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	900,000	*		R	4,700,000
Cost of sales:
Direct materials			360,000				1,222,000
Direct labour			216,000				1,081,000
Fringe benefits (20% of direct labour)			43,200				216,200
Variable manufacturing overhead			10,800				47,000
Building rent and maintenance			11,700				47,000
Depreciation			57,600				117,500
Total cost of sales			699,300				2,730,700
Gross margin			200,700				1,969,300
Selling and administrative expenses:
Product managers salaries			29,700				117,500
Sales commissions (5% of sales)			45,000				235,000
Fringe benefits (20% of salaries and commissions)			14,940				70,500
Shipping			16,000				188,000
General administrative expenses			144,000				752,000
Total selling and administrative expenses			249,640				1,363,000
Net operating income (loss)		R	(48,940	)		R	606,300

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

The following additional data have been supplied by the company:

Direct labour is a variable cost at Heritage Garden Furniture.

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.

There is ample capacity to fill all orders.

Dropping the model C3 lawn chair would have no effect on sales of other product lines.

Inventories of work in process or finished goods are insignificant.

Shipping costs are traced directly to products.

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.

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.)