• Look at the notes below. • Some information is missing. • You will hear a woman talking about company results. • For each ques

I’d like to spend a few minutes of your time looking back over the year. I’m going to divide my review into three areas: firstly financial, secondly personnel and finally technology.
On the financial front, the results have been very pleasing. Turnover has increased by 14%, costs have dropped by 3% and profits are up by 16%. So the company as a whole has performed well. Some business areas have done better than others. Export sales have done very well especially in America, our largest export market. The domestic consumer market has been very competitive and will continue to be so our results in this market have been rather disappointing— just 1% up compared with last year.
     Rightlet’s move on to personnel. Our policy of personnel development through training and promotion opportunities has continued to be a greet success. We have actually recruited 72 new staff, while 20 have retired so there’s a net balance of 52. The training department has expanded considerably and moved into new areas such as quality assurance and sales training.
Finally technology. I thought you would be interested to have an update since this is vital for our future growth, Over the last year, our Research Department has thoroughly tested a new prototype engine. Results so far have looked promising. We have also invested heavily in a European technology programme which links industry with the universities. Right, those are the three main areas— Finance, Personnel and Technology. Are there any questions, before I go on?...