29 Jun Question Bob White leaned back
Question
Bob White leaned back and wiped his forehead with his hand. He was the president of the home oven division of Winkley & White, a manufacturer of a full line of home appliances that included refrigerators, ranges, ovens, dishwashers, disposals, dryers, washers, and range-hoods. The oven division made 24” and 26” built-in ovens, both self-cleaning (pyrolytic) and continuous clean(catalytic) models.
The ovens were used mainly for home improvement, although a small portion was used in new construction. The Winkley & White oven was regarded as a high-quality, premium product and was expensive. Winkley & White ovens were sold to independent distributors, who in turn sold to appliance stores, home improvement centers, building and remodeling contractors, and other retail outlets
Although the Winkley & White oven was a premium product and was distributed nationally, it had never achieved the large volume of better known brands such as General Electric, Magic Chef, Caloric, or Amana. As a result, the Winkley & White oven division was only marginally profitable due to its low volume.
Last year, in order to increase volume, Winkley & White had entered into OEM1 contracts to manufacture ovens under other brand names. This was common practice in the industry, and in fact several of Winkley & White appliances (including gas ranges and disposals) were manufactured by other firms.
Under one contract, Winkley & White made ovens for Samantha Stoves, a well-known established brand that was sold by its own distribution division to appliance stores, home improvement centers, building and remodeling contractors, and other retail outlets. Under another contract, Winkley & White manufactured ovens for Mastercraft Stores, which was a mass- market retailer with over a thousand stores throughout the United States. The Samantha and Mastercraft ovens were essentially similar to the Winkley & White brand ovens.
Bob White was perspiring because he had just finished a phone conference with the top executives of Samantha. The Samantha executives had demanded a 5% price cut. What bothered Bob even more was that if Samantha received a 5% price cut, word would soon leak out, and Mastercraft would soon be demanding a price cut of 5% too. Within ten minutes, Bob had his three top executives around a conference table and had relayed to them the substance of Samantha’s call. Jack Hewitt, the plant manager, was saying, “The Samantha and Mastercraft ovens are basically like our own ovens, but their walls are not as well insulated or as well sealed at the door opening. The difference in cost is $5 for rockwool insulation and $1 for the door gasket per oven. Labor cost is the same for all three brands.
“Under the contracts with Samantha and Mastercraft, their production is scheduled 90 days in advance- which allows our ‘just-in-time’ inventory system to be implemented for raw materials. As a result, inventories of raw materials, work in process, and finished goods average about 30 days versus the 100 days of inventory we normal carry for the Winkley & White brand ovens. Sidney, what are our inventory carrying costs?”
Sidney Cohen, the division controller, tapped his pencil on the table and cleared his throat. “We have carefully studied our inventory carrying costs, and these add up to double the interest rate that we pay on our short-term borrowings. We have a line of credit at two points over prime, with a compensating balance requirement of 20%. Prime rate is presently 8%.
Our Selling, General and Administrative expenses are mainly stable year after year, and have not increased since we began making OEM ovens, Sidney continued. So, there are definitely manufacturing cost savings on our OEM ovens for Samantha and Mastercraft.
Next to speak was Barbara Craig, the division sales manager. “Our terms of payment are 10 days from invoice for Samantha and Mastercraft, as compared with the normal 60 days on accounts receivable that we carry for our own distributors. Also, Winkley & White pays the freight on all truckload orders from our distributors. Samantha and Mastercraft pay the freight to ship all of their OEM ovens from here to to their central distribution points in Dallas and Chicago, respectively.
Winkley & White provides a three-year warranty on labor and materials for our own brand ovens, but we do not provide warranties or warranty service on the OEM ovens.
Bob White said, “Each of you has identified possible sources of lower costs on our OEM ovens versus our Winkley & White ovens. The question is whether these cost savings add up to enough to justify the lower prices that our OEM ovens sell for. If not, we may be in hot water. I seem to recall there’s a law, Robertson Patrick or some such name, on price discrimination. I hope that’s not going to cause our distributors to sue us for price discrimination. To avoid a lawsuit we must prove that our OEM prices are lower tha
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