BRITISH OVERSEAS STORES

Taranaki Daily News, 22 September 1931, Page 11

BRITISH OVERSEAS STORES

EXTENSION TO NEW ZEALAND. COWANT'S WIDE INTERESTS. Brief announcements were published recently of the acquisition by British Overseas Stores, Ltd., of London, of a controlling interest in Kirkcaldie and Stains, Ltd., of Wellington. A statement on the subject was made at the 10th annual meeting of British Overseas Stores by the chairman, Sir Henry F. Wilson. The company has interests in Capetown, Johannesburg, Beira, Lourenco Marques, Bulawayo and Jamaica. Sir Henry Wilson said the company had acquired a controlling interest in Kirkcaldie and Stains, Ltd., an. old-es-tablished and high-class business in Wellington, New Zealand, similar to that of Fletcher and Cartwrights, Ltd., Capetown (a subsidiary of British Overseas Stores), having premises on freehold sites and on areas held on lease in perpetuity from the Wellington City Council, in perhaps the most important and best shopping position in that city, and upon which £30,000 had been expended about two years ago in modernising the shop fronts. “This controlling interest has been acquired on what we believe to be highly satisfactory terms,” he continued, “and we anticipate good results from. the purchase, even under present conditions. Major C. B. Toms (formerly of Derry and Toms, Ltd.), who has been connected with Fletcher and Cartwrights, Ltd., since we have been interested in that business, is now in New Zealand, for the purpose of improving the business with the help of a man of long experience from this side, now on his way to take up the position of general manager. We have every hope that we may obtain as great satisfaction from this new investment as we have done from our interest in the Capetown business. . . . In making this substantial addition to our company’s assets, we have followed the line of policy which I laid down on a former occasion, namely, that any new business we might acquire should be a well-established and going concern.”

Reviewing the company’s accounts, the chairman said all its subsidiaries had been able to pay dividends to it and to put by reserves out of profits. Including the balance from the previous year, there was £46,881 to the credit of profit and loss account; preference dividend at 7J per cent, absorbed £15,469; income tax reserve, £5000; and ordinary dividend of 6 per cent., £20,790; leaving a balance of £5622 to be carried forward.