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18 Which of the following statements about accounting ratios and their interpretation are correct?

1 A low-geared company is more able to survive a downturn in profit than a highly-geared company.

2 If a company has a high price earnings ratio, this will often indicate that the market expects its profits to rise.

3 All companies should try to achieve a current ratio (current assets/current liabilities) of 2:1.

A 2 and 3 only

B 1 and 3 only

C 1 and 2 only

D All three statements are correct

Shoe Co, a shoe manufacturer, has developed a new product called the ‘Smart Shoe’ for children, which has a built-in tracking device. The shoes are expected to have a life cycle of two years, at which point Shoe Co hopes to introduce a new type of Smart Shoe with even more advanced technology. Shoe Co plans to use life cycle costing to work out the total production cost of the Smart Shoe and the total estimated profit for the two-year period.

Shoe Co has spent $5·6m developing the Smart Shoe. The time spent on this development meant that the company missed out on the opportunity of earning an estimated $800,000 contribution from the sale of another product.

The company has applied for and been granted a ten-year patent for the technology, although it must be renewed each year at a cost of $200,000. The costs of the patent application were $500,000, which included $20,000 for the salary costs of Shoe Co’s lawyer, who is a permanent employee of the company and was responsible for preparing the application.

The following information is also available for the next two years:

Shoe Co is still negotiating with marketing companies with regard to its advertising campaign, so is uncertain as to what the total marketing costs will be each year. However, the following information is available as regards the probabilities of the range of costs which are likely to be incurred:

Required:

Applying the principles of life cycle costing, calculate the total expected profit for Shoe Co for the two-year period.

(10 marks)

1 Bailey’s is a large toy manufacturer based in a traditional industrial region. Established in the 1970s, it has faced many changes in the market and survived. This has been due in part to employing a largely unskilled low paid staff,and maintaining its main advantage, that of low production costs based on low pay. Most of the production involves repetitive and boring work with little challenge and opportunity for innovation. Although many of the employees have

been with the company for some time, there has been a high level of employee turnover.

However, an unhappy atmosphere has been apparent for some time. There has been a number of instances ofarguments between the staff, friction between different departments, disturbance, low morale, poor production and general unrest, made worse recently by a decline in business which may lead to staff reduction and redundancy. Poor pay is leading to family problems that are affecting the commitment and motivation of the employees.

The business was recently sold to the new owner, Rebecca Stonewall. She is concerned that the negative atmosphere she has found will harm the prospects of the business and is determined to address the issues that have become apparent.

She has therefore decided that it is time to take account of opinions and views of the employees in an attempt both to identify the problems and to resolve them. She has appointed external counsellors since she thinks that a programme of individual counselling might be appropriate and is also of the opinion that some form. of different or improved approach to motivation might be the answer to the problems at Bailey’s.

Required:

(a) Define the role that the external counsellor must fulfil at Bailey’s. (3 marks)