Based on the results of the 3 Divisions in 2009, it does not seem to be fair for the current bonus system of sharing 2% of corporate profit evenly among the 3 divisional managers regardless the performance of their division and this triggers Jacques Trumen to rethink about current bonus system.

As all your team members are the senior executive officers in the finance department, you are asked by your CFO, Miss. New Point, to form a team of helping Jacques Trumen to resolve the problem.

Specifically, you are asked to:

A.Perform appropriate variance analysis at a deeper level to help Jacques Trumen, the boss to assess and compare the performance of the Divisional Managers of France and Italy.(Please ignore the Spanish Division as they had a very bad result this year)

B.Make appropriate comments on the results of the analysis.

Further Direction

Miss. New Point also gives your team the following direction:

1.For Italy:perform more in-depth and appropriate variance analysis to explain why actual profits Euro 517 were Euro 58 above budget Euro 459.

2.For France, perform more in-depth variance and appropriate analysis to explain why actual profits Euro 1,242 were Euro 215 above budget Euro 1,027.

3.Once the analysis is performed individually for Italy and France respectively, your team should present one-page summary of comparison of the key numbers for the 2 Divisions for presenting to Jacques Trumen and make appropriate comments.

She also reminds your team to provide any other pertinent information and appropriate comments on the results of the analysis.

As Miss New Point knows all of you are well versed in strategic profitability analysis and variance analysis, she asks you to use the concepts (not exactly the 3 components though) of strategic profitability analysis to perform the variance analysis.Specifically, she asks you to perform the variance analysis on the following two categories from strategic perspective:

I.Competitive Effectiveness

Miss New Point considers the following variance analysis will help to assess the competitive effectiveness. She also reminds you to calculate all variances in terms of contribution margin (except the price variance):

1.Price Variance

2.Sales Mix

3.Mark Share

4.Temperature adjustment (in essence, she said this can be considered as market size variance (or part of))

II.Operating Efficiency (similar to the concept of productivity component in strategic profitability analysis)

She says the focus in this category is on the cost side

For variable costs, Miss New Point reminds your team to work out both the input usage variance and also the input cost variance.

As for the other related costs, just focus on the spending variance.

She also asks you to round your numbers in 4 decimal points in calculation and round your numbers to two decimal points in your final presentation to Jacques Trumen.

Jacques exercised control of the regions through a prot planning system. The prot plan covered the upcoming fiscal year which began on January 1. In November and December, each region prepared and submitted their initial prot plan to the central ofce. Jacques used the profit plan to discuss and supervise the expansion strategy of each region and to make sure that enough cash would be generated to support the company's new corporate ventures. The nal phase of the prot planning process was a top management meeting which brought together Jacques, the three regional vice-presidents, and the finance and technical ofcers to discuss new growth opportunities. A lot of time and face-to-face contact was devoted to the prot plan and, once approved, it was the guiding tool to monitor and evaluate performance. During the summer months, each region generated a profit statement every two weeks that Jacques reviewed to detect major problems. In addition, Jacques spent a week in each region to " get a feel for the market.\" At the end of October, another top management meeting occurred to learn from the experiences over the past year and to schedule winter activities to prepare for the next season. In early December, Jacques handed bonus checks to the three regional managers. Top line revenue goals for the upcoming year were established using past growth rates and the market expectations of Jacques and the regional managers. Exchanging knowledge and experiences was a key element in shaping the growth assumptions of the profit plan. For 2009, the expected volume growth was 9% for the French region, 10% for the Spanish region, and 12% for the Italian region. Since 2005, when Compagnie du Froid introduced its first specialty productsophisticated ice cream avors made with prime quality ingredients, the strategy had been to emphasize these specialties that enjoyed higher margins and less intense competition. This strategy became operational through the prot plan: Jacques set ambitious goals for the percentage of sales volume coming from specialties for each of the regions. Standard selling prices and manufacturing costs were based on last year's actuals adjusted for any expected contingencies. Efciency standards assumed that manufacturing would improve its year-to- year performance based on learning and better equipment. Finally, Jacques believed that the business should compensate shareholdershimself, his brothers and sisters, and top managers in the companyfor the risk of tying up their capital in the business. Thus, he expected a reasonable return on shareholders' investment. His reference point was 18% return-on-inve stment before taxes. Exhibit 1 illustrates the standards used to design the prot plan for one of the three regions. France Jean Pinoux was the manager of the French region. He was promoted to this position in 2007 when Pierre Giraux, the previous manager, took over the lagging Italian operation. Jean had started as a sales representative, then advanced to be responsible for production, and nally became division manager. Jacques was pleased with Jean's performance (see Exhibit 2). His profits were above budget, and sales had increased almost 20% over the previous year. Jean had invested a lot of his time in managing the expansion into the west coast of France, negotiating with new vendors and suppliers, and arranging Exhibit 1 Examples of Standards for the 2009 Prot Plan (Spanish Region) Standards Spain Percentage of volume from specialties 10% Selling prices (in Euros) Ice-cream (per litre) 4.42 Specialties (per litre) 8.13 Manufacturing costs (in Euros) Dairy ice-cream (per litre) 2.61 Other ingredients ice-cream (sugar, avor, etc. per 100 grams) 1.51 Other ingredients specialties (sugar, flavor. etc. per 100 grams) 2.12 Labor (wage per hour) 8.13 Labor hours ice-cream (litres per hour) 107.20 Labor hours specialties (litres per hour) 11.04 Volume Dairy ingredientsice-cream (% of volume) 72% Other ingredientsice cream (grams per litre) 48 Dairy ingredientsspecialties (% of volume) 93% Other ingredientsspecialties (grams per litre) 73 Exhibit 2 French Region, 2009 Results Profit Plan Actual Variance Volume Euros Volume Euros "000) "'000 "'000) "000) Sales Data Sales ice-cream (volume in litres) 4,010 17,879 4,618 20,005 2, 126 Sales specialties (litres) 445 3,661 405 3,377 (284) Revenue from distribution 79 79 Total Sales 4,455 21,540 5,023 23,461 1,921 T T C T Cost of Goods Sold Cost ice-cream Dairy ingredients (litres) 2,887 7,893 3,317 9,142 (1,249) Other ingredients (100 gr.) 1,844 2,841 2,047 3 , 186 (345) Labor (hours) 38.29 371 43.56 438 (67) CCC Cost specialties Dairy ingredients (litres) 410 1, 121 368 1,015 106 Other ingredients (100 gr.) 316 693 298 655 38 Labor (hours 40.03 388 36.02 362 26 Contribution margin 8,233 8,663 430 Other Costs Supervision, energy, maintenance, ... 2.206 2,324 (118) U Depreciation 467 467 Operating margin 5,560 5,872 312 F Selling and Administrative Expenses Delivery expenses 861 908 (47) U Depreciation of trucks 507 510 ( 3 ) U Selling expenses 1,078 1,139 (61) U Advertising 1, 141 1,070 71 Administrative salaries and expenses 788 810 (22) Allocated central office expenses 158 193 (35) Profits before Interest and Taxes 1,027 1,242 215 MCC- ifiable Assets Cash (average) 94 141 (47) Accounts Receivable (average) 580 634 (54) Plant and equipment (net of depreciation E 2,322) 4,713 4,726 (13) Total identifiable assets 5,387 5,501 (114) Conditions for tourism Average summer temperature 29.8 .C 29.2 CExhibit 3 Italian Region, 2009 Results Profit Plan Actual Variance Volume Euros Volume Euros ('000) ('000) ('000) "'000) Sales Data Sales ice-cream (volume in litres) 2,453 10,967 2, 480 11,106 139 Sales specialties (litres) 272 2,232 276 2,253 21 Total Sales 2,725 13, 199 2,756 13,359 160 T T T Cost of Goods Sold Cost ice-cream Dairy ingredients (litres) 1,864 4,963 1,895 4,986 (23) Other ingredients (100 gr.) 1,275 1,885 1,296 1,932 (47) Labor (hours) 33.10 300 36.03 328 (28) CCC Cost specialties Dairy ingredients (litres) 259 689 257 676 13 F Other ingredients (100 gr.) 196 425 197 430 (5) U Labor (hours) 24.24 220 23.29 212 8 F Contribution margin 4,717 4,795 78 F Other Costs Supervision, energy, maintenance, ... 1,142 1, 135 F Depreciation 109 109 Operating margin 3,466 3,551 35 F Selling and Administrative Expenses Delivery expenses 329 315 14 F Depreciation of trucks 198 198 U Selling expenses 314 344 (30) U Advertising 1,328 1,288 40 F Administrative salaries and expenses 558 574 (16) U Rent 122 122 Allocated central office expenses 158 193 (35) U Profits before Interest and Taxes 159 517 58 Identifiable Assets Cash (average 94 108 (14) Accounts Receivable (average) 377 357 20 Plant and equipment (net of depreciation E 3,200) 2,763 2,764 ( 1 ) Total identifiable assets 3,234 3,229 Conditions for tourism Average summer temperature 29.7 C 29.8 CExhibit 4 Spanish Region, 2009 Results Profit Plan Actual Variance Volume Euros Volume Euros "'000) '000 ('000) '000 Sales Data Sales ice-cream (volume in litres) 3,685 16,294 3,575 15,507 (787) Sales specialties (litres) 109 3,330 400 3,251 79) Total Sales 4,094 19,624 3,975 18,758 (866) CCC Cost of Goods Sold Cost ice-cream Dairy ingredients (litres) 2,653 6,923 2, 175 5,607 1,316 Other ingredients (100 gr.) 1,769 2,670 1,450 2,202 168 Labor (hours) 34.37 279 29.21 238 41 Cost specialties Dairy ingredients (litres) 381 994 362 933 61 Other ingredients (100 gr.) 299 633 275 571 62 Labor (hours 37.09 301 34.73 283 18 Contribution margin 7,824 8,924 1,100 n n n T Other Costs Supervision, energy, maintenance, ... 2,145 2, 166 (21) C Depreciation 391 391 Transfer from France 2,126 (2, 126) Operating margin 5,288 4,241 (1,047) C C Selling and Administrative Expenses Delivery expenses 736 758 (22) Depreciation of trucks 413 424 (11) Subcontracted transportation 77 (77) Selling expenses 827 786 41 Advertising 1,406 1,408 ( 2 ) Administrative salaries and expenses 620 644 (24) CCTCCC Rent 100 100 Allocated central office expenses 158 193 (35) Profits before Interest and Taxes 1,028 (149) (1,177) CC Identifiable Assets Cash (average 94 98 (4) Accounts Receivable (average) 423 266 156 Plant and equipment (net of depreciation (1,669) 4,764 4,837 73) Total identifiable assets 5,281 5,201 Conditions for tourism Average summer temperature 30.2 C 28.5 CExhibit 5 2009 Ice cream Transfers between France and Spain Ice-cream Cost of Total ingredients Cost per litre [in '000 Euros! Volume transferred (in '000 litres) 603 Actual Costs (in Euros) Dairy Ingredients 2.76 1.98 1,194 Other Ingredients 1.56 0.69 416 Labor 0.09 0.09 57 Allocated Fixed Costs (in Euros) Other costs 0.46 279 Depreciation 0.09 56 S&A expenses 0.04 23 5% prot margin 0.17 101 Total transfer price 3.53 2,126 Exhibit 6 Historical Data- Temperature and Sales Volume France Year Temperature Sales Volume Volume Growth (degrees Celsius) ('000 litres) 1995 27.7 1,344 1996 29.2 1,435 6.7% 1997 28.4 1,484 3.4% 1998 30.9 1,714 15.5% 1999 32.9 2,031 18.5% 2000 27.3 1,984 -2.3% 2001 30.0 2,208 11.3% 2002 30.5 2,489 12.7% 2003 30.8 2,761 10.9% 2004 30.0 2,998 8.6% 2005 29.7 3,216 7.3% 2006 30.3 3,445 7.1% 2007 29.6 3,797 10.2% 2008 29.4 4,087 7.6% 2009 (budget) 4,455 9.0% Average 29.8 .C 9.1% Spain Year Temperature Sales Volume Volume Growth (degrees Celsius) ('000 litres 1995 30.8 1,069 1996 31.2 1,272 18.9% 1997 29.0 1,402 10.2% 1998 31.6 1,685 20.2% 1999 29.8 1,852 9.9% 2000 28.3 2,006 8.3% 2001 28.0 1,964 -2.1% 2002 27.5 2,033 3.5% 2003 29.9 2,231 9.8% 2004 30.4 2,481 11.2% 2005 31.8 2,684 8.2% 2006 32.4 3,036 13.1% 2007 30.4 3,346 10.2% 2008 31.0 3,722 11.3% 2009 (budget) 4,094 10.0% Average 30.2 .C 10.2%Exhibit 6 Historical DataTemperature and Sales Volume (Continued) Italy Year Temperature Sales Volume Volume Growth {degrees Celsius! 1'000 litres; 1999 32.2 892 2000 30.4 1.036 16.1% 2001 28.6 1.143 10.3% 2002 31.8 1.434 25.6% 2003 28.1 1.508 5.1% 2004 28.2 1.639 8.7% 2005 29.0 1.771 8.0% 2006 28.3 1.872 5.7% 2007 30.1 2.090 1 1 .7% 2008 30.0 2.433 16.4% 2009 (budget) 2.725 12.0% Average 29.7 C 12.0% Exhibit '7 Compagnie du Froid SA. Mission Statement Compagnie du Froid, S.A. exists to offer customers the best in iced summer refreshments. We work as a team to produce and market only premium quality products that are known for innovation, quality, and value. In everything we do, we strive to delight our customers and offer an experience that reflects summer fun and relaxation