Goodman Group profit $3.2M

Press, 8 June 1979, Page 6

Goodman Group profit $3.2M

Goodman Group, Ltd (formerly A. S. Paterson and Co., Ltd) reports an unaudited net trading profit of $3,150,000 for the year to March 31, compared with a profit by a much smaller group, of $1,830,000 in the previous year.

The profit rise was after group sales of S7IM (S3IM in 1978), and a deduction of $2,216,000 for taxation ($622,000), a preliminary report says. The latest results were achieved by a much-expanded group. During the year the company completed the acquisition of Bonds NZ. Ltd, and 90 per cent of the ordinary capital of A.B. Consolidated Holdings, Ltd. Changes in the basis of the group resulted in total assets rising to SSIM at March 31, compared with just under SI7M three years previously. In addition to the trading profit there were extraordinary items of profit totalling $1,068,000. This includes capital profits from the sale of

properties, and tax savings atributable to the group after the inclusion of A. B. Consolidated as a subsidiary.

As announced, the company is to pay an increased dividend for the year of 17 per cent. (Last year 15 per cent.) The increased final dividend is to be paid on the bonus-increased capital. The effective dividend rate for rhe year is therefore 19.5 per cent.

The directors are recommending a final dividend of 10c a share, which is payable on the bonus-increased capital, 7.5 c of- which will be tax-free in shareholders hands.

The dividend will be paid after approval by the annual meeting on August 15. The latest year’s profit was calculated on a consolidated rather than equity basis. All operating subsidiaries made a contribution to the profits earned, the directors say.

The chairman (Mr G. P. Shirtcliffe) described yesterday as “a momentous day,” ase share-

holders of A. S. Paterson and Co., Ltd, changed its name to Goodman Group, Ltd.

More than 40 shareholders approved the name change at an extraordinary meeting of the company, and were then told that the company’s profit had risen 72 per cent to $3,150,000, after sales rose 132 per cent to S72M. Shareholders also approved a directors recommendation to make a one-for-four bonus issue.

The company was founded in Dunedin, in 1886, by Mr A. S. Paterson, and he was joined in the business in 1898 by Mr (later Sir) George Shirtcliffe, the grandfather of the present chairman. The company was listed on the stock exchange in 1949, and continued as a general and grocery merchant until the early 19705, when it began to diversify into food under the former chairman, Mr Alex Paterson. Mr Paterson embarked on a programme of expansion into the bakery field, which eventually led to his downfall. At the 1976 annual meet-

ing he was voted out of the chairmanship by dissatisfied baking interests, headed by the Goodman brothers. Mr G. P. Shirtcliffe spoke in support of the name change, and told shareholders that directors had thought about a name change for more than two years. He said, in that time, there had been “little apparent shareholder interest" and that any comments received by the board on the subject had been favourable. Noneof the shareholders at the meeting spoke against the resolution for the name change, and there was only one against the resolution when a show of hands was taken.

The shareholder against the change said later that she thought it was a “terrible shame’ that the name was being changed, when it was so well known throughout the country. “Why change something when it’s going so well?” she asked. Mr Alex Paterson did not attend the meeting.