Segments

Learning Outcomes

  • Identify profit/loss centers by product/segment

incandescent light bulbA segment is a fairly autonomous unit or division of a company defined according to function or product line. Traditionally, owners have organized their companies along functional lines. The segments or departments organized along functional lines perform a specified function such as marketing, finance, purchasing, production, or shipping. Recently, large companies have tended to organize segments according to product lines such as an electrical products division, shoe department, or food division.

For example, Thomas Alva Edison started the Edison Electric Light Company in 1878 to market his incandescent lamp and other later products. In 1892, Edison merged his company with two other electric companies and formed the General Electric Company.

Today, GE identifies the following segments: Power, Renewable Energy, Aviation, Healthcare, and Capital.

  • The Power segment offers technologies, solutions, and services related to energy production, which includes gas and steam turbines, generators, and power generation services.
  • The Renewable Energy segment provides wind turbine platforms, hardware and software, offshore wind turbines, solutions, products and services to the hydropower industry, blades for onshore and offshore wind turbines, and high voltage equipment.
  • The Aviation segment provides jet engines and turboprops for commercial airframes, maintenance, component repair, and overhaul services, as well as replacement parts, additive machines and materials, and engineering services.
  • The Healthcare segment provides healthcare technologies in medical imaging, digital solutions, patient monitoring, diagnostics, drug discovery, biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies, and performance enhancement solutions.
  • The Capital segment leases and finances aircraft, aircraft engines, and helicopters, and also provides financial and underwriting solutions.

Here are five questions you can address as you contemplate segments:

  1. Does the segment have a positive contribution margin?
  2. What happens to fixed costs if we eliminate a segment?
  3. How will dropping a product or segment affect other areas of the business?
  4. What can the company do with freed-up capacity?
  5. What are the qualitative (non-financial) considerations?

Let’s look at a hypothetical company called 3Yachts, Inc. Management and the owners of the company are concerned about the low amount of operating income. The company produces three different models of sailboats: the HighLine, which sells for $11,000; the MidLine, which sells for $6,500; and the LowLine, the base model, which sells for $4,000.

The current contribution margin income statement looks like this:

3Yachts, Inc.
CVP Analysis (month)
Total
Sales $  580,000
Variable costs 465,800
Contribution margin Single Line114,200
Fixed costs 110,000
Operating income Single Line$    4,200Double line

 

Management is thinking about dropping the base model, but they want more information. You have been asked to analyze operating income by product line (segment).

Here is the sales price by model:

MidLine HighLine LowLine
Sales Price $6,500.00 $11,000.00 $4,000.00

 

Here is the information you have gathered on variable costs:

MidLine HighLine LowLine
Hulls $2,000.00 $3,000.00 $1,000.00 each
Outfitting $1,000.00 $3,500.00 $600.00 each
Labor per assembled boat $1,500.00 $5,000.00 $1,500.00 each
Commission 3.00% 5.00% 2.00%

 

Which you have summarized:

Subcategory, Variable Costs per Unit
MidLine HighLine LowLine
Hulls $2,000 $3,000 $1,000
Outfitting 1,000 3,500 600
Labor per assembled boat 1,500 5,000 1,500
Commission 195 550 80
Single Line$4,695Double line Single Line$12,050Double line Single Line$3,180Double line

 

And you have identified fixed costs as follows:

Description Total
Subcategory, Fixed costs per month
Sales Salary $   10,000
Selling, General, and Administrative 90,000
Production Facility Rent 10,000
Single Line$ 110,000Double line

 

By modifying the CVP model slightly, you can show that the HighLine model is the culprit here. It sells for $11,000 but costs $12,050 to produce, not including fixed overhead.

3Yachts, Inc.
Product Mix
CVP Analysis (month)
MidLine HighLine LowLine Total
Subcategory, Assumptions
Sales price per unit $6,500 $11,000 $4,000
Variable cost per unit $4,695 $12,050 $3,180
CM per unit Single Line$1,805Double line Single Line($1,050)Double line Single Line$820Double line
Fixed costs per month $110,000
Sales volume 60 10 20
Subcategory, CVP Model Results MidLine HighLine LowLine Total
Sales $  390,000 $  110,000 $   80,000 $  580,000
Variable costs 281,700 120,500 63,600 465,800
Contribution margin Single Line108,300Double line Single Line(10,500)Double line Single Line16,400Double line Single Line114,200
Fixed costs 110,000
Operating income Single Line$    4,200Double line

 

Question 1: Does the segment have a positive contribution margin?

Often, in deciding whether to keep or drop a product line, segment, or territory or other business unit (we’ll use the term ‘segment’ from here on to represent all of these), management will start with the contribution margin.

You can review the contribution margin here:

You can view the transcript for “Contribution Margin Income Statement” here (opens in new window).

If a segment has a negative contribution margin, it’s not even covering its variable costs, and unless it is a product with some future potential (like an electric motorcycle) or that contributes to other sales (such as a line of printers that supports a profitable toner cartridge segment), it should probably be dropped.

Let’s look at what would happen to this company if we drop the HighLine model:

3Yachts, Inc.
Product Mix
CVP Analysis (month)
MidLine HighLine LowLine Total
Subcategory, Assumptions
Sales price per unit $6,500 $11,000 $4,000
Variable cost per unit $4,695 $12,050 $3,180
CM per unit Single Line$1,805Double line Single Line($1,050)Double line Single Line$820Double line
Fixed costs per month $110,000
Sales volume 60 0 20
Subcategory, CVP Model Results MidLine HighLine LowLine Total
Sales $  390,000 $   80,000 $  470,000
Variable costs 281,700 63,600 345,300
Contribution margin Single Line108,300Double line Single LineDouble line Single Line16,400Double line Single Line124,700
Fixed costs 110,000
Operating income Single Line$   14,700Double line

 

Let’s look at this using differential analysis:

Description Total
Expected decrease in revenue $ (110,000)
Expected decrease in total variable costs 120,500
Expected increase/(decrease) in operating income Single Line$   10,500Double line
Current operating income $4,200
Expected increase/(decrease) in operating income $10,500
Projected operating income Single Line$14,700Double line

It seems fairly obvious that we should drop the HighLine model and concentrate on the MidLine since that has the highest contribution margin.

But we have only addressed the first of the five proposed questions. We’ll explore the remaining questions in the next section, but first, check your understanding of market segments.

Practice Question