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Diversified Products, Inc., has recently acquired a small publishing company tha

ID: 2590517 • Letter: D

Question

Diversified Products, Inc., has recently acquired a small publishing company that offers three books for sale—a cookbook, a travel guide, and a handy speller. Each book sells for $10. The publishing company’s most recent monthly income statement is shown below.

Product line

The following additional information is available:

Only printing costs and sales commissions are variable; all other costs are fixed. The printing costs (which include materials, labor, and variable overhead) are traceable to the three product lines as shown in the income statement above. Sales commissions are 10% of sales.

The same equipment is used to produce all three books, so the equipment depreciation cost has been allocated equally among the three product lines. An analysis of the company’s activities indicates that the equipment is used 35% of the time to produce cookbooks, 55% of the time to produce travel guides, and 10% of the time to produce handy spellers.

The warehouse is used to store finished units of product, so the rental cost has been allocated to the product lines on the basis of sales dollars. The warehouse rental cost is $3 per square foot per year. The warehouse contains 55,200 square feet of space, of which 10,000 square feet is used by the cookbook line, 26,800 square feet by the travel guide line, and 18,400 square feet by the handy speller line.

The general sales cost above includes the salary of the sales manager and other sales costs not traceable to any specific product line. This cost has been allocated to the product lines on the basis of sales dollars.

The general administration cost and depreciation of office facilities both relate to administration of the company as a whole. These costs have been allocated equally to the three product lines.

All other costs are traceable to the three product lines in the amounts shown on the income statement above.

The management of Diversified Products, Inc., is anxious to improve the publishing company’s 5% return on sales.

Required:

1. Prepare a new contribution format segmented income statement for the month. Adjust allocations of equipment depreciation and of warehouse rent as indicated by the additional information provided.

2. Based on the segmented income statements given in the problem, management plans to eliminate the cookbook because it is not returning a profit, and to focus all available resources on promoting the travel guide. However, based on the new contribution format segmented income statement that you prepared:

a. Do you agree with management's plan to eliminate the cookbook?

b-1. Compute the contribution margin ratio for each product.

b-2. Based on the statement you have prepared, do you agree with the decision to focus all available resources on promoting the travel guide?

Product line

Total
Company Cookbook Travel
Guide Handy
Speller Sales $ 345,000 $ 116,000 $ 164,000 $ 65,000 Expenses: Printing costs 116,000 41,000 64,400 10,600 Advertising 36,000 16,000 16,500 3,500 General sales 20,700 6,960 9,840 3,900 Salaries 31,000 16,000 10,400 4,600 Equipment depreciation 9,900 3,300 3,300 3,300 Sales commissions 34,500 11,600 16,400 6,500 General administration 46,200 15,400 15,400 15,400 Warehouse rent 13,800 4,640 6,560 2,600 Depreciation—office facilities 7,200 2,400 2,400 2,400 Total expenses 315,300 117,300 145,200 52,800 Net operating income (loss) $ 29,700 $ (1,300 ) $ 18,800 $ 12,200

Explanation / Answer

Answer:

1

Total

Travel

Handy

Company

Cook
book

Guide

Speller

Sales(a)

345000

116000

164000

65000

Less: variable cost

Printing costs

116000

41000

64400

10600

Sales commissions

34500

11600

16400

6500

Total variable cost (b)

150500

52600

80800

17100

Contribution margin (a-b)

194500

63400

83200

47900

Tracable Fixed cost

Advertising

36000

16000

16500

3500

Salaries

31000

16000

10400

4600

Equipment depreciation
(35:55:10)

9900

3465

5445

990

Warehouse rent
(10,000:26800:18400)

13800

2500

6700

4600

Total tracable cost

90700

37965

39045

13690

Segment margin

103800

25435

44155

34210

Less: common Fixed cost

Depreciation—office facilities

7200

General sales

20700

General administration

46200

Total common Fixed cost

74100

Net operating income (loss)

29700

2

Do you agree with management's plan to eliminate the cookbook?

Answer: NO

As segment margin is positive so management's should not eliminate the cookbook

_______________________________________________________

b-1. Compute the contribution margin ratio for each product.

Cook
book

Travel

Guide

Handy

Speller

Sales(a)

116000

164000

65000

Contribution margin (b)

63400

83200

47900

Contribution margin ratio

54.66%

50.73%

73.69%

______________________________

b-2. Based on the statement you have prepared, do you agree with the decision to focus all available resources on promoting the travel guide?

Answer: NO

Total

Travel

Handy

Company

Cook
book

Guide

Speller

Sales(a)

345000

116000

164000

65000

Less: variable cost

Printing costs

116000

41000

64400

10600

Sales commissions

34500

11600

16400

6500

Total variable cost (b)

150500

52600

80800

17100

Contribution margin (a-b)

194500

63400

83200

47900

Tracable Fixed cost

Advertising

36000

16000

16500

3500

Salaries

31000

16000

10400

4600

Equipment depreciation
(35:55:10)

9900

3465

5445

990

Warehouse rent
(10,000:26800:18400)

13800

2500

6700

4600

Total tracable cost

90700

37965

39045

13690

Segment margin

103800

25435

44155

34210

Less: common Fixed cost

Depreciation—office facilities

7200

General sales

20700

General administration

46200

Total common Fixed cost

74100

Net operating income (loss)

29700