98 



ADVERTISEMENTS 



MAPPIN & WEBB LIMITED 



ABBREVIATED REPORT OF CHAIRMAN'S SPEECH 



ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING, HELD AT THE SAVOY 

 HOTEL, ON WEDNESDAY, March 31ST, 1920, at 12.30 p.m. 



I HAVE much pleasure in moving thnt the Directors' 

 Report and the Halance Sheet to the 31st December, 

 I9ig(\vhich have been in your hands for some days), 

 and the Directors' recommendations as to the appro- 

 priation of the Profits be and the same are hereby adopted. 

 It is nearly four years ayo since I first had the pleasure 

 of meeting you, and I then had a very unpleasant task. 

 Our circumstances were then not very brilliant and we had 

 considerable leeway to make up, but I told you not to lose 

 hope but to be of good cheer and to have faith in your 

 Directors. You were good enough to have and to show 

 that faith, and it is a source of great gratification to me 

 and to all your Directors that your faith in us has been 

 abundantly justified. 



The Balance Sheet we present to you today is the 

 finest ever issued by the Company. We propose to pay 

 you the substantial dividend of Fifteen per cent, for the 

 year, to transfer ^20,000 to the Reserve Fund, to write 

 ;{^I9,31 1 off the Goodwill, and to carry forward to next year 

 the sum of ;{^26,6S3. This splendid result has been 

 arrived at by the combined efforts of all our establishments 

 in London, Sheffield, Paris, Rome, Nice, Lausanne, 

 Johannesburg, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, 

 and Montreal. 



Our Sales and our Profits during the year 1919 

 exceeded all records, and we are yet far from the limits 

 of our expansion. The higher prices now prevailing for 

 goods accounts, to some extent, for our increase in Sales, 

 but, making every possible allowance under this head, 

 our Sales for the year 1919 were more than double the 

 amount of our Sales in any year before the war. 



Last year I ventured to predict that for the next four 

 or five years the trade of this country would be pheno- 

 menal. My prediction has proved to be correct. South- 

 east Lancashire, Huddersfield, Bradford, Birmingham, 

 Glasgow, Belfast, Nottingham, and Sheffield are over- 

 whelmed with orders. In our own factory in Sheffield 

 we have at this moment two years' work on hand. For 

 some years our Royal Works at Sheffield were able to 

 produce all the goods we required, but in recent years 

 its output has been wholly inadecjuate to supply our 

 rapidly expanding trade. We have, therefore, acquired 

 in Queen's Road, Sheffield, a large plot of land, and on 

 this site we are building what I should hope will be one 

 of the most modern and efficient factories in this country 

 and which will have an output double the capacity of the 

 Royal Works. In this new factory we are carefully 

 studying the comfort and convenience of our workpeople. 

 The day has long passed when these matters can be 

 neglected. We also propose to almost immediately re- 

 budd the premises we have recently acquired in Oxford 

 Street. When these rebuilding operations are carried 

 out we shall have one of the most magnificent shops in 

 London. 



Under strong pressure we opened, a few months ago, 

 a shop in Monte Carlo. It will please you to hear that 

 this, our latest development, is doing exceedingly well. 



I believe in Monte Carlo we have one of the finest 

 exhibitions of English goods in that part of the world. 



The Goodwill now stands at /i49,3li, a reduction of 

 /!io,ooo compared with 1918. If you approve the re- 

 commendations we make, this will be at once reduced to 

 ;{^i 30,000. I may mention, incidentally, that our Goodwill 

 could be sold in twenty-four hours for double the amount 

 it stands at in the Balance Sheet, but we have decided, 

 nevertheless, to extinguish the item. 



When this Company was formed by the late Mr. John 

 Newton .Mappin, I do not think that he, or any of his 

 colleagues, dreamt that it would ever reach its present 

 dimensions. 



The result is that we find ourselves bound by some 

 regulations which are altogether unsuited to our present 

 condition. One of these relates to our borrowing powers. 

 By the Articles of Association they are limited to 

 ^400,000, and as ^350,000 have been raised on Deben- 

 tures, there remains a margin of only ^150,000. This 

 is utterly inadequate. To cope with our enormously 

 extended and extending business, to buy the land we 

 have acquired in London and Sheffield, to extend our 

 business in Canada and Monte Carlo, and to acquire 

 subsidiary businesses, we have been compelled to borrow 

 and to borrow in excess of the hmit imposed upon us ; 

 this you can readily infer from the increase in the amount 

 of our Creditors during the year by no less than 

 ^231.257. 



In the course of this Meeting, therefore, I intend to 

 move that our borrowing powers be raised from ^400,000 

 to /75o,ooo — a motion which I hope will gain your 

 approval. 



You will naturally ask how we intend to raise the 

 additional money contemplated. 



In the first instance wc will borrow it, but ultimately, 

 I think, it will take the form of an issue of shares to the 

 Shareholders on favourable terms for a part of it. The 

 other part must be repaid by yearly instalments out of 

 profits. 



As long as I am Chairman of this Company I am 

 determined that our finances shall be conservatively 

 handled, that our Capital shall be kept as low as possible, 

 and that a substantial part of the funds for our expansion 

 shall come out of profits. 



I hope you will agree with me. By such a course we 

 keep our Company financially sound and improve the 

 value of our Shares year by year. 



Wc have had a wonderful year, and your Directors 

 face the future with serenity. We have three factors 

 which tell for success in the business. We have a 

 splendid name, a name standing everywhere for good 

 workmanship and good faith. We have a good reputa- 

 tion in the City of London ; we have an even greater 

 reputation in the great City of New York. We have a 

 loyal and contented and a skilful staff". And, lastly, you 

 have a united, a harmonious, and, I hope you will think, 

 an efficient Board. 



