Flying Brands is a company which delivers goods to customers.

The business began some years ago by flying flowers from the Channel Islands to the UK mainland.

The Group has continued to drive profits forward with profit before tax up by 24%, and profit before tax and before all exceptional items up by 10%. The business is focused on profitable growth, and although sales in 2003 showed a fall on 2002 of 3%, the temptation to chase marginal customers was resisted, and a greater emphasis was placed on increasing customer spend and improving operational efficiency. This is reflected in the contribution margin for the two main brands improving to 35% compared to 32% in 2002 . . . Overheads increased during the year by 5%, slightly above inflation, as the marketing team was considerably strengthened. Corporate overheads comprise the costs of the chief executive, the finance director, the non-executive directors and the legal, professional and other fees connected with the running of a public company . . . By driving increasing volumes of orders through our existing operations, we will see economies of scale and substantially improved recovery of fixed overheads.

Discussion points
1 How did the company improve its contribution to fixed overheads and profit?
2 What was the alternative strategy for improving contribution which the company rejected?