Threat Of Reduction Of Profit Margins

Chronicle (Levin), 22 June 1949, Page 5

Threat Of Reduction Of Profit Margins

Any effiort by the. Price Control Division to reduce present. profit margins will be strongly reRisted by the Nptv Zeaiand Retailers' Ff>deration, which. according to the official fmblieation. the Retailer, has engagcd legal couosel to eonduet its case. if necessary. Refcrrinjr to the position in the draperv and furnishino- trade, t.he iournal savs that the Price Control Division has called for financial ac.counts from a renresentative cro.ss-sect.ion of traders with a view to a review of the present position. ;'The trade as a whole mnst recrard with extreme eonc.ern anv suprrostion bv the fPrice Control Division that the financial position of the trade is stjch' that a rednction in margins could be recommended, " says the ionrnal. "Roports from various narts of the countrv indic.ate that turnover has definitelv steadied over. the "past three or four months and in view of the Arbitration Court's reeent pronouneement increased wages are inevitable. r'In past years the spectacnlar ri.se in tnrnover overc.ame to a lary-* deyree the difficulties arising from the reduced margins, but the 1948 vea* s^ows that a trend , is now' c.omin > when increased tufnove.r cannot b-> depended on to absorb increasinqr overlieads as well as teduced margins." . v