Lichtenstein blames Wool Board

Press, 1 November 1979, Page 20

Lichtenstein blames Wool Board

Commercial

II pa Auckland |: "Non co-operation, borderijing on obstruction, by I: executives of the New ZeaI land Woo! Board” is hampering the efforts of E. Lichjitenstein and Company, Ltd, ! j to increase exports further, Ji said the Lichtenstein chair•iman (Mr P. W. Grayburn) at 11 the annual meeting. I Mr Graybum said the I Auckland wool scourer comil pany had doubled its share fl of wool exports by New fl. Zealand, from 1.78 per cent fl in the 1969 year to 3.31 per fl cent in the year under reV view. V He said that despite the V upsurge in exports of forestO.ry products and manufacH tured goods, the company II i had increased its share of fl ; total New Zealand export fl earnings from 0.39 per cent fl ■ to 0.55 per' cent over the fl past 10 years. fl, “Yet what does the Wool fl Board do to encourage this fl i wholly New Zealand-owned vlcompany?” the chairman V(asked. “In its endeavour to I Q( protect the interests of the Q | officially-sponsored central ] fl i wool facilities and, apparent- > ily, the interest of the overfl iseas-owned shipping comAlpanies, they endeavour to

deny us payment for per- - farming identical services such as container packing.” .Mr Grayburn said the company ha"d been granted a container packing charge equal to "barely” one quarter of that granted to the central wool facilities. This, he said, was only after a prolonged battle with the Wool Board. The board’s “latest effort”: was to request the members of the conference shipping lines to refrain from storing emptv containers awaiting packing of Lichtenstein’s woo! in Lichtenstein’s own vard. he said. This necessitated, he said, wasteful transport and double handling. “Regrettably it is the farmer" who bears the ultimate costs of the inefficiencies resulting from these restrictions,” said Mr Grayburn. On trading in the present year, the chairman told the well-attended meeting that' both volume processed and profits were ahead of the previous year. i The directors expected the! amount of wool processed this vear to exceed that of' the past year, “particularly: if we can commission our third scouring line before June, which will be touch-and-go.” Mr Grav'ourn said. “Another effect of the increased capacity afforded bv

•the new scouring line." he said, "will be the company’s ability to' process and ship wool’ more promptly, thus 'hopefullv reducing off-sea-;son slocks held and financed (at balance date.” The chairman summarised the performance of .an in- [ vestment made in the company three years ago. “A purchaser of 100 shares in October, 1976. would have had a capital outlay of 5125. He would have' received bonus issues of one-for-four in 1977. one-for-three in 1978, and one-for-five in 1979. so that after today’s meeting .he would have doubled his shareholding to 200 shares without outlaying one further cent.” (The last sale price of Lichtenstein was 1,60 c. making a theoretical ex-bonus price of 133 c.) Furthermore. said Mr Gravburn. the dividend rate had been maintained during j those three years, therefore effectively doubling the 1976 rate. i He said the outlook for; :the remainder of the year was promising, but warned that the profitability of the (company did not depend on the buoyancy 7 of wool market, but’on the trading skills of the company executives, and the efficiency of its processing and handling of large volumes of wool.