Question

CASE STUDY Break-Evens for Individual Products in a Multiproduct Company Cheryl Montoya picked up the phone and called her boss, Wes Chan, the vice president of marketing at Piedmont Fasteners Corporation: "Wes, I'm not sure how to go about answering the questions that came up at the meeting with the president yesterday.” "What's the problem?” “The president wanted to know the break-even point for each of the company's products, but I am having trouble figuring them out.” "I'm sure you can handle it, Cheryl. And, by the way, I need your analysis on my desk tomorrow morning at 8:00 sharp in time for the follow-up meeting at 9:00.” Piedmont Fasteners Corporation makes three different clothing fasteners in its manufacturing facility in North Carolina. Data concerning these products appear below: Justify Velcro Metal Normal annual sales volume .... Unit selling price....... Variable expense per unit ..... 100,000 $1.65 $1.25 200,000 $1.50 $0.70 Nylon 400,000 $0.85 $0.25 Total fixed expenses are $400,000 per year. All three products are sold in highly competitive markets, so the company is unable to raise its prices without losing unacceptable numbers of customers. The company has an extremely effective lean production system, so there are no beginning or ending work in process or finished goods inventories.