Company News BRITISH TOB. YEAR

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29748, 15 February 1962, Page 18

Company News BRITISH TOB. YEAR

Further Fall In Profit

Consolidated net profit of British Tobacco Company (Aust.). Ltd., at £1.924.331 for the year ended October 31 is a further fall of £456.407. or 191 per cent The previous year’s profit had fallen £265,553.

Earning rate drops from 12.1 to 96 per cent on ordinary capital of £18.736.720. after deducting £lll,lBB preference charge. Dividend, reduced from 10 to 8 oer cent., absorbs £1.498.938. Profit is after lower provisions for tax, £1.216.493 (down £234.703). and depreciation. £667.725 (down £14.610).

Provision for plant replacement £lOO.OOO in 1959 and 1960) is omitted. Interest on loans and notes, charged before n-ofit, rose £12.479 to £529.979.

Reserves receive from profit £279,520, or £90,480 less than for the previous year. Total reserves stand £314305 higher at £9.996,065 against maid capital of £20,447,308. Result of Change The fall in earnings was again directly the remit of the change in preference from non-filter to filtertip cigarettes, the chairman (Mr T. J. N. Foley) says in his review. “Your directors have recognised for some years that this company was late into the field of king-swe filters as the result of Federal Government tardiness in allowing importation of machinery and supplies which had already been granted to competitors." the report states. During 1961, improvement in the share of the filtertip market was offset by a sharp drop in the sales of nonfilter Virginia—a section in which the company “holds well over 80 per cent.” Mr Foley says this may be regarded as temporary, as “there are signs of more stability in this section of the trade.”

The programme for immediate or short-term results has included intensive market research into the current and future needs of smokers