Slump in milk sales

Press, 10 April 1979, Page 6

Slump in milk sales

An empty 600 ml milk bottle is worth 18 cents, and W'hen it is full the total price to the consumer is 33c, since the 50 per cent rise in the price of rnilk on April 1. This may be one reason why milk vendors and treatment. stations have reported drops in sales ranging from “small” to “significant” since the price rise, according to Mr G. McGrath, national vice-president .of the Dairy, Confectionery, and Mixed Business Association. Mr McGrath, wh.o runs Waimairi Dairy Supplies, Ltd in Waimairi Road, was asked yesterday how milk sales in Christchurch dairies had been affected by the price rise.

“Milk sales in dairies have increased with the price,” said Mr McGrath, who suggested that vendors were selling less milk at the gate because consumers now had more to lose if their milk bottles and money were stolen before the vendor made his rounds.

“If everything gets pinched from your front gate you’re down by 33 cents,” he said. Of five dairies, two — Waimairi Dairy Supplies, Ltd, and the Rowley Avenue! Dairy— reported significant

increases in their milk sales. The Sparks Road dairy said that sales had remained the same, as they had at Patels dairy in Hornby and the Flamingo dairy in Redwood. However, milk vendors and the two milk treatment stations in Christchurch yesterday reported drops in sales since the price rise, and the general manager of the Milk Board (Mr R. D. Williams) said in Wellington that sales throughout New Zealand seemed to be down slightly. “A pattern has not emerged yet, but Wellington sales are down about 2 or 3 per cent, and some of the smaller areas around New Zealand appear to show drops in sales, too,” Mr Williams said. Mr M. Langford, the Milk Board’s Christchurch district

manager, also said that a definite pattern had not emerged, but there had been a drop in sales. Metropolitan Milk Suppliers’ sales have dropped quite significantly since the price rise, and the company may not be able to make up the loss, according to the general manager (Mr A. W. (Mahony). • “We lost 4 per cent over!

. the last 10 days,” he said, y National sales had t declined 5 per cent when the 1 price of milk to the conj aimer doubled from 4c to 8c - in 1974. A spokesman for the other s Christchurch milk treatment t centre, the Canterbury Dairy t Farmers Milk Station, Ltd, a said that milk sales were , lower than they were three f years ago. >. The spokesman said 1 yesterday that . sales had i’ dropped since the price rise i to 15c. “it will take another week t to ascertain how sales are i going, but cream sales seem 3 to have been hit hard.” he ; said. He did not believe that ; the level would return to / what it had been before the • increase. However, a more optimis- < tic view is held by the prest ident of the Canterbury Milk

Vendors’ Association (Mr I. Murray) who said that sales appeared to be recovering after an initial slump. “We expected that sales would drop by as much as 5 per cent in the first week, but we believe they will gradually come back to normal,” Mr Murray said. “They may stay down slightly but it will not be too drastic.”