Company Notes
UNITED DRAPERY'S chairman, Mr. Joseph Collier, reports another large in- crease in the company's trading profit for the year ended January 28, 1961. This amounted to £10,102,689, an increase of £1,077,855. Of this £213,400 related to profits of new businesses acquired, but, says the chairman, it is becoming more difficult to acquire new businesses on reasonable terms. This may indicate a slowing-down of the rate in the growth profit record which has over the past eleven years been remarkable, increasing by nearly ten times. The net profit after tax rose by £817,019 to £4,662,973.
The company has raised its ordinary dividend from 371 per cent. to 45 per cent.; this is being paid on the capital as increaF^d by a 10 per cent. rights issue made• last November. Now it is intended to make a one-for-two scrip issue. If the Chancellor of the Exchequer in- creases purchase tax on consumer goods in the near future, then profits for the current year, which are running above those of last year, may be affected. Even so the 5s. ordinary shares at 109s. 41(1. are a first-class long-term investment to return 2.2 per cent.
Threlfall's Brewery have , shown increased earnings every year for the past decade—a won- derful record. The company operates mainly in Lancashire and Cheshire and increased its trading profit for the year ended March 31, 1961, from £1.09 million to £1.19 million; the dividend has been raised from the equivalent of 18 per cent, to 20 per cent. The brewing industry should have another good year in which Threlfall's will undoubtedly participate. It remains to be seen whether a larger brewing group will attempt to acquire this excellent company, but the £1 ordin- ary shares on their own merits must be a good purchase at 97s. 6d. to yield just over 4 per cent.
W. J. Simms, Sons and Co. Limited, construc- tors of building equipment for commercial and private buildings, have had another good year, having carried out many contracts for such well- known concerns as Boots Pure Drug Co., Guest, Keen and Nettlefold Ltd., Joseph Rank Limited, and The Prudential Assurance. Last March the capital was increased by a scrip issue. On this issued capital of £500,000 the proposed dividend is 9 per cent., absorbing £27,562 from a net profit (after tax) of £82,824. The com- pany has a large volume of work on hand which is partly financed by a bank over- draft and mortgage loans, and the chairman, Mr. H. W. W. Simms, looks forward with con- fidence to the future. The £1 ordinary shares at 33s. give a good return of 5.4 per cent.
Holyrood Rubber, one of the Harrisons and Crosfield group, has for the first time since 1950 harvested a crop of rubber exceeding one mil- lion lb. Net proceeds from this crop were £119,928 against £104,436, resulting in a profit of £52,522 against £42,817. After tax has been paid there remains a net profit of £37,443 for the total divi- dend of 37+ per cent. against 25 per cent. for 1959. A lower price is, of course, now ruling for rubber, but the output for the first four months of this year is up, says the chairman, Mr. Jack Addinsell, so that results for the current year should be satisfactory. The £1 ordinary shares at around 41s. 3d. yield approximately 14 per cent.
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