18 I think where we went wrong was in assuming that price is always the most important concern, and simply keeping our margins low. Clearly, by doing this we haven't managed to regain market share. Our marketing consultant has suggested that we change our strategy and give increased attention to other things which are very important to people, such as reliability of quality and of delivery, even if it involves charging more. 19 We'll be implementing various measures as quickly as possible. In the short term, we're going to reduce the number of quality control staff on the factory floor. We think we can do this without causing too many problems. We're also looking at the supplier of our metal casings. We think we can negotiate a better deal for these elsewhere. And we also need to give serious thought to the question of overheads. 20 I've looked at the figures for the last five years and they're rather worrying. I feel we must do something to retain people longer. As things are, the cost to the company isn't easy to quantify. We don't have any reliable method of calculating it. But it must be considerable. After all, it takes quite a few weeks, or months, depending on the type of work, for anyone new to achieve maximum productivity, because there's so much information to acquire. 21 Our assets are very healthy. The capital value of the hotel building has almost doubled since we acquired it. But although we've renovated about 1/3 of the rooms, we can't complete the programme without funds, and we can't generate any substantial income until we start trading. So we've decided to open for business immediately, and offer discounts to compensate for the inconvenience of the ongoing building work. We're sure there'll be a market. 22 Research suggests that saturation point was reached in this country some time ago, despite falling prices. So we shouldn't expect consumption here to increase much more in the future. However, income levels in our traditional overseas markets are steadily rising, so a product like ours, which is regarded as a luxury there right now, will soon be regarded as a necessity. So, in general terms, the figures will be much as they were.

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