ARGENTINE ESTATES OF BOVRIL, LTD.
PRESIDING at the thirty-third ordinary general meeting of Argentine Estates of Bovril Ltd., held on June 9th in London, Lord Luke (the chairman said that some companies nowadays sent their chairman's speech with the reports and paid the dividends after the meeting. They had reversed the order and sent the dividend cheques with the report but retained their remarks for this meeting—not that there was a great deal now to say about the company's operations, which were, as in the past, divided into two parts. First the running of the estates, dealing with cattle stocks of over a quarter-million head, and, secondly, the manufacture in the factory at Santa Elena of corned beef to meet Government orders. There was, more or less, the usual comparatively small profit on the cattle, most of which were nowadays sold to outside freezing works, that was to say, not to their own works at Santa Elena.
As regarded the factory, he thought there might be a slight margin of profit on the corned beef and the by-products, but it certainly was only sufficient to cover a part of the plant depreciation charge and, of course, nothing towards interest on the capital employed.
As shareholders knew, the company had added an up-to-date frigorifice to their factory five years ago, but because they happened to be a British firm and not on a list of importers accepted by the Board of Trade at the time of the first An-glo-Argentine meat contract in 1933, they were not permitted by the Board of Trade to import into England frozen beef from their own freezing works at Santa Elena, the others who happened to have had some of this long- established entry quota were allowed to use the company's freezing works and ship the beef from it into England
In these days, when much overseas industry was closed down, one should perhaps be pleased that the staff and workpeople had been kept in employment. It had, of course, been a year full of difficulties, not only here, but in the Argentine, and he felt sure shareholders would like to convey their thanks for the past and expression of confidence for the future to Mr. Ellison and Mr. Baggott and all those who served under them on the estates and in the factories.
As he had mentioned, they sent the preference shareholders a dividend of 3 per cent. with the reports. If towards the end of this year the accounts seemed to warrant it, they hoped to be able to send shareholders 3 per cent. in December, instead of holding it for issue at the time of the annual meeting. Considering the very large sums they had invested in their estates and factories, the accounts were certainly nothing to be elated about, though as companies working in the Argentine went at present, they had a showing better than many.
The report and accounts were unanimously adopted.
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