Cheryl Montoya picked up the phone and called her boss, Wes Chan, the vice president
Cheryl Montoya picked up the phone and called her boss, Wes Chan, the vice president of marketing at Piedmont Fasteners Corporation: “Wes, I’m not sure how to go about answering the questions that came up at the meeting with the president yesterday.”
“What’s the problem?”
“The president wanted to know the break-even point for each of the company’s products, but I am having trouble figuring them out.”
“I’m sure you can handle it, Cheryl. And, by the way, I need your analysis on my desk tomorrow morning at 8:00 am sharp in time for the follow-up meeting at 9:00.”
Piedmont Fasteners Corporation makes three different clothing fasteners in its manufacturing facility in North Carolina. Data concerning these products appear below:
Velcro Metal Nylon
Normal annual sales volume…. 100,000 200,000 400,000
Unit selling price $1.65 $1.50 $0.85
Variable cost per unit $1.25 $0.70 $0.25
Total fixed expenses are $400,000 per year.
All three prdocuts are sold in highly competitive markets, so the company is unable to raise its prices without losing unacceptable numbers of customers.
The company has an extremely effective lean productive system, so there are no beginning or ending work in process or finished goods inventories.
Required
1. What is the company’s over-all break-even point in total sales dollars?
2. Of the total fixed costs of $400,000, $20,000 could be avoided if the Velcro product were dropped, $80,000 if the Metal product were dropped, and $60,000 if the Nylon product were dropped. The remaining fixed costs of $240,000 consist of common fixed costs such as administrative salaries and rent of the factory building that could be avoided only by going out of business entirely.
a. What is the break-even point in units for each product?
b. If the company sells exactly the break-even quantity of each product, what will be the overall profit of the company? Explain this result.
