Historic Turn-round

Historic Turn-round Hansavivek PREMIER AUTOMOBILES has fared so well during 1980-81 that it has not only wiped out all past losses and paid a dividend of 15 per cent after a gap of 15 years, but also considerably augmented its reserves. This impressive performance was achieved in spite of prolonged labour unrest and strike due to which there was hardly any production in the first three months of the year. Sales expanded 47.4 per cent from Rs 53.82 crore to Rs 86.75 crore and with margins substantially widened gross profit was nearly doubled to Rs 9.11 crore from the previous year's Rs 4.62 crore. After depreciation for the year, there is a net profit of Rs 8.04 crore against Rs 3.50 crore. Last year the company had provided Rs 6.21 crore for arrears of depreciation, leaving a net loss of Rs 2,71 crore. After wiping off the loss of Rs 2,60 crore brought forward from the previous year and providing Rs 1.12 crore for payment of the recommended dividend, a sum of Rs 4.88 crore has been transferred to the general reserve. The company produced 14,142 cars, 549 drive-away chassis and 1,864 commercial vehicles numbers, respectively, in the previous