Reference no: EM132440625

Dunning Ltd. manufactures a popular power nail gun suitable for the home renovator. Financial and other data for this product for the last twelve months are as follows:

                        Sales                                                                             20,000 units

                        Selling price                                                                   $130 per unit

                        Variable manufacturing cost                                            $50 per unit

                        Fixed manufacturing costs                                               $400,000

                        Variable selling and administrative costs                     $30 per unit

                        Fixed selling and administrative costs                                $300,000.

The directors of Dunning Ltd. want to try to increase the profitability of this product and invited senior staff to suggest how this might be done. Three suggestions have been received.

• The accountant, Jim Jackson, believes that a price increase of $10 per unit is the best way to boost profits. He would spend an additional $125000 on national advertising and contends, that if this is done, sales volume would not drop appreciably from last year.
• The production manager, Tim Walter, thinks that an improved quality product could increase sales volume by 25% if accompanied by an advertising campaign costing $50000 aimed at tradespeople as well as home renovators. The improved quality would add $5 per unit to the variable cost. Mr Walter believes that the price should not be increased.
• The sales manager, Sandy Smith, wants to undertake a promotion campaign where a $10 rebate is offered on all nail guns sold during the three months beginning 1 April. Normally 6000 units are sold during that period and Ms Smith believes that this could be boosted to 10,000 units if an advertising campaign costing $40,000 were launched late in March.

You have been asked by the Dunning board to comment on each of these three proposals. Draft a report in response to this request. You are not asked to make an outright choice, but rather to analyse the potential strengths and weaknesses of each proposal by calculating break-even point. The sales volumes forecast by each staff member should be treated as estimates only and your report should examine the effects of variations in actual sales from these forecasts and its respective break-even point. Show your calculations to support your comments and mention qualitative factors that may also be involved.