Bliss Bar is a company that sells deluxe chocolate and candy bars based in Illinois. The company is considering launching a new product line featuring protein bars coated with their deluxe chocolate flavors. Bliss Bar has spent $75,000 developing a new protein bar line as a part of the companys product diversification plan. It also spent another $40,000 for market research on flavors to produce.

Based on market research, Bliss Bar expects first year sales of 1,200,000 protein bars at a price of $2.45 per unit with an expected annual growth of 3% in sales volume each year of the six-year project. The variable costs per unit are $0.80, and the annual fixed costs are $30,000.

Bliss Bar estimates that the net working capital will be 8% of next years sales.

The launch of this new product line is expected to cannibalize the sales of an existing candy bar, Choco-O! by 10,000 units per year. Choco-O! is sold at a price of $2 per unit and has variable costs of $0.50 per unit.

To expand production capacity for this new product line, Bliss Bar is required to have an initial investment of $700,000 in factory equipment. The equipment will be depreciated straight-line for six years and is expected to have no salvage value.

The companys tax rate is 20%, and its cost of capital is 7.6%. However, the finance team suggests that the appropriate project discount rate should be higher as the company has no prior experience in making protein bars. The current market premium is 7%, and the risk-free rate is 4%. Bliss Bars Beta is 1.20, and the project is deemed to be 3 times riskier.

None of the above

$272,661

($235,200)

($7,942)

($7,056)