COMPANY MEETING
BROWN BAYLEY STEELS LIMITED
RECORD OUTPUT OFFSET BY HIGHER COSTS
THE 15th annual general meeting of Brown Bayley Steels Limited was held on May 12 at The Com- pany's Works, Leeds Road, Attercliffe, Sheffield, Mr. J. W. Garton, J.P. (the Chairman) presiding.
The following is an extract from his circulated statement :
The Accounts cover the year ended 31st Decem- ber, 1965. Output for the twelve months was record for the Company but the benefits of this in- creased turnover were offset by heavy cost increases and a higher depreciation charge. On those items within the Company's range of manufacture whoie maximum prices are still controlled by the Iron and Steel Board, marginal increases of approximately one per cent. were granted in April, 1965, but these in no way covered the increased charges which had to be paid for raw materials. fuel, labour and rates. The increases authorised this month will go some way towards redressing this balance.
Since the latter months of last year, demand for the Company's products has become very much less strong and this coupled with the problems asso- ciated with increased costs, makes it very difficult to forecast results for the current year.
The Group Profit, after charging depreciation and Debenture Interest, including the profit of the South African Company, but before charging taxation is £562,239 compared with £652,035 for 1964. Cor- poration Tax has been provided at 40 per cent. com- pared with the combined rate for Income Tax and Profits Tax last year of 56* per cent., but the Final Dividend has been provided gross as the Income Tax deductible therefrom will be accounted for to the Inland Revenue.
The balance for appropriation is £433,775 as against £418,264 last year.
The profits of the Company's South African gub- sidiary were similar to the previous year, the present indications are that more difficult trading conditions will be experienced.
APPROPRIATIONS Your Directors have decided to recommend a Final Dividend of 12 per cent. which, with the Interim Dividend of 7 per cent. less tax, already paid, will make a total distribution of 19 per cent. for the year. This will account for a total of £193,350 and it is also proposed to allocate £100,000 to General Reserve, £100,000 to Fixed Assets Replace- ment Reserve, and £30,000 to Pension Schemes.
After these appropriations, the balance carried forward is increased by an amount of £10,425 to £339,351.
In the Consolidated Balance Sheet the excess of Current Assets over Current Liabilities of £2,602,854 shows an increase on 1964 of £325,884.
Ancillary plant connected with the new 32 inch Blooming Mill continued to be installed during the year and work on this project is now almost com- pleted. The degassing unit will be commissioned during the next few weeks.
Various projects for future development have con- tinued to be under review and it is likely that the next scheme will be the modernisation and replace- ment of furnaces in the Company's Electric Melting Department. In this connection you will have noted that your Company was not named in the Govern- ment White Paper on steel nationalisation as an organisation to be taken over in the event of re- nationalisation of steel. The uncertainty which exists as regards the detailed intentions of the Government makes it difficult for your Board to plan ahead.
The report and accounts were adopted.
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