Winstone To Hold Dividend At 10 p.c.

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32078, 28 August 1969, Page 22

Winstone To Hold Dividend At 10 p.c.

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, August 27. The directors of Winstone, Ltd, the Auckland building materials group, werje confident that the increased 10 per cent dividend rate could be maintained, the chairman (Mr A, H. Winstone) told the annual meeting today.

The upward turn in trading had continued into the current year, he said, and it was only in the last quarter of the previous nine-month period that the turnover had shown a significant improvement. The Government restrictions had been lifted considerably earlier, and this showed the time it took to recover from such arbitrary measures. The merging of Craig into the group had been a contributing factor to the improved results, mainly because of savings in operating expenses and overheads. The same applied to the integration in Whangarei of Hardie Bros and Whangarei Transport Mr Winstone drew attention to the detrimental effects of the “stop-go” policy, which first prevented capital equipment not being put to effective use and then strained resources when the accumulation of work had to be overcome. It also caused the loss of skilled tradesmen. ' It remained the group’s policy to take advantage of opportunities for diversification, he said. The managing-director (Mr

D, P. Winstone), said the export division was showing much promise, and results from new outlets, in the Pacific and the East were encouraging. Increased exports had been made in Gibraltar Soard, rigid P.V.C. products and refractory bricks. The manufacture In Auckland by the associate company, Certified Concrete, of concrete boats and barges was an interesting development, and a similar venture had recently been established in Singapore.