Task 4.

Company performance

1-Listening .You are going to listen to a conversation about the company:

lastminute.com What does this company do?

Before you listen to the conversation try to make the questions (In the past simple)
Remember the structure QU +A+S+A :

1. Brent Hoberman and Martha Lane Fox /the company (start)

Where did Brent and Martha start the company? ?
2. the website ( sell)
What did the website sell?
3. the company (expand into)
Which countries did the company expand into?
4. they /after six years (have)
How many employees did they have after six years?
5. the company (go public)
When did the company go public?
6. Martha / the company (leave)
When did Martha leave the company?

Listen and write the answers to the questions

1- In Brent’s living room 4- 1400 employers

2- Selling fly and hotel bookings 5- In 2000

3- UK, france and Germany 6- Martha leave the company in 2003

2-Vocabulary. What companies do The verbs below can be used to describe the activity of
a company.Practice the verbs in class.This is a speaking activity.Make sure you know the
meaning of these verbs.

design sell distribute provide manage publish market export import produce
supply organise manufacture

Example: Armani designs and sells fashionable clothes.

3-Look at the press releases. What event is each company announcing? Choose from
the following:

a new CEO a new contract record profits new shops a new product

Athens Daily Menu announces a new line in vegetarian and organic menus, to add
to its extensive high- quality product range.Athens Daily Menu provides catering services
for major businesses, hospitals, schools and colleges, using only quality ingredients to
prepare tasty and nutritious menus. The company supplies meals for over 15,000 people
every lunchtime ! With an efficient , high-quality catering service Athens Daily Menu can
help any organisation to improve its image and make financial savings. They also provide
catering for special occasions from banquets for up to 1,000 people to romantic dinners for
twos.

Sisso is pleased to announce the signing of a major new deal with a Japanese car
manufacturer. The deal guarantees the future of both SISSO plants and is a symbol of
SISSO’s growth philosophy. SISSO manufactures innovative, high quality seats and
interiors for cars, sport utility vehicles and vans. SISSO designs its components in close
conjunction with the client, guaranteeing satisfaction . With clients in both Europe and the
USA, SISSO exports up to half of its production.

Fill in the fact file using information from the texts

Athens Daily Menu SISSO

Products/Services vegetarian and organic Japanese car manufacturer

menus

Customers people that eat vegetarian .

food

Other information . .
Vocabulary :production, sales and share prices.

4- Work in pairs. Match the words in the box with the arrows.

decrease drop fall go up increase level off rise remain steady

A B

go up fall
increase level off
rise

C D

drop increase
remaind steady rise
remaind steady
5-Look at the graphs .Choose the appropriate words to complete the sentences.
A. Production rose steadily in the second half of the year.
B. When I was away, production increased dramatically.
C. Sales dropped sharply after the product was advertised on TV. Everybody wanted it!
D. Sales decreased after Christmas, but fortunately they went up steadily in the
following months.
E. The share price increased steadily, but then it levelled off steady during the
summer.
F. Our share price remained steady for the whole of last year.

4. Draw a similar graph.Prepare a short spoken presentation to explain the graph and
present your company results. First, you will need to decide on your company type, and what
product or service it offers.
This graph shows the growth of the population in Canada from 1978 to 2009. It is taken from
the website about Statistics in Canada.

There are three graphs in the chart. The green graph shows the total growth of the
population, the black one deals with the migrated people in Canada and the blue graph
shows the natural increase of the population. In 1988/89 there was an enourmous growth. In
the following years the total growth went down to about 250,000 in 1998/99. From that time
on the Canadian population has been gradually growing again although the natural increase
slows down. So we can say that the growth of the population in Canada is based on
migration.
AUDIO SCRIPT

… and now I would like to turn to the final section of the report. AS you can see, last year
was an excellent year in production. THe first two quarters were rather slow, but as a result
of new orders from Asia , our production rose dramatically in the third and fourth quarter.
This situation was reflected, of course, in our sales for last year. We started the year in a
strong position , but in the second quarter worldwide sales fell sharply. This was a result of
the high price of oil. However, as I mentioned earlier, new orders from Asia meant that sales
went up to their previous level by the end of the year.Looking now at the share price, I am
delighted to announce that last year was also an excellent year in this respect. The share
price rose steadily for the first two quarters, and it remained steady at its maximum for the
rest of the year. All in all, last year was a very positive year...