7A. Business & Finance____Fish And Chip Technical Supplies Ltd____[Latinate]

FACTS Ltd, which has been trading for three years, handles about £400,000 annually. The acronym means Fish And Chip Technical Supplies. The business is jointly owned by two brothers, Don and Rick Stark. Don failed most of his school examinations and his Careers Guidance Officer told him he was not suited to any job which involved simple Arithmetic. However, he was not deterred. He paid a lump sum, which included all the money his grandparents had left him, into a business account and persuaded his younger brother Rick to invest nearly all his savings to support the launch of their new company. Rick put aside a small proportion of his savings to finance his Open University degree in Digital Electronics. Their joint capital did not amount to very much, but the performance of FACTS in its first year of operation was as good as the targets that they had been advised to aim at.

When the two brothers published their first set of accounts, it seemed that the profitability of FACTS Ltd depended on sales of their computerized chipping machine, a revolutionary device for cutting potatoes into exact shapes and sizes.

When the next set of figures appeared in print, it was clear that the same masterpiece of digital technology, robotics and razor sharp cutting equipment was making all the money. Sales of "Macrofish" and "Microfish", their twin high speed ovens for baking large and small fish, had declined. Customers preferred their fish fried and medium-sized. The brothers now plan to eliminate these items to reduce their losses. They will also withdraw from areas of Britain where there are few Fish and Chip shops to economize on transport costs.