Question

Concord’s Nut House is a processor and distributor of a variety of different nuts. The company buys nuts from around the world and roasts, seasons, and packages them for resale. Concord’s Nut House currently offers 20 different types of nuts in one-pound bags through catalogs and gourmet shops. The company’s major cost is that of the raw nuts; however, the predominantly automated roasting and packing processes consume a substantial amount of manufacturing overhead cost. The company uses relatively little direct labor.

Some of Concord’s nuts are very popular and sell in large volumes, but a few of the newer types sell in very low sales volumes. Concord’s prices its nuts at cost (including overhead) plus a markup of 40%. If the resulting prices of certain nuts are significantly higher than the market price, adjustments are made. Although the company competes primarily on the quality of its products, customers are price conscious.

Data for the annual budget include manufacturing overhead of $5,980,820, allocated on the basis of each product’s direct labor cost. The annual budgeted direct labor cost totals $1,203,000. Based on the sales budget and raw materials standards, purchases and use of raw materials are expected to total $9,143,000 for the year.

The unit costs of a one-pound bag of two of the company’s products follows.

		Cashews			Chestnuts
Raw materials			$4.30			$3.23
Direct labor			0.24			0.24

Concord’s controller believes that the traditional costing system may be providing misleading cost information, so she has developed the following analysis of the annual budgeted manufacturing costs.

Activity		Cost Driver		Budgeted Activity			Budgeted Cost
Purchasing		Purchase orders		11,410			$1,163,820
Material handling		Number of setups		1,840			1,407,600
Quality control		Number of batches		620			310,000
Roasting		Roasting hours		95,570			1,911,400
Seasoning		Seasoning hours		33,080			661,600
Packaging		Packaging hours		26,320			526,400
Total manufacturing overhead cost							$5,980,820

Data regarding the annual production of cashews and chestnuts follow. All raw materials purchased during the period are processed and all nuts produced are sold within the period.

		Cashews		Chestnuts
Expected sales		122,200 lbs.		2,000 lbs.
Batch size		10,000 lbs.		1,000 lbs.
Setups		2 per batch		2 per batch
Purchase order size		2,500 lbs.		50 lbs.
Roasting time		1.40 hour/100 lbs.		1.4 hour/100 lbs.
Seasoning time		0.3 hour/100 lbs.		0.3 hour/100 lbs.
Packaging time		0.2 hour/100 lbs.		0.2 hour/100 lbs.

Using the current costing system, calculate the cost and selling price of one pound of cashews and one pound of chestnuts. (Round predetermined overhead rate to 0 decimal places, e.g. 25% and final answers to 2 decimal places, e.g. 15.25.)

Answer 1

OH rate as % of DLC:
Estimated overheads		59,80,820
Divide: Estimated DLC	12,03,000
OH rate as % of DLC:		497%
Unit cost per pound
		Cashews	Chestnuts
Material cost	4.3	3.23
Labour cost	0.24	0.24
Overheads	1.19	1.19
(497% of DLC)
Units cost per pound	5.73	4.66
Selling price per pound
		Cashews	Chestnuts
Unit cost per pound	5.73	4.66
Add: Maarkup @ 40%	2.29	1.86
Selling price per pound	8.02	6.52