Brother NZ financials - steady as she goes

While sales for the printer manufacturer were down in New Zealand, it wasn't by much. For the year ending 31 March, 2011, the company posted New Zealand sales of $67.2 million, down from $69.8 million.

The bottom line changed little, coming in with a $4.6 million profit - only slightly down from the $4.9 million it earned the previous year.

Bucking the slight downward trend was the companies gross profit margins and inventory levels. Its gross profit margin improved by close to 1 percent in the 2011 year to a healthy 37.9 percent. While its overall inventory level increased by 8 percent to finish the year with $11.4 million in stock. This increase was made up of a big increase in the goods in transit at the time of closing of the financial year, while finished goods in stock actually fell.

All in all a good result for the local operation, with many other similarly positioned vendors experiencing much tougher results.

Last year's results are available here and this year's is here.