FINANCIAL NOTES UNILEVER RETAIL GROUP
Fntsr news of the fortunes of the great Lever Brothers and Unilever combine during 1938 comes from the group of retail provision companies which are linked to it through Allied Suppliers, namely, Home and Colonial Stores, Maypole DairY and Meadow Dairy. These companies have not necessarily shared the same fortunes as the rest of the combine. In recent years the reverse has been true; the soap and edible oil business has been prospering, while the retail group has been under a cloud. But it is at least possible that the recovery in the retail group will now be a powerful make- weight offsetting whatever effects the industrial recession, %cm-- psychology, and the fall in commodity prices may have had on the main business of the group. Recovery has been sharp, and Sir George Schuster, t!;e chairman of the Home and Colonial Stores and the Maypole Dairy, who has been conducting an extensive internal 1e organisation of the business, must be given much of the credit. Home and Colonial are resuming the payment of ordinary dividends after an interval of three years, with a distribution of 3 per cent., Maypole are paying a deferred ordinary dividend of 9 per cent., against 7 per cent., and Meadow Dairy are Lis- tributing to per cent. on the preferred ordinary and 5 per cent.
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FINANCIAL NOTES
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on the deferred ordinary as last year. As the following table shows, the increase in profits has been substantial :—
Profit.
Home and Colonial . 321,174 Maypole 395,709 Meadow 141,611
The financial years of all three companies ended on January 7th, 1939, and included 53 trading weeks, as against 52 in the previous year. This factor would, however, only ex- plain a profit increase of approximately 2 per cent., and still leaves a good margin of recovery to the credit of Sir George Schuster's reorganisation.
* * * Increase. Increase P.C.
... 89,380 ... 38.5 • • • 48,763 • • • 14 ... 2,270 ... 1.6
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