WHAKATANE PAPER MILLS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26285, 17 October 1946, Page 10

WHAKATANE PAPER MILLS

INCREASED PROFIT SHOWN (Special) AUCKLAND, Oct. 16. The accounts of Whakatane Paper Mills, Ltd., for the year ended June 30 show a net profit of £12,339, compared with £11,279 in the previous year, and £2592 in 1944. The profit is struck after providing £37,568 for depreciation and £22,595 for taxation, compared with £48,790 and £73,582 respectively in the previous year. The reduced taxation is due to a decreased gross profit of £116,593, compared with £182,055 and in part to a reduction in the rate of taxation from 14s to 12s in the pound The directors recommend that the net profit should be carried forward to increase the balance in the profit and loss account to £14,356. The directors report serious electrical failure in the company’s plant which adversely affected production over several months of the year. Production at 11,605 tons represented a reduction of 2679 tons from the record figures established in 1945. The value of the tonnage delivered. £492,785, while reflecting the reduced tonnage, nevertheless included the increases approved by the Price Tribunal consequent upon wage adjustments. The prices authorised by the Price Tribunal had provided a totally inadequate return on that portion of the company's capital engaged in production and used exclusively in the cardboard mill section. The directors had continued to press the company's claims and the Tribunal had now, somewhat belatedly, granted some recognition bv authorising an interim increase in prices operative from October 1. The increased local demand for the company’s products exceeded for the time being the mill’s capacity to supply, as the result of which temporary import licences had been granted.