the benefit of his experience through his continued service as a member of the board of directors the company continued in effect its group insurance program cov ering 395 of its permanent employees during the year 438 claims were paid affecting 177 employees the cost to the company was 165.67 for each employee covered a total of 65,441 no contribution was necessary under the retirement plan based on profit sharing for the year 1954 however in december 1954 the board of directors appropriated from surplus 50,000 to be distrib uted among the 253 members of the plan in recognition of their loyal and devoted service during the year and the part that they played in the success of the company's operations during the year the plan had a net gain of 28 members and paid out 7,211 in benefits to retiring or terminating employees outlook the outlook for 1955 indicates a large volume of work available marriner s eccles chairman of the board net profits per share both at home and abroad competition for domestic work is expected to remain very keen and it is difficult to anticipate how much of this work your company can obtain at satisfactory prices competition for foreign work is less stringent and profit margins are more attrac tive however the risks are greater in many ways because of the political and economic uncertainties that are inherent abroad we have a good organization efficient equipment long experience and a good reputation in the industry we are in a position to perform effectively heavy construction building construction residential and other construction here or abroad and this diversification gives us increased flexibility in our efforts to obtain profitable work we hope and expect to make the best of the situation as we find it in closing we would again like to express our appreciation to those clients that have favored us with their business without them we could not exist and we shall strive always to give them every reason to be satisfied with the selection of utah construction company as their contractor allen d christensen president and general manager v . blowout pit at the iron mountain mine in utah when the company performs mining and stripping operations for the colorado fuel and iron corporation right wagon drills using tungsten carbide bits required to penetrate the extremely hard iron mountain ore