Oxford Cambridge and RSA
Wednesday 14 May 2025 – Morning
A Level Business
H431/01 Operating in a local business environment
Resource Booklet
Time allowed: 2 hours
* 1 9 4 1 9 4 7 2 2 4 *
INSTRUCTIONS
• Use this Resource Booklet to answer the questions in Section B.
• You can write on this Resource Booklet but it will not be sent for marking.
INFORMATION
• The business described in this Resource Booklet is a real business.
• This document has 4 pages.
© OCR 2025 [601/4675/8] OCR is an exempt Charity
DC (SL) 352164/3 Turn over
for more: tyrionpapers.com
, 2
Shanti’s Sewing Limited (SSL)
Shanti’s Sewing Limited (SSL) offers all types of tailoring work including repairs, resizing, and
restyling. It specialises in the alteration of formal clothing such as wedding dresses and suits. It is
owned and run by Shanti Gill. “We can do just about anything,” she says. “And with a repair or a
resize you’d need to look very hard to notice we’d done it.”
Shanti was made redundant when her employer closed down during the Covid pandemic. SSL 5
was established in 2021. In her words, “I decided to have a go at running my own business. After
all, I’ve been sewing all my adult life.”
SSL operates from one of several small units offered by the local council for businesses to rent
on an industrial estate near Preston. There are two similar tailoring businesses within a five-mile
radius of SSL. Shanti knows that they sometimes subcontract work to each other. 10
Shanti describes a typical day as, “Dealing with all the administration such as invoices, although I
still spend as much time as possible sewing; it’s the work I really love.”
Initially she decided to offer low prices on all of SSL’s services. However, it soon became obvious
that, with household incomes recovering from the pandemic, fewer people were willing to pay
to repair an item of clothing when they could buy a new one from a discount retailer. Therefore, 15
she decided to change her policy and target a different market segment. SSL now specialises in
high quality repairs and alterations to expensive clothing. It has an excellent reputation for these
services and customers are prepared to pay a premium price.
Customers pay 50% of the price of all work in advance. Shanti has a good relationship with
her suppliers who will typically allow her 28 days to pay. As a result, SSL rarely has issues with 20
cash-flow.
Shanti is still very pleased to accept simple clothing alterations and repairs, since these are
usually straightforward. For example, the average price for a repair is £16.50. Over the last two
years the number of these has steadily grown. “Currently we do 30 of these repairs a month,”
says Shanti. “This work makes a nice little addition to our revenue.” She thinks this figure might 25
grow by 20% over the next 12 months.
Shanti admits that pricing can sometimes involve a bit of guesswork. Therefore, she has collated
some past data so she can calculate price elasticity of demand (see Table 1).
Table 1
Demand for simple clothing alterations at various prices
Price (£) 22 20 18 16
Customer demand per month 15 18 22 26
Customers will typically buy a formal outfit, such as a suit or wedding dress, in a standard
size and design. Then they will have it altered by a business, such as SSL, to meet their exact 30
requirements. This work can be very time consuming because a customer might return more than
once for a fitting – followed by further alterations. Summer weddings are very popular and so the
demand for this sort of work tends to increase around May.
Shanti has three employees who are all able to perform any of SSL’s services. They are all
creative and artistic. When doing specialist alterations, they will not only consider a customer’s 35
measurements but also assess other factors such as posture. All employees have been with
SSL since it was established. They are paid an hourly pay rate and are usually willing to work
© OCR 2025 H431/01 Jun25
for more: tyrionpapers.com
, 3
overtime, that is paid at 1.5 times their standard rate. “They are excellent. I’d hate to lose any
of them,” Shanti says. “I’m considering introducing some sort of appraisal method linked to a
bonus.” 40
Unsurprisingly, the employees prefer to take their longest holiday in the summer months. This
puts pressure on meeting the deadlines for altering formal clothing, as well as impacting what
other work SSL can accept. Shanti is particularly keen to accept work on wedding clothing
because it is so profitable. It also generates good word-of-mouth publicity.
So far SSL has never failed to complete any alteration on time, but this coming summer two 45
employees have each requested to take three weeks of their annual holiday entitlement during
July. This, along with the general growth of SSL’s work, means that Shanti can foresee potential
problems.
She has been analysing some data relating to the demand for wedding dress and suit alterations
so she can try to decide how to respond to the holiday requests (see Table 2). 50
Table 2
Data for wedding dress and suit alterations (May to September, 2023 and 2024)
Month Number of wedding Three-period total Three-period
dress and suit moving average
alterations (rounded)
May 2023 12
June 2023 29 80 27
July 2023 39 90 30
August 2023 22 70 23
September 2023 9
May 2024 21
June 2024 34 97 32
July 2024 42 104 35
August 2024 28 81 27
September 2024 11
Shanti thinks that recent governments have not given enough help to small businesses, such as
SSL. During the pandemic there was a temporary cut in the basic rate of Value Added Tax (VAT)
from 20% to 5% for certain businesses – which did not include sewing businesses. Shanti is
strongly in favour of a permanent cut in VAT.
SSL has certainly faced challenges since it was established, but Shanti is proud of her 55
achievements and considers her business to be a success.
NB: SSL is a real business. However, to protect sensitive information, the name of the business, its
location, and its owner’s name have been changed.
© OCR 2025 H431/01 Jun25
for more: tyrionpapers.com
Wednesday 14 May 2025 – Morning
A Level Business
H431/01 Operating in a local business environment
Resource Booklet
Time allowed: 2 hours
* 1 9 4 1 9 4 7 2 2 4 *
INSTRUCTIONS
• Use this Resource Booklet to answer the questions in Section B.
• You can write on this Resource Booklet but it will not be sent for marking.
INFORMATION
• The business described in this Resource Booklet is a real business.
• This document has 4 pages.
© OCR 2025 [601/4675/8] OCR is an exempt Charity
DC (SL) 352164/3 Turn over
for more: tyrionpapers.com
, 2
Shanti’s Sewing Limited (SSL)
Shanti’s Sewing Limited (SSL) offers all types of tailoring work including repairs, resizing, and
restyling. It specialises in the alteration of formal clothing such as wedding dresses and suits. It is
owned and run by Shanti Gill. “We can do just about anything,” she says. “And with a repair or a
resize you’d need to look very hard to notice we’d done it.”
Shanti was made redundant when her employer closed down during the Covid pandemic. SSL 5
was established in 2021. In her words, “I decided to have a go at running my own business. After
all, I’ve been sewing all my adult life.”
SSL operates from one of several small units offered by the local council for businesses to rent
on an industrial estate near Preston. There are two similar tailoring businesses within a five-mile
radius of SSL. Shanti knows that they sometimes subcontract work to each other. 10
Shanti describes a typical day as, “Dealing with all the administration such as invoices, although I
still spend as much time as possible sewing; it’s the work I really love.”
Initially she decided to offer low prices on all of SSL’s services. However, it soon became obvious
that, with household incomes recovering from the pandemic, fewer people were willing to pay
to repair an item of clothing when they could buy a new one from a discount retailer. Therefore, 15
she decided to change her policy and target a different market segment. SSL now specialises in
high quality repairs and alterations to expensive clothing. It has an excellent reputation for these
services and customers are prepared to pay a premium price.
Customers pay 50% of the price of all work in advance. Shanti has a good relationship with
her suppliers who will typically allow her 28 days to pay. As a result, SSL rarely has issues with 20
cash-flow.
Shanti is still very pleased to accept simple clothing alterations and repairs, since these are
usually straightforward. For example, the average price for a repair is £16.50. Over the last two
years the number of these has steadily grown. “Currently we do 30 of these repairs a month,”
says Shanti. “This work makes a nice little addition to our revenue.” She thinks this figure might 25
grow by 20% over the next 12 months.
Shanti admits that pricing can sometimes involve a bit of guesswork. Therefore, she has collated
some past data so she can calculate price elasticity of demand (see Table 1).
Table 1
Demand for simple clothing alterations at various prices
Price (£) 22 20 18 16
Customer demand per month 15 18 22 26
Customers will typically buy a formal outfit, such as a suit or wedding dress, in a standard
size and design. Then they will have it altered by a business, such as SSL, to meet their exact 30
requirements. This work can be very time consuming because a customer might return more than
once for a fitting – followed by further alterations. Summer weddings are very popular and so the
demand for this sort of work tends to increase around May.
Shanti has three employees who are all able to perform any of SSL’s services. They are all
creative and artistic. When doing specialist alterations, they will not only consider a customer’s 35
measurements but also assess other factors such as posture. All employees have been with
SSL since it was established. They are paid an hourly pay rate and are usually willing to work
© OCR 2025 H431/01 Jun25
for more: tyrionpapers.com
, 3
overtime, that is paid at 1.5 times their standard rate. “They are excellent. I’d hate to lose any
of them,” Shanti says. “I’m considering introducing some sort of appraisal method linked to a
bonus.” 40
Unsurprisingly, the employees prefer to take their longest holiday in the summer months. This
puts pressure on meeting the deadlines for altering formal clothing, as well as impacting what
other work SSL can accept. Shanti is particularly keen to accept work on wedding clothing
because it is so profitable. It also generates good word-of-mouth publicity.
So far SSL has never failed to complete any alteration on time, but this coming summer two 45
employees have each requested to take three weeks of their annual holiday entitlement during
July. This, along with the general growth of SSL’s work, means that Shanti can foresee potential
problems.
She has been analysing some data relating to the demand for wedding dress and suit alterations
so she can try to decide how to respond to the holiday requests (see Table 2). 50
Table 2
Data for wedding dress and suit alterations (May to September, 2023 and 2024)
Month Number of wedding Three-period total Three-period
dress and suit moving average
alterations (rounded)
May 2023 12
June 2023 29 80 27
July 2023 39 90 30
August 2023 22 70 23
September 2023 9
May 2024 21
June 2024 34 97 32
July 2024 42 104 35
August 2024 28 81 27
September 2024 11
Shanti thinks that recent governments have not given enough help to small businesses, such as
SSL. During the pandemic there was a temporary cut in the basic rate of Value Added Tax (VAT)
from 20% to 5% for certain businesses – which did not include sewing businesses. Shanti is
strongly in favour of a permanent cut in VAT.
SSL has certainly faced challenges since it was established, but Shanti is proud of her 55
achievements and considers her business to be a success.
NB: SSL is a real business. However, to protect sensitive information, the name of the business, its
location, and its owner’s name have been changed.
© OCR 2025 H431/01 Jun25
for more: tyrionpapers.com
