Question

Thornton Chicken Corporation processes and packages chicken for grocery stores. It purchases chickens from farmers and processes them into two different products: chicken drumsticks and chicken steak. From a standard batch of 17,000 pounds of raw chicken that costs $9,400, the company produces two parts: 4,000 pounds of drumsticks and 5,000 pounds of breast for a processing cost of $6,868. The chicken breast is further processed into 4,200 pounds of steak for a processing cost of $3,000. The market price of drumsticks per pound is $1.65 and the market price per pound of chicken steak is $5.00. If Thornton decided to sell chicken breast instead of chicken steak, the price per pound would be $2.60. Required a-1. Allocate the joint cost to the joint products, drumsticks and breasts, using weight as the allocation base. a-2. Calculate the gross margin for each product. a-3. If the drumsticks are producing a loss, should that product line be eliminated? b-1. Reallocate the joint cost to the joint products, drumsticks and breasts, using relative market values as the allocation base. b-2. Calculate the gross margin for each product. c-1. Should Martin further process chicken breasts into chicken steak? (Use the assumption made in requirement b-1). c-2. How would the profit be affected by your answer in c-1?

Answer 1

Answer:

Chicken drumsticks:

pounds 6,600 -  7,230.22 = -630,22‬

market value: 6,600 - 5,478 = 1,122

Breast:

pounds 13,000 -  9037,88 =       3,962.12

market value: 13,000 - 10.790 = 2,210.00

Changing the allocation method detemriantes whether the drumstick are profitable or not thus, it should be considered which method is better suited.

Explanation:

Joint cost:

9,400 mateirals + 6,868 processing Total =

pounds to allocate cost:

$\left[\begin{array}{cccc}Product&Sales&Weight&Cost\\Drumstick&4000&0.44&7230.22\\Breast&5000&0.56&9037.8\\\\Total&9000&1&16268\\\end{array}\right]$

using market value:

$\left[\begin{array}{cccc}Product&Sales&Weight&Cost\\Drumstick&6600&0.3367&5478\\Breast&13000&0.6633&10790\\\\Total&19600&1&16268\\\end{array}\right]$

Then, we calcualte the gross margin under each method

Chicken drumsticks:

pounds 6,600 -  7,230.22 = -630,22‬

market value: 6,600 - 5,478 = 1,122

Breast:

pounds 13,000 -  9037,88 =       3,962.12

market value: 13,000 - 10.790 = 2,210.00