Ohio Rubber Works, Inc.

I. Case Background

Ohio Rubber Works, Inc. was established in the period immediately following World War
II. Its major customer base in those years was the automobile industry. Because the company
was located in Northwest Ohio, shipment of its finished products to the automobile plants
located in Ohio and Michigan was accomplished with relative ease. The company was
incorporated in 1947 and had undergone the gradual reshaping through acquisitions and
mergers that has characterized so many U.S. firms up to the present. By 1993, the company’s
customer base was much more varied than it had been during the early years.
The products now being made by Ohio Rubber Works, Inc. consisted mainly of industrial
hoses and belting (pulleys and conveyer belts) for a variety of industrial uses, from automobile
manufacturing to mining. While a substantial amount of the company’s output was sold to
various intermediaries (wholesalers, jobbers, and the like), a significant amount of revenue was
generated by special older materials, especially from the airline industry and the military. As a
result of that situation and the general nature of its business, the company was very interested
in maintaining control of all aspects of its financial situation. Especially important were the
monitoring and control of the firm’s working capital.
Such control included the relationship between the short-term and long-term financing
and the effect of each upon the return on stockholder’s equity. The company’s financial
managers were determined to see that the company survived the downsizing, reshaping, and
general changes in the manufacturing eliminate so prevalent in recent years within the United
States. Careful attention to the balance sheet, as the company’s controller had to it, was
considered very important.
The company’s controller, Carol Henning, had recently begun a review of the firm’s
working capital policy. At present, the firm’s financial structure appears as shown in Table 1.
 TABLE 1

Ohio Rubber Works, Inc.

Balance Sheet
Year-End 1993
($000s)
Current assets* $16,000 Current liabilities $3,500
Fixed assets, net $24,000 Long-term debt $14,000
Common Equity $22,500
Total Assets $40,000 Total liabilities and capital $40,000
Note: *20% of the financed current assets are considered temporary, that is,
they fluctuate with the level of sales

The current interest rate on short-term borrowing is 6%. The company’s long-term debt
has 9% interest rate. The firm is in the 35% tax bracket (federal, state, and local taxes). Sales for
1993 were $70 million. The 1993 profit margin was 7.65%. Henning knew from published
industry data that firms in similar lines of business, with similar customer bases, had a return on
equity to 3% higher than Ohio Rubber Works.
Henning wondered whether the firm’s working capital policy was overly conservative.
Would a more aggressive policy increase the firm’s already strong return on common equity? At
present the firm’s current assets were financed with long-term debt. Henning was very
interested in the effect upon ROE of financing the fluctuating or temporary portion of current
assets with short-term debt. In addition, she wanted to add 40% of the permanent current
assets to those financed short-term. The objective was to examine the effect of this change in
policy upon the return to the common stockholders and, if the change was positive, to present
the plan to the company’s finance committee. The finance committee was made up of Henning,
the corporate treasurer, the vice president of finance, and the controller from the firm’s two
operating divisions.
In considering working capital changes relative to financing, Henning reflected upon the
actual movement of certain working capital items within the firm. In a situation such as that of
Ohio Rubber Works, inventory control was a major concern. The varied product lines and
customer types highlighted the need for attention to the effect of inventory upon working
capital management. Of particular interest to firms in this situation is the ratio of inventory to
sales, relative to the desired ratio. The major aspect of that consideration was maintaining the
desired ratio as the business cycle ebbed and flowed in its usual pattern.
The sales for Ohio Rubber Works over the past 10 years had been steadily growing. The
reverses in sales and earnings during this upward trend had been slight, and the desired ratio of
inventory to sales had been well maintained. In addition, Henning, as she examined historical
data for the company, observed a reasonably consistent cash conversion cycle-one which was
not only consistent in terms of trend, but in terms of industry comparisons as well. Industry
data were obtained from a variety of published sources, including trade journals. Ohio Rubber
Works typically had an inventory conversion period of 42 days. As was typical in the industry,
the firm’s average collection period for receivables was 45 days. The firm usually operated on a
60-day accounts payable cycle, also standard in the industry.

II. Question and Answer

1. Calculate the return on equity (ROE) for the company under the present policy and the
proposed policy. Which one yields the higher ROE?
2. Comment upon your findings in question 1. Consider increased or decreased risk
related to the change in policy, and also relative to the change in ROE. Should Henning
recommend the change in policy?
3. If the yield curve for 1994 is projected to be steeper than 1993, would this change
your answer to Question 2? If so, how would it change your answer?
4. In interpreting information concerning the yield curve, what are the reasonable long-
term and short-term “proxies” for yield curve data?
5. How would a move toward more sales to the “special” category of customer be likely
to influence management’s thinking concerning short-term versus long-term
financing?
6. What advantage does the company seem to have concerning the relationship
between inventory and sales? That is, what has likely caused the inventory-to-sales
ratio to remain at a desired level in recent time?
7. Within a reasonable range, what is your estimate of the present of inventory to total
assets of the typical U.S. manufacturing firm? Discuss this in relationship to Henning’s
concern about inventory as a component of working capital.
8. What are the elements of a firm’s cash conversion cycle? How do these elements
interrelate to provide information concerning the ability of a firm to pay its debts?
What is the cash conversion cycle for Ohio Rubber Works? What are the implications
of a longer conversion cycle?
9. If a downturn in the company’s sales should occur, what adjustments would
management want to make quickly and accurately, relative to working capital?
10. Does the company’s finance committee seem to be adequately staffed? Why or why
not?