RE: The PlanI'm not so sure that the company would want to add an extra couple of mil expense to the bottom line. They only made $1.019 mil last year and will probably come in at somewhere between $1.35 and $1.5 this year. So if they spend all the $2.5 mil in marketing etc next year they will end up with an annual loss in 2004.
Since the company is already growing at a good rate, to me the more logical reason for this is for the money to be used for an expansion either through an acquisition of a competitor or a further investment in plant and equipment. As I said before, the problem with these two options is that the company has said in the past it did not like the idea of "buying" customers and that it already has ample capacity to handle an increase in business.
What is being somewhat overlooked is that AF was starting to look like a good takeover target itself. Strong balance sheet, rapid growth, good cash flow, increasing profits. All very appealing traits to one of AF's competitors who in some cases are very large and who could swallow AF in a blink. With Teachers taking a healthy position in the company you now have another large friendly owner who will allow the company to proceed as is. In that case the money will probably simply be used to pay down the debt which stood at $3.9 mil at the end of 2002.
Cheers.