Chapter 3, Problem 3EC

Abercrombie & Fitch, once the favorite of loyal teens, is considering lowering prices on all items it sells in an effort to win them back after several years of sales declines. A&F’s total sales were $4 billion last year, but they have been declining in the face of a weak economy and an intensively competitive retail environment. Price reductions are often effective in increasing sales, but marketers need to analyze how much sales must go up before a price reduction pays off and increases revenue enough to make the it worth doing. Assuming A&F’s gross profit margin is 60 percent and cost of goods sold represents the only variable cost, by how much must sales increase to maintain the same gross profit margin in terms of absolute dollars if A&F lowers prices by 10 percent?

Horizon Corporation manufactures personal computers. The company began operations in 2012 and reported profits for the years 2012 through 2019. Due primarily to increased competition and price slashing in the industry, 2020’s income statement reported a loss of $20 million. Just before the end of the 2021 fiscal year, a memo from the company’s chief financial officer (CFO) to Jim Fielding, the company controller, included the following comments:If we don’t do something about the large amount of unsold computers already manufactured, our auditors will require us to record a write-down. The resulting loss for 2021 will cause a violation of our debt covenants and force the company into bankruptcy. I suggest that you ship half of our inventory to J.B. Sales, Inc., in Oklahoma City. I know the company’s president, and he will accept the inventory and acknowledge the shipment as a purchase. We can record the sale in 2021 which will boost our loss to a profit. Then J.B. Sales will simply…

Horizon Corporation manufactues personal computers. The company began operations in 2012 and reported profits for the years 2012 through 2019. Due primarily to increased competition and price slashing in the industry, 2020's income statement reported a loss of $20 million. Just before the end of 2021 fiscal year, a memo from the company's chief financial officer (CFO) to Jim Fielding, the company controller, included the following comments: "If we dont do something about the large amount of unsold computers already manufactured, our auditors will require us to record a write-down. The resulting loss for 2021 will cause a violation of our debt convenants and force the company into bankruptcy. I suggest that you ship half of out inventory to J.B. Sales, Inc., in Oklahoma City. I know the company's presdient, and he will accept the inventory and acknowledge the shipment as a purchase. We can record the sale in 2021 which will boost our loss to a profit. Then J.B. Sales will simply return…

Danna Martin, president of Mays Electronics, was concerned about the end-of-the year marketing report that she had just received. According to Larry Savage, marketing manager, a price decrease for the coming year was again needed to maintain the company's annual sales volume of integrated circuit boards (CBs). This would make a bad situation worse. The current selling price of $18 per unit was producing a $2-per-unit profit—half the customary $4-per-unit profit. Foreign competitors kept reducing their prices. To match the latest reduction would reduce the price from $18 to $14. This would put the price below the cost to produce and sell it. How could these firms sell for such a low price? Determined to find out if there were problems with the company's operations, Danna decided to hire a consultant to evaluate the way in which the CBs were produced and sold. After two weeks, the consultant had identified the following activities and costs: Activities Costs Setting up equipment…

One Manila Inc.'s  president, Zane Cruz, is concerned about the prospects of one of the firm's major products.  The president has been reviewing a marketing report with Jom Lara, marketing product manager, for their top-of-the-line stereo amplifier.  The report indicates another price reduction is needed to meet anticipated competitors' reduction in sales prices.  The current selling price for OMI's amplifier is P35,000 per unit.  It is expected that within three months OMI's two major competitors will be selling their comparable amplifiers for P30,000 per unit.  This concerns CRUZ because OMI's current cost of producing the amplifiers is P31,500, which yields a P3,500 profit on each unit sold. The situation is especially disturbing because OMI had implemented an activity-based costing (ABC) system about two years ago.  The ABC system helped them better identify costs, cost pools, cost drivers, and cost reduction opportunities.  Changes made when adopting ABC reduced costs on this…

Ameen trading company is a popular distributor in the Nizwa region having years of experience in the field of logisties and marketing. Over these years, the company has gained a very good public opinion and quiet a big number of loyal customers. During the last year, the company has faced some financial struggles due to the pandemic - crisis. The company has decided to plan well for the current year based on the past performance so that the company will be able to regain its status. The management of the company has given with you the Income statement for the last year and asked you to calculate the gross profit and net profit margin. Partkular OMR Particular OMR Opening Stock Purchases Carriage and Freight Wages Gross Profit bd To 76,250 By Sales 315 250 "Closing stock 2,000 5,000 2,00,000 5,98500 1,01,000 By Gross Profit b/d 12000 Non-operating incomes 2,000 7 p00 *Dividend on shares 84 000 Profit on sale of shares 2,06,000 5,00,000 98,500 5,98,500 2,00,000 To Administration expenses…

Penco Ltd’s board of directors are looking into expanding the company’s business operations. Before investing in a new product, the board conducted one focus group, and based on this one bit of feedback, invested $5m of company funds to develop the product. Within two years, the company had lost $8m due to poor sales. Shareholders are furious and wish to hold directors personally liable for this loss. Analyse the likely outcome for directors if shareholders were to accuse the board of breaching CA s 180.

K. Gallant is president of Kranbrack Corporation. A company whose stock is traded on a national exchange. In a meeting with investment analysts at the beginning of the year, Gallant had predicted that the company’s earnings would grow by 20% this year. Unfortunately, sales have been less than expected for the year, and Gallant concluded within two weeks of the end of the fiscal year that it would be impossible to report an increase in earnings as large as predicted unless some drastic action was taken. Accordingly, Gallant has ordered that wherever possible, expenditures should be postponed to the new year-including cancelling or postponing orders with suppliers, delaying planned maintenance and training, and cutting back on end-of-year advertising and travel. Additionally, Gallant ordered the company’s controller to carefully scrutinize all costs that are currently classified as period costs and reclassify as many as possible as product costs. The company is expected to have…

Ameer Ltd. is a manufacturing company that produces toys for kids. The company was able to sustain a reasonable amount of sales in the last two quarters despite the pandemic-crisis during the last year. However, the company has faced some serious liquidity problems due to delayed payments by the customers and lower sales in the first two quarters. Hence, the company is seriously thinking about revising its working capital standards by considering the changes in the market. The finance manager of the company is seeking your help in assessing the Average inventory processing period from the following financial data. The company had an opening stock of OMR 10,000 during the last year and made a total purchase of 27,000 OMR. The company has returned OMR 2000 worth material due to quality issues. During the last year, the business has paid OMR 3000 as wages and OMR 6000 as salaries. The company sold goods for a total amount of OMR 50,000 of which OMR 20,000 sales was on cash basis. Average…