

The decision made will be more harmful to Heinz than to McDonalds. This is because being the #1 in fast food restaurants would give them the opportunity of easily partnering up with another ketchup supplier.