John_M._Case_Summary

John M. Case Summary John M. Case Summary Business and Operating Characteristics: The company was established in 1920 to do contract printing of commercial calendars. Operations had been profitable since 1932 and sales increased every year since 1955. The compounded growth rate for the past five years has been 7%. Its expected growth is 5-6% per year. In 1984 standard desk calendar pads had contributed 80% of net sales and 90% of earnings before taxes. The company has high fixed costs since production is highly automated. John M. Case Co. holds 60-65% of calendar market. However, cutting production costs is imperative in order maintain the company’s dominant market share. Since customers can easily predict their needs for products, production is usually accurate. Financial Characteristics: John M. Case Co. is characterized by high fixed costs, high setup costs, and low variable costs. Its sales are highly seasonal (90% between June and December) but it operates under level production in order to drive costs down. Most sales are from customers who have placed prior orders (95%). The return on average invested capital in 1984 was around 20%. The company offers modest case, costs, company, since, production, million, sales, order, johnson, high, years, year, three, raise, purchase, predict, past, operates, net, needs, market, john, highly, growth, fixed, employees, earnings, customers, credit, company’s, co, characteristics, cash, capital, calendar