CEMENT COMPANIES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 285, 2 December 1941, Page 3

CEMENT COMPANIES

TAXATION AND LOSSES

BURDEN OF COST INCREASES

Mr. J. M. A. Ilott, chairman of the British Standard Portland Cement, Limited at the annual meeting said that the year's had resulted in a net profit of £6577. This was nearly £1000 less than the profit for 1940, the reduction beta* due to the fact that the dividend received in November, 1940, from the Golden Bay Cement Company, Limited, -was 5 per cent, as against 7 per cent in the previous year. Unfortunately, the results of the year s operations of Golden Bay resulted in a loss, after providing for taxation, and the accounts would not include any dividend from the large investment this company. The report of Golden Bay snowed that the loss was due to heavy increases in freights which the Price Tribunal would not allow to be passed on, to increases in manufacturing and overhead costs, and to increased taxation. Directors of the Golden Bay Company, said Mr. Ilott, reported that although sales of cement for the year exceeded the estimate by a small amount, gross sales were substantially below those of the previous year. Sales volume was all important in an industry in which so much capital was invested, and in which overhead played so great a part in costs, and any reduction in turnover meant substantial increases in costs per ton. "Apart from our major difficulties due to increased cost of manufacture, freight increases have been an important factor in contributing to the unsatisfactory results of the year," he said.