CO-OP. REPAYS LOANS

Press, Volume C, Issue 29643, 13 October 1961, Page 19

CO-OP. REPAYS LOANS

Bay Of Plenty Fertiliser

(N.Z. Press SssociatUm) ' TAURANGA, Oct 10. With the sum of £150,000 repaid to the New Zealand Meat Producers’ Board during the year, and the £lOO,OOO last year, the loan for working capital had been entirely paid off, the chairman of directors, Mr A. L Friis, told the annual meeting of shareholders of the Bay of Plenty CO-operative Fertiliser Company, Ltd., held at Mount Maunganui yesterday. Mr Friis said that it was the intention of the directors □f the company to make a substantial payment during the current year against the debenture loan. Mr A. J. Coster, Tauriko, said it was hard to realise that in only two and a half years of operation a quarter of a million pounds in debt had been liquidated. “Followed by Others” While it was true that any reduction in the price of fertiliser would be followed by other companies, the policy of competitive price levels maintained by the Bay of Plenty Fertiliser Company throughout its operations must have bfeen of material benefit to all farmers in the Auckland Province, he said. However, at this stage, a better move would be to repay debts than to make reduction in the price of fertiliser. Mr F. C. Johnson said, in view of the possible establishment of a freezing works in the area, it would be in the interests of all to repay loan moneys to the Meat Board as soon as possible. Mr Friis said that the £250,000 had been repaid out of depreciation moneys. The selilng price of fertiliser was of no real significance, he said, provided all profits went back to the shareholders.