Reporting at J.M. Smuckers Company

Question

How does the "J.M. Smuckers Company" direct, organize, and prepare its departmental reports for its multiple product lines?

Answer

The J.M Smuckers Company offers a plethora of brands to wide consumer groups that help it operate within several different markets. Although this provides many opportunities for the company, as it spreads their operations and revenue channels across many different industries, it can make it difficult to effectively direct, organise and prepare departmental reports. These reports are critical for aiding in the structure of the firm’s operations, and must be effectively developed to provide concise information on a wide array of topics (Olsson, 2001). This can include information regarding new product release, financial performance or sustainability. J.M Smuckers Company mainly report through their annual report, which segments their performance across four key industries: U.S. retail coffee, U.S. retail consumer foods, international foodservice and natural foods, and U.S. retail pet foods (J.M. Smuckers Company, 2015). Providing different reports to discuss these four key operational sectors allows for a deeper analysis of company performance, whereby J.M Smuckers Company can understand how each department is contributing to wider business ambitions. Furthermore, each segment of the annual report that discusses these different departments within the organisation are organised and created by departmental leaders. This ensures the information is valid and relevant to the organisation, and that the annual report is created with credible information that helps outline overall organisational performance (J.M. Smuckers Company, 2015).

References

J.M. Smuckers Company, 2015. Annual Report 2015, Orrville: J.M. Smuckers Company. Olsson, B., 2001. Annual reporting practices: information about human resources in corporate annual reports in major Swedish companies.. Journal of Human Resource Costing & Accounting , 6(1), pp. 39-52.