Sales for the year increased by $393,752 (+3.4%) to a total of $12,171,848 while total gross margin dollars increased by $112,378 (+2.49%) to a total of $4,613,468. The Company had to promote heavily in order to attain the sales growth, hence the slight slippage in margin.
Rental income for the year amounted to $665,579 and was equal to the rental income of the previous year. Again, the Board of Directors recognizes the pressures on retail businesses and has held the rents at reasonable levels in order to ensure that we retain good tenants on a long-term basis. Income from our investment in an affiliated company rose to $538,030 compared with $495,853 a tear ago.
Staff and operating costs for the year increased by $157,012 (+3.89%) to a total of $4,184,571 compared with $4,027,559 for the previous year.
Depreciation, amortized and interest totaled $578,909 compared with $636,293 a year ago. All expenses associated with the rental income and those expenses incurred directly by the Company in connection with our investment in the affiliated company are included in the staff, operating, depreciation and interest expenses of the total company and are not segregated.
Total assets as at January 31st, 2001 amounted to $16,364,739 and shareholders equity has increased form $12,386,028 ($10.59 per share) to $13,007,389 ($11.28 per share).
In view of these results the Board of Directors has continued with the current dividend policy of $0.20 per share per annum, payable in equal installments, 0.10 cents per share in April and 0.10 cents per share in October. The April dividend will be paid to shareholders of record on April 20th, 2001 and will be payable on April 25th, 2001. The October dividend will be paid the shareholders on record 19th, 2001 and will be payable on October 24th, 2001.