My how time flies. Here we are through our third quarter of the year, and it seems like we just finished our last year with the auditors. I am happy to report that we are basically back to full staff throughout the company and pushing forward. We have continued to hold onto our slightly-ahead-of-last-year profitability that we enjoyed at the six-month mark and things are looking positive for our fourth quarter, as well.
We are currently working through our budgeting process for 2022 and with this we get the opportunity to dig in and try to determine what the company will need for new assets to keep it running smoothly and prevent as much down time as possible. I thought it might be interesting to share how we go about deciding what we can spend on new assets here at Town and Country Supply. We use a basic formula for determining how much we can justify by using the lesser of our previous year’s profits or our yearly depreciation. This formula has worked well for us through the years and does not include larger growth projects such as our large fertilizer plant in Lockwood or purchases like the Market Basket convenience store that we purchased earlier this year. These new projects must be able to stand on their own on a proforma to justify that they are a viable expenditure. Going into this process this year, we are concerned about the availability of the new assets that we feel we need. We have heard of various shutdowns on fleet vehicle orders and rumors of equipment dealers being backed up on orders. However, we are typically ahead of the game when looking at rotating equipment, so do not believe this will cause the co-op any real issues.
The budgeting time of year is exciting to me, as I get to see and hear what each Division Manager sees for the future of their division. They also get the opportunity to present this to the Board of Directors and field questions on their vision. This is a very integral part of setting direction for your co-op as it develops a gauge to monitor our progress, good or bad, and make changes as we go if we see issues.
The management of Town and Country Supply is committed to providing quality products and services to patrons – and we continue to strive toward this goal daily. Thank you for your past support and we look forward to servicing your needs long into the future.
Want to get in touch with Wes? Contact him at wburley@tandcsupply.com or 406.628.6314 Ext 12.
