Aust. Repco profit booms

Press, 30 August 1984, Page 26

Aust. Repco profit booms

NZPA-AAP Melbourne

The Australian automotive parts and manufacturing group Repco Corporation, Ltd, had a 40.8 per cent jump in annual profit to June 30 to sAust26.l4M (SNZ43.I3M) with better trading conditions and improved merchandising and marketing leading to record sales. Directors said the profit improvement reflected the group’s “all round improvement in performance and indicates that there is now a firm upward trend in profit”. They said the manufacturing division made particularly strong gains while the hardware group McEwan’s and the restructured New Zealand operations “were put on a sound, profitable basis”. New Zealand operations were formed into a single company, Repco Corp NZ, Ltd, from July, 1983, and rationalisation resulted in a marked improvement in the second half of the year.

Group sales of SIII4M set a company record, up 8.7

per cent on the 1982-83 figure of $1025M. Directors said the group entered 1984-85 under more favorable circumstances than it had enjoyed for over two years.

“All main activities are in good health and well set to produce increased profits,” they said.

However, the directors said the final result was $3.4 million below expectations because of one-off losses in the June quarter in three of the smaller businesses in the group.

These were listed as Geon Automative Inc. in the United States where the collapse of a major computer supplier meant the expense of a new computer system, the Queensland operations of McEwans which had heavy stock write-downs and restructuring costs, and costs associated with the merger of Repco Switch and Repco Accessories. Repco has declared a final dividend of five cents a share, which is the same as last year and makes the total dividend for the year 10 cents a share.