Analysis of Cut Foliage Businesses In Florida, 1997

Information is presented on sales, production, costs, assets and liabilities, and efficiency indicators for 12 cut foliage businesses in Florida for the year of 1997, and changes in business performance from the previous year. The average firm had annual sales of $902 thousand (K), used 45 acres of production area, employed 23 full-time equivalent (FTE) persons, and managed $1.158 million (M) in owned and leased capital. Value produced per acre of growing area averaged $15.3K. Total sales per FTE person averaged $38.9K. Total capital managed per FTE and per acre of growing space averaged $50.0K and $25.8K, respectively. Managed capital turnover averaged 0.78. Total costs averaged $892K and total costs per acre of production area averaged $14.4K. As a share of total sales, expenses averaged 41 percent for employee labor, 13 percent for materials, 18 percent for finished products brokered, 3 percent for equipment/facilities, 12 percent for administrative overhead, 7 percent for capital, and 5 percent for management/owners. Net income, including owner/management compensation, averaged $166K and net profit margin averaged 16 percent. Rate of return on assets and rate of return on net worth were 18.8 and 34.7 percent, respectively. Overall business profitability was markedly improved in 1997 over the previous year for the same firms sampled. Similar information is presented for large-, medium-, and small-sized firms, as well as highly profitable firms.