单选题
·For each question (23-28), on the opposite page, choose the correct answer.
·Mark one letter (A, B or C) on your Answer Sheet.
{{B}}A Bright Future{{/B}}
The furniture retailer, CHR, which has produced disappointing results recently, said that market conditions were at last improving. Sales rose by 6.7% in the final quarter of 2003, after falling by 5.3% in the three months between July and September, and by 7.4% in the previous quarter.
Tony Graham, the managing director, said that, although the market remained competitive, orders had reached their highest level ever and with this promising news he thought that profit margins would reach 10% before the end of the next financial year. The company is also benefiting from the current low interest rates charged by the banks. Further savings were made when the company increased the proportion of furniture that it produced itself. This followed its takeover in April of the Tristar Furniture factory, which was suffering from serious financial problems.
CHR will continue its expansion programme this year and expects to add four new stores to the existing fifty. These will all be in the north-east of England, where it currently has only one store. The company aims eventually to have eighty large stores nationwide and then to concentrate on opening a number of smaller ones.
This positive news was delivered together with the announcement of a 12% drop in profits to ￡26 million on sales of￡295 million for the financial year. This fall was not as bad as forecasted -several analysts thought profits would be less than ￡10 million.
Before becoming managing director of CHR, Graham had worked for Damton Paints. Though Darnton Paints was once a leader in its field, it was in serious financial difficulties when Graham joined the company. Within three years, however, he had turned the company's annual losses into a ￡10 million profit. He is beginning to do the same at CHR.