BMR plc knocks down unwanted buildings and prepares the land for construction when a site is being redeveloped for a new use. The company recently started to salvage, recycle and sell building materials that can be used in other construction projects.
Many of its demolition jobs take several months to complete and BMR plc can wait for over a year before it is paid. BMR plc receives the money from its sale of salvaged building material within 2 months.
Demolition businesses often deal with dangerous and heavy materials that need to be disposed of well away from the building site. The demolition industry has received a lot of criticism in recent years for damaging the environment. Some demolition businesses have even tried to reduce costs by operating in ways that put site workers and the public at risk. BMR plc wants to be known as an ethical business and has set itself the objective of operating in an environmentally friendly way.
Extract from BMR plc’s statement of financial position (balance sheet):
All figures are in millions of pounds (£m).
Current ratio = Current assets/Current liabilities.
The current ratio at the end of 2015 was 1.25.
Unit 2 - May 2017
BMR plc has said that it wants to be known as an ethical business and one thing it has done is to set an environmental objective. Explain whether you believe that this is a sensible thing for BMR plc to do. Use Item C to support your answer.
[9 marks]