Produce

VP

Our first department is produce. I’ll start with Jack. Jack, what is your best statistic?

Jack

Well, our produce department has done wonderfully this past year. I fired the former produce manager and promoted a young lady who knows the important of displaying fruit and vegetables. Our profits are up 34.8% this year. And remember, it was I who noticed this lady had the talent to do the job.

VP

Questions from you two?

Andrea

It’s great to hear that your produce department did so well. What was your percent increase for equipment and supplies?

Jack

It went up 46.8%, but such an increase is expected when the overall sales go up.

Andrea

Well, I cut this expense by 11.3%.

VP

Mike?

Mike

What was your spoilage, Jack?

Jack

My spoilage increased by $11,000, which is not bad considering the extra produce we moved last year.

Mike

I actually reduced my produce spoilage by $8,000.

VP:

Andrea, what’s your best produce statistic?

Andrea

Well, my spoilage was reduced to $41,000.

Mike

So what was your actual reduction?

Andrea

I reduced my spoilage by $3,000 more than you reduced your spoilage. Hah!

Jack

It’s interesting you two are quibbling about spoilage. Andrea, what was your increase in sales?

Andrea

Well . . . . . . . . sales were down by $398,000. While I was on vacation, a pallet of wormy apples made its way to the display case. That kind of hurt my store’s reputation for fresh fruit.

Jack

This shows the importance of having good department managers. That young lady I promoted to produce manager—she wouldn’t let something like that happen. . . . . Just to let everyone know, my produce sales were up $630,000.

VP

Mike. Your turn.

Mike

In our produce department, this year’s profit per sales was 17%. This means that for every dollar in produce revenue, our produce department contributed 17 cents to company profits. I doubt you two can top that!

Jack

So how did your actual profits do then?

Mike

We got this increase in profit per sales by discontinuing orders of produce that were not selling so well. While our core fruits and vegetables continued selling well, we lost revenue from these discontinued lines. Therefore, our produce profits went down by 21.5%.

Jack

Minus 21.5%! How can you compare that to my positive 34.8%?

Mike

Like I said, we are making more money in proportion to the turnover.

Andrea

I really don’t have a question for Mike, but I would like to add that my produce department lost only 9.5% profit from last year. My results are certainly much better than his.

VP

This concludes the produce round. Let me think over what you three have said . . . . . . . The point goes to Jack.

Mike

My 17% profit to sales ratio doesn’t count for anything?

VP

Well, maybe if you hadn’t lost so much profit, it might have been important. We really like to see profit staying even or increasing.

Next Section