Becker Textilwerk GmbH (Portuguese version)

This case focuses on a German company, Becker Textilwerk, which produces high-performance fabrics. The company registered total sales of 1.2 billion euros in 2016. Becker is working at full capacity and is faced with making a decision regarding a client's request for a substantial increase in the discount being applied to its orders. If the company denies the request, the client will no longer buy from Becker and will move on to the competition.
This case is most often used in courses on cost accounting. The teaching objectives include introducing the concept of contribution margin (CM) per unit of scarce resources, with the aim of analyzing the strategic implications of the decision that is being made. Becker is a technological leader in the industry and is facing growing competition from a number of companies. Becker uses a variable cost system, which is common among German companies. Resolution of the case, which is a good illustration of how client/product profitability figures depend on the calculation method, is founded on calculating the profitability for each client and each product. It pushes students to reflect on how these probabilities should be calculated and what Becker's competitive advantage is for maintaining its leadership position. The conclusions allow for illustrating how an economic analysis of profitability on a per-client basis leads to strategic decision making for Becker; the decision reaches beyond the question of whether or not to concede an additional discount. This case is recommended for use after introducing the concept of contribution margin for decision making in situations of low capacity.

This case is based on the case Becker Textilwerk GmbH, C-770-E, from the same authors.