Granville Sea Kayaking Case

Cost Management and Applications
Case Study Assignment

Granville Sea Kayaking Case


6pm Friday, 6th August, 2009…

Tom and Michael were relaxing with some friends on the deck of Michael’s new houseboat on Granville Island, Vancouver.   Just that morning they had looked over their business’s profit statement and were feeling very pleased with what they saw.   Granville Sea Kayaking (Granville), the business they’d started in 2000, had made profits for the last six months that exceeded their expectations.   While both were pleased that their business had apparently done so well, they admitted that they didn’t really know why, because they had experienced a number of issues throughout the period   that were expected to negatively affect profit.  

“You know guys, I’d be happy to undertake a variance analysis of your profit results,” said Samantha, the business’s management accountant and a close friend of both Michael and Tom.   “It can really help you understand why the profit you made differed from what you budgeted at the start of the period.”

Tom looked at Michael and nodded. “Why not,” he said.   “I guess it’s about time we became a little more professional now we’re business tycoons.”

And so it was decided that Samantha would analyse Granville’s profit to find out how Michael and Tom managed to do so well.

Business Background

Granville Sea Kayaking provides sea kayaking courses around English Bay in Vancouver, Canada.   The business began in 2000 with the intention of bringing sea kayaking into the lives of as many people as possible.   Both Tom Durance and Michael Rosling had kayaked around the ocean beaches of Vancouver since they were small children.   After finishing school both became sea kayak instructors and.   After working for a number of years for another company, they decided to take a risk and open up their own business.   As Michael was living on a houseboat on Granville Island when the business was opened, it was decided that it... [continues]

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