Tracey Douglas is the owner and managing director of Heritage Garden Furniture Ltd., a South African company that makes museum-quality reproductions of antique outdoor furniture. Tracey would like advice concerning the advisability of eliminating the model C3 lawn chair. These lawn chairs have been among the companys best-selling products, but they seem unprofitable.

A condensed statement of operating income for the company and for the model C3 lawn chair for the quarter ended June 30 follows:

		Model C3 Lawn Chair				All Products
Sales		R	1,100,000	*		R	5,300,000
Cost of sales:
Direct materials			440,000				1,378,000
Direct labour			264,000				1,219,000
Fringe benefits (20% of direct labour)			52,800				243,800
Variable manufacturing overhead			13,200				53,000
Building rent and maintenance			14,300				53,000
Depreciation			70,400				132,500
Total cost of sales			854,700				3,079,300
Gross margin			245,300				2,220,700
Selling and administrative expenses:
Product managers salaries			36,300				132,500
Sales commissions (5% of sales)			55,000				265,000
Fringe benefits (20% of salaries and commissions)			18,260				79,500
Shipping			18,000				212,000
General administrative expenses			176,000				848,000
Total selling and administrative expenses			303,560				1,537,000
Net operating income (loss)		R	(58,260	)		R	683,700

*The currency in South Africa is the rand, denoted here by R.

The following additional data have been supplied by the company:

1. Direct labour is a variable cost at Heritage Garden Furniture.
2. All of the companys products are manufactured in the same facility and use the same equipment. Building rent, maintenance, and depreciation are allocated to products using various bases. The equipment does not wear out through use; it eventually becomes obsolete.
3. There is ample capacity to fill all orders.
4. Dropping the model C3 lawn chair would have no effect on sales of other product lines.
5. Inventories of work in process or finished goods are insignificant.
6. Shipping costs are traced directly to products.
7. General administrative expenses are allocated to products on the basis of sales dollars. There would be no effect on the total general administrative expenses if the model C3 lawn chair were dropped.
8. If the model C3 lawn chair were dropped, the product manager would be laid off.

Required:

a-1. At current level of sales, compute the effect of net operating income if the Model C3 lawn chair is dropped.

1-b. Would you recommend that the model C3 lawn chair be dropped?

multiple choice

• Yes

• No

2. What would sales of the model C3 lawn chair have to be, at minimum, in order to justify retaining the product? (Hint: Set this up as a break-even problem, but include only the relevant costs from part (1).) (Round "Contribution margin ratio" to 2 decimal places and final answer to the nearest whole number.)