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Preparing for the CIMA Operational Case Study (OCS) exam for the May–August 2025 sitting? If so, you’re likely deep into the Halfpenny pre-seen and wondering where to focus your revision. This blog offers a detailed breakdown of CIMA OCS May 2025 preseen’s key highlights, potential examinable issues, and proven exam strategies — all designed to help you succeed.
The CIMA OCS exam is not just about testing your theoretical knowledge — it’s about applying that knowledge in a realistic business context. The pre-seen material is released in advance to give you a real-world company to analyse and prepare for. Understanding the business operations, industry environment, and internal dynamics is crucial for crafting high-quality responses in the exam.
For this sitting, the spotlight is on Halfpenny, a long-standing, family-owned bread manufacturing business based in Keeland.
Halfpenny has been baking bread since 1891, evolving from a small family bakery into one of the largest plant bakeries in Keeland. Today, it produces a variety of packaged sliced bread loaves and bread rolls, all manufactured at a centralised Production Facility and sold through B2B channels to retailers.
Owned and operated by the Halfpenny family for over a century, the business is now run by siblings Trey Halfpenny (MD) and Rosa Grimble (Sales & Marketing Director).
Keeland’s bread market is valued at K$2.5 billion, with three main types of producers:
While Halfpenny still enjoys a strong market share, the pre-packaged bread segment is in decline, driven by:
This backdrop suggests an urgent need for innovation — a theme that runs heavily throughout the pre-seen.
The shift towards healthier, more sustainable, and artisanal bread is pressuring traditional manufacturers like Halfpenny. This opens the door to product diversification, such as:
With the recent appointment of Harry Chang as Product Development Director, it’s clear the company is responding to these pressures.
Halfpenny produces bread in batches, using a clearly defined process across five departments: Mixing & Kneading, Shaping & Proving, Baking, Cooling, and Packaging.
The production is highly automated, yet the business is also facing:
With a shelf life of just two weeks, Halfpenny's logistics and delivery processes are critical. The Distribution Centre is located next to the Production Facility, and the company runs its own vehicle fleet.
Challenges include:
With our Advanced, Master, and Ultimate OCS packages here, you’ll get in-depth weekly guidance tailored to these key pre-seen topics — including theory revision, past paper analysis, and pre-seen-specific mocks.
From a strategic and operational standpoint, here are some of the key issues you should prepare to tackle in the exam:
Halfpenny is heavily reliant on traditional bread products. Introducing new lines — especially health-focused or sustainable options — could help reverse stagnant growth. You might be asked to:
The company uses an incremental budgeting approach. You could be asked to:
The new HR Director has introduced a bonus scheme aimed at boosting productivity. Expect scenarios asking you to:
The business gives longer credit to large retailers while receiving tighter terms from suppliers. You might be asked to:
Halfpenny’s goal is to be carbon neutral by 2040. Initiatives such as electric vehicles, ingredient sourcing, and packaging upgrades could feature in exam tasks around:
Expect numerical tasks related to:
Our OCS mock exams (included in all packages here) are specifically designed to simulate the kind of real-world scenarios you’ll face in this section of the exam.
Halfpenny’s budget data reveals an important insight: bread rolls have significantly higher gross profit margins than bread loaves. For example, rustic rolls have a gross margin of 48.9%, while white loaves generate only 20.2%. This raises a strategic question — should Halfpenny shift its focus toward more profitable product lines?
In an exam scenario, you could be asked to assess product profitability and make recommendations. Applying contribution analysis, limiting factor analysis, or product mix optimisation could help justify decisions. You might also be asked to evaluate whether increasing production of high-margin products like multi-seed rolls is operationally feasible, considering capacity constraints and distribution logistics.
If you’re unsure how to tackle questions like this, our mock marking services and personalised tutor support (starting from the Advanced package) here can help you understand how to present strong, exam-ready answers in this CIMA OCS May 2025 preseen.
Each part of the CIMA Operational level syllabus is integrated into the case study exam. Here’s how they typically show up:
No — just understand the trends and relationships between sales, costs, margins, etc.
Not directly, but scenarios often touch on these, especially in E1 applications.
Roughly 1 to 1.5 typed pages per task. Clear structure is more important than length.
Our CIMA OCS May–Aug 2025 packages are built around the Halfpenny pre-seen and structured week by week to give you everything you need — from video lectures and study notes to marked mocks, past paper revision, and 1-to-1 tutor support.
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