COMPANY MEETING
MICHAEL NAIRN AND GREENWICH
ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL YEAR PRESIDING at the sixteenth annual general meeting of Michael Nairn and Greenwich, Ltd., held on January 17th, in London, Sir Michael Nairn, Bt., the Chairman, said that the report and accounts bore clear evidence of another year of successful trading on the part of their associated companies. The net revenue receivable from investments, &c., amounted to £255,591, which compared with £281,739 for the previous year, and the directors were again able to recommend a final dividend of 74 per cent. and a bonus of 24 per cent., making a total distribution of 15 per cent. for the year, the same as for 1936. He wished to state clearly that the apparent reduction in profits was almost entirely due to difference in the amount of Dominion income tax relief received during 1937 as compared with the much larger amount received in 1936.
The activities of their principal subsidiary, Michael Nairn and Co., Ltd., had been fully sustained during the year, and there was abundant evidence that it continued to participate in generous measure in the welcome revival in the trade of the country. During the past year that company had made steady progress with the installation of additional manufacturing units at Kirkcaldy. The Nairn company had in course of erection large new offices on a site overlooking the Firth of Forth. On the selling side, extensions and alterations were almost complete at their London offices and warehouse in Aldersgate Street, and alterations were in progress in their Manchester warehouse, increased accommodation being necessary to cope with trade requirements. With a view to giving their customers in the Midlands and the West Country a more rapid delivery service, and at the same time to promote closer contacts with their important trade connexions in those territories, they had that day opened new offices and warehouses in Birmingham and Bristol, where representative stocks of Nairn and Greenwich goods would be held.
There did not seem to him to be any sound reason for believing that a slump was soon to appear on the industrial horizon in this country, and he was glad to see that on a recent occasion the Prime Minister had given definite expression to that opinion. He could assure the shareholders that the directors of their various companies were not taking a gloomy view of the future, but, on the contrary, were directing their whole energies towards the development and steady expansion of trade in the various floor coverings for the manufacture of which they were responsible. He believed that just as we as a nation had overcome difficulties and dangers in the years that were gone, we should in the same spirit of wisdom, courage and goodwill successfully surmount those which faced us now.
The report was unanimously adopted.
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