Exercise 11-15 (Algo) Dropping or Retaining a Segment [LO11-2] Thalassines Kataskeves, S.A., of Greece makes marine equipment. The company has been experiencing losses on its bilge pump product line for several years. The most recent quarterly contribution format income statement for the bilge pump product line follows: Thalassines Kataskeves, S.A. Income Statement-Bilge Pump For the Quarter Ended March 31 Sales $ 420,000 Variable expenses: $ Variable manufacturing expenses 136,000 Sales commissions 49,000 Shipping 17,000 Total variable expenses 202,000 Contribution margin 218,000 Fixed expenses: Advertising (for the bilge pump product line) 28,000 Depreciation of equipment (no resale value) 106,000 General factory overhead Salary of product-line manager Insurance on inventories Purchasing department Total fixed expenses 46,000* 120,000 12,000 41,000+ 353,000 Net operating loss *Common costs allocated on the basis of machine-hours. (135,000) Common costs allocated on the basis of sales dollars. Discontinuing the bilge pump product line would not affect sales of other product lines and would have no effect on the company's total general factory overhead or total Purchasing Department expenses. Required: What is the financial advantage (disadvantage) of discontinuing the bilge pump product line?