Langford Ltd. operates a chain of restaurants. The restaurants have performed very well, having established a reputation for affordable, value for money offerings and child-friendly facilities.

In seeking new growth opportunities, the company has embarked on a strategy of acquiring existing successful companies to supply key materials and ingredients to their restaurants. The rationale for this strategy is to secure supplies at more affordable prices as well as exploiting opportunities within these markets more generally.

With the growth of the company, it has become necessary to decentralize decision-making through the creation of two divisions, Supply Services and Restaurants. Each division is treated as an investment center with divisional managing directors being evaluated on the basis of annual return on investment (ROI). Each division in turn consists of a number of business units treated as profit centers for performance management.

Megaco (Pty) Ltd., which manufacturesa variety of cheese products, has recently been acquired by Langford Ltd. Megaco's main customer base is medium sized independent retailers, but it is looking to expand its market and thereby utilize its excess capacity.

A key ingredient of many of the restaurant meals is standard cheddar cheese which is procured centrally by the Restaurant division at a favourable price owing to volume discounts negotiated with the existing supplier.

In line with Langford's acquisition strategy of securing restaurant supplies at more affordable prices; the Managing Director of Restaurant division have been encouraged to meet the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Megaco and discuss mutually beneficial ways of transacting internally. The restaurants currently purchase and use 2,500 kgs of cheddar cheese monthly and pay $12.00 per kg.

The Managing director of Restaurant division, together with Megaco's CEO have met on two occasions and, although they recognized the benefit to the company as a whole from transacting internally, have not yet reached agreement on a transfer price for standard cheddar cheese.

Megaco currently sells the cheese to its existing customers at $15.00 per kg and its CEO is reluctant to reduce the price for the restaurants. However, in the interests of the company as a whole, he has offered to reduce his normal mark-up and hence discount the existing price by 10%. As he explained: 'This is the best I can do, after all I have to cover my full costs and make a fair profit.' The Restaurant's Managing Director was not prepared to accept this price and, although Langford Ltd.'s executive management team was disappointed that no deal had been struck, chose not to interfere.

Maximum capacity (kgs) +7 12,000 Current utilization (kgs) + 8,000 Variable costs per kg:+ Product cost+ $6.00 Selling, administration and general expenses + $3.00 Monthly fixed costs in respect of providing the maximum capacity:+ Production - $15,000 +7 Selling, administration and general expenses + $5,000