Case study - LAURENTIAN BAKERIES

The Proposal

The expansion proposal, which would require six months to complete, would recommend four main expenditures: expanding the existing building in Winnipeg by 60 per cent would cost $1.3 million; adding a spiral freezer, $1.6 million; installing a new high speed pizza processing line, $1.3 million; and acquiring additional warehouse space, $600,000. Including $400,000 for contingency needs, the total cash outlay for the project would be $5.2 million. The equipment was expected to be useful for 10 years, at which point its salvage value would be zero.

On-going capital expenditures, projected to be equal to annual depreciation, would be needed to keep the equipment up-to-date.

The land on which the Winnipeg plant was built was valued at $250,000 and no additional land would be necessary for the project. While the expansion would not require Laurentian to increase the size of the plant's administrative staff, Knowles wondered what portion, if any, of the $223,000 in fixed salaries should be included when evaluating the project. Likewise, she estimated that it cost Laurentian approximately $40,000 in sales staff time and expenses to secure the U.S. contract that had created the need for extra capacity. Last, net working capital needs would increase with additional sales. Working capital was the sum of inventory and accounts receivable less accounts payable, all of which were a function of sales. Knowles estimated, however, that the new high-speed line would allow the company to cut two days from average inventory age.

Added to the benefit derived from increased sales, the project would reduce production costs in two ways. First, the new high-speed line would reduce plant-wide unit cost by $0.019, though only 70 per cent of this increased efficiency would be realized in the first year. There was an equal chance, however, that only 50 per cent of these savings could actually be achieved. Second, "other" savings totaling $138,000 per year would also result from the new line and would increase each year at the rate of inflation.

Each year, a capital cost allowance (CCA), akin to depreciation, would be deducted from operating income as a result of the capital expenditure. This deduction, in turn, would reduce the amount of corporate tax paid by Laurentian. In the event that the company did not have positive earnings in any year, the CCA deduction could be transferred to a subsequent year. However, corporate earnings were projected to be positive for the foreseeable future. Knowles compiled the eligible CCA deduction for 10 years (see Exhibit 6). For the purpose of her analysis, she assumed that all cash flows would occur at the appropriate year-end.

Three areas of environmental concern had to be addressed in the proposal to ensure both conformity with Laurentian policy and compliance with regulatory bodies and local by-laws. First, design and installation of sanitary drain systems, including re-routing of existing drains, would improve sanitation practices of effluent/wastewater discharge. Second, the provision of water-flow recording meters would quantify water volumes consumed in manufacturing and help to reduce its usage. Last, the refrigeration plant would use ammonia as the coolant as opposed to chloro-fluro-carbons. These initiatives were considered sufficient to satisfy the criteria of the Capital Allocation Policy.

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