CONSOLIDATED BRICK

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26848, 12 August 1948, Page 7

CONSOLIDATED BRICK

UNDERSTANDABLE PROFIT DROP Dally Times Special Service WELLINGTON. Aug. 11. The decrease of £3825 in the net profit of Consolidated Brick and Pipe Investments, Ltd., was understandable In view of the reorganisation which had been necessary to prepare for the installation of plant and machinery made available by the recent increase of capital, said the chairman, Mr T. E. Clark, at the company’s annual meeting in Wellington to-day. In addition, there had been substantial increases in the cost of labour, freight and ,coal. Of the 150,000 £1 preference shares authorised by shareholders In August, 1947, 100,000 had been issued and the first of the new plant thus made available, was already in production.

On completion of the extensions being made to Ihe crockery factory at New Lynn, it would be possible to produce a very much wider range of product with a considerable improvement in quality, said Mr Clark. The plant would be one of the most efficient of its size in the world, he claimed, and it would be capable of catering for the majority of New Zealand's requirements at a reasonable price. * The company's concrete pipe factory in Auckland had been seriously affected by cement shortages, and for that reason, had worked at approximately only 50 per cent, of capacity. Reinforced concrete pipes produced there were used in supplying sewerage and storm-water drainage for all housing projects, and the inability to supply had been most serious, the chairman concluded.