Advanced Search

Additional Question 9 answer

We would analyse the data we were given in a number of ways:

• Graphically
• Calculate new ratios
• Calculate rates of growth ratios

We chose to concentrate on the rates of growth ratios - the percentage increase from year to year in each of the values we were given. In addition, we have highlighted exceptional performance by showing any growth that is negative in red and any growth that exceeds 50% in blue; all other values are in ordinary type. We chose the 50% threshold to represent exceptional positive growth just for demonstration purposes - we could have chosen 20%, 175% or any other threshold that we consider to be exceptional.

We can see some very good performances here in terms of sales and profit: the Asian sector seems strong in terms of sales, albeit from a relatively small base in 1999, although Asian profitability is weak.

The rest of Europe is also relatively strong, meaning that the UK, the largest segment in the business is pulling back overall growth.

Profitability is climbing steadily, although not exceptionally; but returns on shareholders' funds and capital employed are weak to poor.

Back to additional question 9.

Section Index | Previous | Next | Next Section | Section Map