It is an interesting conundrum that Darwin actually said that evolution favours the lean and fit, while it was his friend, the eccentric social theorist Herbert Spencer that embellished this argument changing it to the well-known phrase the survival of the leanest and fittest. A conundrum that the beleagured MBS Plc might well ponder. At the interim stage MBS is justifying its radical restructuring (the sale of its product sales division to Realnew Ltd and the attempted disposal of Altos distributor Microtex, a company that nobody seems to want under MBS’s current terms), by revelling in a loss of over UKP7m. Pointedly shrugging off criticism that MBS may have been foolhardy in shedding its product sales division, the company is revelling in the fact that Microtex and the aforementioned division are the cause of the loss. Turnover for the big old-look MBS struggled up 4.5% to a little over UKP64m, however, turnover for the new-look slimmed-down MBS didn’t do very much better by rising 8% to UKP8m. The group’s continuing activities are: engineering, communications, education and training and cable assembly. Chairman Owen Williams said that the group does not expect income to show significant growth in the the second half of this year. For although all divisions to be retained are trading profitably, it will take a while for confidence to be restored in the company to the point where it can resume growth. On the other hand MBS Product Sales Ltd (the now independent product sales division) seems to be finding its feet without too much trouble. Williams does, however, expect that the benefits of his decisions will show through by 1990, believing that his MBS is now leaner, fitter and well positioned to meet the challenges of the 90s.
