Wage round costs Nathan $15M

Press, 19 December 1985, Page 34

Wage round costs Nathan $15M

PA Auckland The wage round cost L. D. Nathan and Company, Ltd, about SISM in the present financial year, the company’s annual meeting was told yesterday. Trading generally has been difficult since balance date, said the managing director, Mr B. S. Cole. Sales for the two months to October 31, although 15.2 per cent ahead, had not produced profits proportionate to last year, he said.

Trading since balance date had been disrupted by strikes and other forms of industrial action in support of the wage round. Strikes by bank officers and bus drivers had upset sales demands and patterns, he said. Since balance date Nathan had decided to close Shore City Supermarket at Takapuna and the M. Zemba factory in Gisborne. Nathan Finance, Ltd, had acouired Odlins Finance, Ltd, and NZ Securities and Finance, Ltd, while the food

division opened “superstores” in Oamaru and Palmerston North. The chairman, Mr K. V. Coe, said that, while the trading outlook was difficult for some, Nathan was at least beginning to show its presence and power as a retailing force in 1986 as more developments were completed. It was decided to split Nathans’ 100 c ordinary shares into two 50c shares and to introduce a bonus share-in-lieii-of-dividend scheme.