Marshall, secretary.
The chairman said:
The first resolution to come before you this afternoon is one recommending the adoption of the report and accounts, and before proposing it formally I will take the opportunity of giving you a short [resume of the year's working.
The accounts are presented in the) usual form, but as the figures shown are simply the final balances from the working accounts, you will be interested to have rough analysis of [them and comparison with the figures of the previous year.
'Our business, as you know, falls naturally into' two sections, the store department and the aerated water manufacturing department, and I will deal with the store side first. In this department the gross value of the sales showed a slight increase over the previous year, $122,983.06 as against $121,968.48, and as 1923 was also a bit ahead of 1922, it is evident that we are not losing ground in the volume of business done, even if we are not making much increase. Stocks in hand at the end of the year were appreciably lower, $69,867.30 as against $81,303.40, and purchases during the year were also rather Hicss, the.gross profit on the department being $1,426.29 less than for 1923. On the other side of this account we have been able, by the exercise of small economies wherever }found possible, to reduce the overhead charges "from $43,359.55 to; $42,799.10 and saving of $620.45 has assisted in the reduction of the nett loss on the store: account to $503.55 as against a nett loss last year of $1,097.71, Heavy Overhead Costs The only explanation of this branch of the business again shor balance on the wrong obtaining retail prices which sufficient gross profit to cover our working charges. We are situated in an expensive location and have to bear the heavy overhead charge that goes with it, and on the other hand the prices of most of the standard lines of proprietary articles are so fent to pieces by dispensaries working in less expensive premises, particularly the Chinese chemists, that we are obliged to keep our sel-Ing prices down to a level at which a foreign-staffed business works at a profit. For dispensed medicines the business is naturally still held by the foreign dispensers {to a large extent but, unfortunately, this is the least important side of the store trade from a profit-making point of view.
On the other side of our bus-loess, the atated water factory, to which we have in past years look-Jed to provide a good share of our' total profits, the result of last year's working was very disappointing. The total sales. were reduced in value by about 10 per cent.; purchases of materials during the year [were correspondingly less and. the stock on hand at the end of the year also reduced in the same proportion, the gross profit showing a reduction of $4,263.41. On the other side of the account our overhead expenses were increased by $1,319.- 82, which is more than accounted for by the increase in the rental lof the factory premises, which we were forced to pay on renewal of the lease, the additional rent, rates and taxes amounting to $1,082.87. 'The nett result of the factory account is a loss of $1,998.42 as against a profit last year of $3,624.- and this change in figures must be' attributed chiefly to the reduced volume of business we were able to do. Last summer was not a good one from our point of views there was very little hot weather until July and not a great deal during the following months, and. the temperature has a considerable influence on the. sales of mineral waters. With: the demand not' good and strong competition to be faced we had an unremunerative season to go through and the same. overhead expenses to be carried a3 in @ busier season.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.