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Wright Ltd (Wright) is a UK company that manufactures cutlery for restaurants, it is the largest supplier for one of the UK’s
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Submission requirements: Soft copy submission on Turnitin only. Final submission will be as a Word document. No PDFs or scanned images permitted.
Submission deadline is Thursday 3rd December 2020 12pm (noon) (Week 9)
Simulated assessment centre un-seen material (includes pre-seen)
Pre-seen element
Wright Ltd (Wright) is a UK company that manufactures cutlery for restaurants, it is the largest supplier for one of the UK’s largest restaurant chains. It has a year-end of 30th of November. Its liquidity ratios have been calculated for the previous 2 years:-
2019 2018 Industry Average
Current Ratio 1.7: 1 2.3: 1 2.2
Quick Ratio 1 : 1 1.3: 1 1.2
Inventory Days 75 64 78
Receivables Days 87 60 63
Payables Days 98 70 68
Gross Profit Margin 23% 20% 20%
Operating Profit Margin 11% 10% 12%
Wright has forecast the following for the year ended 30th of November 2020 :-
Credit management
Sales to increase to £4 million for the year to come.
Receivables forecast to be £1,150,000.
The cost of financing receivables is covered by an overdraft at the interest rate of 5% p.a.
Wright is now considering offering a cash discount of 0.5% for payment of debts within 20 days. It is expected that 25% of customers will take up the discount.
Wright is also trying to find the optimum order quantity for its inventory. Monthly demand for its inventory which costs £2.30 per unit is 80,000 units per month. The cost per order is currently £1.25. The holding cost of 1 unit p.a. is £1.
Wright’s suppliers have offered a discount of 0.5% per unit for orders of 2,000 units or more.
Wright has a constant demand for cash totalling £5,000,000 p.a. It can replenish its current account by selling a constant amount of gilts which are held as an investment earning 3% p.a. The cost per sale of gilts is a fixed £8 per sale.
The management of Wright have also considered using the Miller-Orr model of cash management. They have considered a lower limit of £1,000,000, the standard deviation of the daily cash flows is £40,000 and it will cost £12 per transaction to transfer money to or from the bank. The interest rate is 3% p.a.
It is now December 2020 and the financial results for Nov 30th 2020 have been published.
2020 2019 Industry Average
Current Ratio 2.2: 1 1.7: 1 2.1
Quick Ratio 0.9:1 1: 1 1.1
Inventory Days 72 75 82
Receivables Days 75 87 62
Payables Days 100 98 82
Gross Profit Margin 22% 23% 20%
Operating Profit Margin 10% 11% 12%
Sales are forecast to be £4m for the year ahead.
Receivables forecast to be £925,000.
The cost of financing receivables remains the same.
Monthly demand for its inventory remains the same but the cost has increased to £3 per unit. The cost per order has increased to £1.42. The storage cost of 1 unit p.a. is £0.59.
Cash management
All details remain the same, except the annual demand for cash is now £6,200,000.
Tasks for evaluation
The managers of Wright want you to evaluate the company’s liquidity position to help you do this, calculate the following: –
a)The benefit (or otherwise) of offering a discount of 0.27% for payment of debt within 17 days. Take up for which is thought to be 27%. (20 marks)
b)Calculate the optimum quantity of inventory to order if the suppliers now offer a discount of 0.31% per unit for orders of 2,250 units or more. Wright’s Cost of Capital is 15%.(20 marks)
c)Calculate the lower limit, upper limit and return point for Wright if the standard deviation of cash flows is £46,000 per day. Explain how these values are used (100 words for explanation).(10 marks)
d)Using the working capital ratios for 2019 and 2020 evaluate the liquidity position of Wright. (400 words) (20 marks)
e)Explain how the one-bin and two-bin systems work and what the advantages and disadvantages of each system are. (160 words) (8 marks)
f) If Wright was considering accepting an early payment discount offered by one of its customers, evaluate how the equivalent annual rate (or equivalent annual cost) might be used. (200 words) (10 marks)
g) The Covid-19 pandemic has not really been considered due to the hypothetical nature of the company. Suggest how the situation may have impacted Wright’s liquidity position if it were a real company. (240 words) (12 marks)