Porter Limited manufactures a single product which has the following cost structure based on an annual production budget of 10,000 units:

Materials - 4kgs @ 3 per kg 12

Variable direct labour - 5 hours @ 7 per hour 35

Variable production overheads are recovered at a rate of 8 per direct labour hour. Other annual costs incurred by the company are as follows:

Factory fixed overheads 120,000

Selling and distribution overheads 160,000

Administration fixed overheads 80,000

The selling and distribution overheads are all fixed except for a variable element due to a distribution cost of 2 per unit.

The selling price per unit is 129.

Questions:

1. Calculate the number of units to be sold for the company to break even.
2. Calculate the margin of safety as a percentage of budgeted output.
3. Calculate the revenue that will produce a net profit of 40,000.
4. Calculate the effect on the number of units to be sold for the company to break even if the following scenario occurred: a 5% increase in both the factory and administration fixed overheads, together with an increase in the labour rate to 8 per hour and replacement of the variable distribution cost of 2 per unit with a fixed annual distribution cost of 18,150.
5. Explain what you consider to be the value to managers of cost-volume-profit analysis, using brief examples to support your observations.