COMMERCIAL

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20604, 4 November 1941, Page 2

COMMERCIAL

PROFITS DECLiNE SHEEPFARMERS’ COMPANY LOSS ON FREEZING An all-round deterioration in the finances of the company compared with last year is revealed by the accounts of the Gisborne Sheepfarmers' Frozen Meat and Mercantile Company, Limited, for the year ended August 31 last. The result is a net profit of £7127, as against £21,717 in .1940, and £4548 in 1939. The decline is due mainly to a loss of £1534 in the freezing department, which last year earned £11,251, but the mercantile department also went back to the extent of more than £2OOO, the net profit of £8661 comparing with £10,738 last year. The ,net profit of £7127 is struck after paying rebates on wool, stock, and purchases, writing off full depreciation, and providing for ail taxation. With £5446 brought into the accounts there is £12,573 available for a stri tuition, wnich the directors recommend should be used to pay preference dividends on botli freezing and mercantile shares, a 6 per cent dividend, the same as last year, on ordinary mercantile shares, and to transfer £3448 to the mercantile reserve, bringing it up to £40.000, leaving £3947 to be carried forward. The report comments that while the mercantile department experienced another good year’s trading there was a big decrease in killings at both works and that the results of the freezing department's operations were disappointing. Detailed figures show that there v/as a decline of more than 100,000 freight carcases compared with last year, but heavier killings than in either of the two previous seasons. Sheep showed a particularly heavy fall, over 80,000 at Gisborne and nearly 60,000 at Tokomaru Bay. Killings at each of the works during the past four years were as follows: —

1938 1939 1940 1941 Gisborne 374,420 374.006 481.861 423,373 Toko. Bay 53,154 87,639 116.504 74.449

Fr’ght Car 427,874 461,645 598,835 497,822 In 1937, with an output of 450,000 freight carcases, the freezing department was able to show a profit of over £4OOO, but in 1.939, with a large output, there was a loss of £2277. This year, with one of the biggest killings for some years, there was still a loss, and last year, with a kill of just under 600,000 freight carcases, was the only one in the last four when there was a profit. The outstanding features of the company’s finances for the past three years are indicated in the following table: — 1939 1940 1941 £ £ £ Freezing profit 2,277- 11,251 Mercantile profit 7,423 10,738 8,661 Aggregate profit 4,558 21,717 7,1-7 Freezing receipts 24,074 53,224 26,423 Freezing expenses 28,352 41,972 27,958 Mercantile receipts 41,302 53,630 49,410 Mercantile expenses 33,939 42,892 40, 1 48 Freezing reserve 5,522 —— --777 Mercantile reserve 21,553 29,076 ",j 1! Sundry creditors 32,302 47,942 40,30j> Sundry debtors 89,126 100,101 93,50 u Stocks 45.880 56.922 56,731