COMPANY NEWS WAITAKI FARMERS’ FREEZING

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28130, 20 November 1956, Page 19

COMPANY NEWS WAITAKI FARMERS’ FREEZING

PROFIT UP 54 PER CENT. Net profit of the Waitaki Farmers’ Freezing Company, Ltd., for the year ended October 31 rose £19,231, or 54 per cent, to a record £55.067. The recommended annual dividend cn the trebled capital is 7| per cent., compared with 10 per cent, paid last year. This will take £21,607, compared with last year’s dividend requirement of '£9603. General reserve is increased by £30.000 (bringing it ‘to £130,000), compared with last year’s transfer of £20,000. Net profit clears the higher appropriations by £3460. Carry-forward is increased by this amount to £39,828.

ROTHMANS (AUST.)

“SUBSTANTIAL SHARE OF MARKET CAPTURED”

Rothmans of Pall Mall (Australia), Ltd., cigarette manufacturers, had .captured a substantial share of the Australian market, said the chairman, Mr R A. Irish, at the annual meeting in Sydney. This was the company’s strength, he said, and followed the adoption of a deliberate policy of going after volume sales. Sales exceeded a rate of £5,000,000 a year and were growing every month. There was little doubt, Mr Irish added,, that Rothmans was already the second largest company in volume of sales in Australia. The sales enjoyed were not just curiosity buying, but regular repeat demand. Although production did not begin on a big scale until last March, an increasing manufacturing profit was already being earned, he said. A net profit was in sight as the volume of sales overtook selling and distributing costs. Once the company overtook this break-even point, the rate of profit should be satisfactory, Mr Irish thought. Mr Irish referred to “tooth and claw” competition in the Australian tobacco industry.