Question

I asked them to conduct a cash flow analysis to make sure that the proposed t-shirt venture generate value. The students, after careful data collection and analysis, have come up with the following assumptions for T-shirt Corp.:

Assumptions:

1. The life of the project is expected to be 5 years.  Please assume that the analysis is taking place at the end of 2018. 2019 will be the first year of operation.
2. The projected sales are:

	2019	2020	2021	2022	2013
Number of t-shirts	500	1,000	1,000	1,500	2,000

3. The price of a t-shirt will be $25 in 2019 and will increase by 3% per year in the following years.
4. The cost of procuring one t-shirt will be $4 in 2019 and will increase by 2% per year afterwards.
5. The cost of printing a design will be $2 per t-shirt.
6. There will be marketing expenses amounting to $1,000 per year.
7. T-shirt Corp. needs to invest in a machine that would print designs on the t-shirts.  The machine costs $3,000 and will be depreciated fully using a straight line method over 5 years. At the end of 2021, the machine will be recycled at no cost.
8. The company will run the operations in a garage owned by one of the parents.  The rent and utilities allocated to the garage is $200 per month.  This amount would be paid regardless of how the garage is utilized.
9. The company will finance the machine with a bank loan.  Interest expenses will be $300 per year.
10. In order to run the t-shirt venture, the T-shirt Corp. will need to invest 10% of the following year’s sales in inventory.  The venture will also need to have 15% of following year’s sales in accounts payable and 20% of following year’s sales in accounts receivable.
11. T-shirt Corp. already spent $5,000 for market research in 2018.
12. Tax rate (federal plus state) is 30%.
13. The cost of capital for this project is estimated to be 10%.

Please analyze this project and provide advice to T-shirt Corp.  Should they start the t-shirt venture?

Answer 1

Operating cash flow (OCF) each year = income after tax + depreciation

Free cash flow (FCF) each year = OCF - change in working capital

The interest expense is not included in the cash flow analysis because the interest cost is a financing expense, and is already included in the cost of capital.

The amount spent on marketing research is a sunk cost, because it is not recoverable, and is not an incremental cash flow. Hence, it is not included in the cash flow analysis.

NPV is calculated using NPV function in Excel

NPV is $54,969

Yes, T-Shirt Corp. should start the venture because the NPV is positive.