Luke Corporation produces a variety of products, each within their own division. Last year, the managers at Luke developed and began marketing a new chewing gum, Bubbs, to sell in vending machines. The product, which sells for $5.70 per case, has not had the market success that managers expected and the company is considering dropping Bubbs.

The product-line income statement for the past 12 months follows:

Revenue$14,695,650 

Costs      

Manufacturing costs$14,444,895    

Allocated corporate costs (@5%)734,78315,179,678 

Product-line margin$(484,028)

Allowance for tax (@20%)96,805 

Product-line profit (loss)$(387,223)

All products at Luke receive an allocation of corporate overhead costs, which is computed as 5 percent of product revenue. The 5 percent rate is computed based on the most recent year’s corporate cost as a percentage of revenue. Data on corporate costs and revenues for the past two years follow:

Corporate RevenueCorporate Overhead Costs

Most recent year$115,750,000$5,787,500 

Previous year$77,100,0004,929,470 

Roy O. Andre, the product manager for Bubbs, is concerned about whether the product will be dropped by the company and has employed you as a financial consultant to help with some analysis. In addition to the information given above, Mr. Andre provides you with the following data on product costs for Bubbs:

MonthCasesProduction Costs

1216,000$1,155,340

2221,7001,176,840

3219,4001,185,493

4237,0001,201,035

5224,9501,203,339

6246,0001,224,185

7224,7501,199,211

8251,7001,242,286

9243,3001,240,738

10257,1501,252,837

11254,7001,257,272

12263,7001,287,963

Required:

a. Bunk Stores has requested a quote for a special order of Bubbs. This order would not be subject to any corporate allocation (and would not affect corporate costs). What is the minimum price Mr. Andre can offer Bunk without reducing profit any further? (Round your answer to 2 decimal places.(i.e., 32.21))

b. How many cases of Bubbs does Luke have to sell in order to break even on the product? (Round variable cost percentage to 2 decimal places, fixed costs to whole dollar amount and profit per case to 3 decimal places for intermediate calculations. Round your final answer up to the nearest whole unit.)

c. Suppose Luke has a requirement that all products have to earn 5 percent of sales (before tax after corporate allocations) or they will be dropped. How many cases of Bubbs does Mr. Andre need to sell to avoid seeing Bubbs dropped? (Round your minimum price per case to 2 decimal places and do not round your other intermediate calculations. Round your final answer up to the nearest whole unit.)

d. Assume all costs and prices will be the same in the next year. If Luke drops Bubbs, how much will Luke’s profits increase or decrease? Assume that fixed production costs can be avoided if Bubbs is dropped. (Use variable cost percentage to 2 decimal places. Round intermediate calculations and final answers to nearest whole dollar amount.)