In exchange, they had to place caps on rents, and could not impose increases unless profits dipped below 6 percent.

Natural gas suppliers do it, knowing that their profits will dip if the winter is mild.

If its costs had increased in line with vehicles produced, after-tax profits would have dipped slightly.

But Staples was still hurting King's regular trade, and profits dipped for the first time.

Pretax profits dipped slightly to £112.7m from £113.1m last time.

G.M.'s costs are still among the industry's highest, and profits have dipped below Ford's for the first time since crank starters went out of style.

Although profits dipped last year to $1.5 billion, it was the third consecutive year the company recorded a profit of more than $1 billion.

Although Swatch will not break out numbers, executives concede that costs skyrocketed and profits dipped.

Hanson P.L.C.'s profits dipped a bit last year, to $2 billion from $2.1 bilion in 1991.

Gillette's sales fell about 2 percent, to just under $10 billion, and profits dipped 12 percent, to $1.26 billion, or $1.15 a share.