Reckitt & Colman reiterates strategyBritish household products group Reckitt and Colman Plc reported flat annual profits on Thursday of 314.1 million pounds ($517.1 million), as sales in North America weakened in the second half of the year. But the company said its strategy for growth remains unchanged -- keeping up its focus on household and over the counter pharmaceutical products and expanding into developing markets. "Our 1997 results fully endorse our strategy for growth which is to focus on number one and two brands, to gain the economies of scale from globalisation and to increase our presence in developing markets," said Chief executive Vernon Sankey.
Australian airline Ansett plans staff cuts
Australian airline Ansett announced on Thursday it planned to shrink its worforce to help lift its poor financial performance. Ansett, owned equally by Air New Zealand Ltd and media group News Corp, said it had invited its 12,500 staff to apply for incentive packages to leave the company. Ansett said it did not have a target for job losses and that it would be selective in granting the redundancy packages.
Fuji Heavy to sell Porsche at some outlets
Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd says it plans to start selling Porsche cars at some outlets in June. "Sales of Porsches will start with four or five outlets this year. Suginami (in Tokyo) will be the first," Fuji Heavy president Takeshi Tanaka said. He predicted sales of about 60 units the first year. Under an agreement with Porsche Japan KK, the Japanese arm of Porsche of Germany, Fuji Heavy will sell the cars and provide maintenance services for them. Fuji Heavy manufactures and sells cars under its Subaru brand.
SingTel starts two-way paging service
Singapore Telecommunications Ltd (SingTel) on Thusday launched a Singapore $3 million two-way paging network targeted mainly at corporate customers. The service, Page2Page, allows page back functions and other applications such as performing remote security and industrial devices monitoring. "We think we can get a pretty good response from customers...It will benefit particularly corporate customers," Lum Hon Fye, chief executive officer of SingTel Paging, told reporters at a news conference. He said that he hoped sales would reach 10,000 units in one to two years time. Lum said SingTel Paging was the first paging operator in Singapore and Asia (including Japan) to offer the service.
United Biscuits plans to return cash
British food manufacturer United Biscuits Plc said on Thursday it planned to use a share capital reorganisation to return a planned 150 million pounds ($247 million) to shareholders. The company said in a statement that it would issue "B"shares and then offer to redeem them for cash. United Biscuits, which also said pre-tax profits before exceptionals for the 53 weeks ending January 3, 1998 dipped three per cent to 106.2 million pounds, said there had been "an encouraging start" to the current year and it expected "good underlying progress."
Minolta sees 97-98 parent sales exceeding Y300 bn
Japan's Minolta Co Ltd said on Thursday that it expects parent sales of more than 300 billion yen and parent current profits of around 12 billion yen in the current business year to March 31. But the company expects parent net profit in 1997-98 to bebelow its previous forecast of seven billion yen due to a likely appraisal loss on its securities holdings. President Osamu Kanaya revealed the earnings forecasts during a meeting with reporters. The company had previously forecast parent sales of 295billion yen and parent current profits of 11 billion yen for 1997-98. For the business year starting in April, Kanaya said the company would aim to raise profitability on a group basis rather than simply increase sales.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
