Net income for the six month period amounted to $453,553 compared with $407,710 for the same six month period a year ago. This represents an increase of 11% which is attributable mainly to the improved performance of the retail division.
Net sales to July 31st, 2000 amounted to $5,696,734 compared with $5,473,062 for the same period last year, an increase of $223,672, or, 4%. Gross margin on sales for the same periods amounted to $2,122,506 in 2000 as compared with $2,054,862 in 1999, an increase of $67,644, or, 3%.
Expenses in the first half of the current financial period amounted to $2,247,742 compared with $2,224,941 for the same period last year. This increase in expenses of $22,801, or, 1% is due to increased personnel expenses.
The Directors are not optimistic that the second half of the financial year will produce results at least equivalent to the same period last year. There has been a significant fall off in growth in the third quarter of this financial period and there seems to be a tightening of discretionary expenditure. Like most retailers, the significant profit months for our Company are November and December and transactions in these months will ultimately "make or break" the second half-year results. At the time of writing this report, these months remain a very large unknown factor in our financial projections.
The Board of Directors today declared a dividend of $0.10 per share to shareholders of record as at November 30th, 2000. This dividend will be payable on December 15th, 2000 and together with the dividend paid in April, 2000 will total $0.30 per share for the current financial year.