On the location of new facilities for chain expansion under delivered pricing

We study the problem of locating new facilities for one expanding chain which competes for demand in spatially separated markets where all competing chains use delivered pricing. A new network location model is formulated for profit maximization of the expanding chain assuming that equilibrium prices are set in each market. The cannibalization effect caused by the entrance of the new facilities is integrated in the objective function as a cost to be paid by the expanding chain to the cannibalized facilities. It is shown that the profit of the chain is maximized by locating the new facilities in a set of points which are nodes or iso-marginal delivered cost points (points on the network from which the marginal delivered cost equals the minimum marginal delivered cost from the existing facilities owned by the expanding chain). Then the location problem is reduced to a discrete optimization problem which is formulated as a mixed integer linear program. A sensitivity analysis respect to both the number of new facilities and the cannibalization cost is shown by using an illustrative example with data of the region of Murcia (Spain). Some conclusions are presented. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.