Old Turkey Mash is a whiskey manufactured by distilling grains and corn and then aging the mixture for five years in 50-gallon oak barrels. Distilling requires about a week and aging takes place in carefully controlled warehouses. Before it ages, the whiskey is too bitter to be consumed. Aging mellows the brew (and ultimately the consumer). The cost of the product prior to aging is $100 per barrel (direct plus in-direct costs of distilling). In the aging process, each barrel must be inspected monthly and leaks repaired. Every six months the barrels are rotated and sampled for quality. Costs of direct labor and materials in the aging process (excluding the cost of the oak barrels) amounts to $50 per barrel per year (all variable). As the whiskey ages, evaporation and leakage cause each 50-gallon barrel to produce only 40 gallons of bottled whiskey. New oak barrels cost $75 each and cannot be reused. After aging, they are cut in half and sold for flowerpots. The revenues generated from sales of the pots just cover the costs of disposing of the used barrels. As soon as the whiskey is aged five years, it is bottled and sold to wholesalers.

While domestic consumption of whiskey is falling, an aggressive international marketing campaign has opened up new international markers. The firm is in the third year of a five year campaign to double production. Because it takes five years to increase production (an additional barrel of mash produced today does not emerge from the aging process for five years), the firm is adding 100,000 gallons of distilled product each year. Prior to the expansion, 500,000 distilled gallons were produced each year. Distilled output is being increased 100,000 gallons a year for five years until it reaches 1 million gallons. Distilled output is currently 800,000 gallons and is projected to rise to 900,000 gallons next year. The