Northfield, Birmingham-based company Kalamazoo Plc which provides management systems for the motor trade has, as it predicted (CI No 1,146), come in at the end of the year with a pre-tax loss of over UKP4m on turnover up 24% above the UKP64m mark. The loss stems from restructuring which Kalamazoo has carried out throughout the year, costing it UKP2.1m in severance and redundancy payments as well as interest charges of UKP800,000. The rationale behind the restructuring is that within the motor trade sector lower margin business is growing quickest. Consequently, steps have been taken over the year to reduce the company’s cost base to UKP2.4m per year with 116 jobs being cut within the year while a further 146 redundancies are taking place in the current year (financially carried in the 1989 figures). Kalamazoo’s chairman Tom Garnier has left and is replaced by the non executive director Kenneth Dibben, while managing director Bill Nick-oll is only hanging on till a suitable replacement can be found for his position. Dibben says that Kalamazoo will return to profitability in the cur-rent financial year, and that the first two months of trading have been on target to meet this goal.
