A YORKSHIRE “DRIVE”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 May 1938, Page 3

A YORKSHIRE “DRIVE”

DISPLAY OF NEW ZEALAND LAMB, Leeds, with its population of nearly half a million, the centre of a busy Yorkshire manufacturing district, was selected for a recent “drive” organised by the London office of the New Zealand Meat Producers’ Board. It produced ample publicity, not only for the Dominion’s lamb, but the general attractions of the country, and induced a Scottish farmers’ publication to take notice of the' activity. It quoted a Yorkshire correspondent who stated: “It was an education to see the window dressing of the butchers’ shops in Leeds, which deal in the New Zealand article. Enlarged photogaphs of the farms and the country generally are displayed to give added interest. I wish it could be possible for a body like the Scottish Farmers’ Union to push matters on the lines of advertising adopted by the New Zealand Meat Board.”

No fewer than 250 retail shops in the populous city gave window space exclusively to New Zealand lamb. Although there are many other things more easily displayed in attractive form than carcases of lamb, the public interest was well aroused in the excellent efforts of eighty competitors, who were helped considerably by the wide variety of well designed pictorial material provided by the New Zealand authorities. The window-dressing prizes were allocated so as to give separate opportunities for large and small retailers.

Retail butchers, encouraged by prizes given for the most effective newspaper advertisement of New Zealand lamb, responded so well that local newspapers published complete pages devoted to the subject, the descriptive matter detailing the ideal conditions in the Dominion for the production of pure food. The reciprocal aspect of trade was not overlooked, one newspaper stating: “New Zealand is a good customer of ourselves, and in justice we should show the same preference. For our manufactured goods New Zealand easily -came first in purchase from the United Kingdom per head of population, the sum spent being £l2 15s sd, which is more than double the figure of any other Dominion excepting the Irish Free State, £7 5s 9d. And carcases of New Zealand meat are brought in British ships.”

A competition for decorated cycles used in the delivery of meat paraded the city, 43 cycles being entered for the prizes presented by the Board. Children who entered for the painting competition, always a popular feature of these campaigns, provided an audience of 2500 at a large theatre where the picture programme included the Meat Board's New Zealand film. At the presentation of prizes by the Lord Mayor of Leeds, over two hundred representatives of the meat trade attended. In the close survey of meat trade conditions which always accompanies a trade drive, the Board’s officers found that New Zealand lambs has long occupied an unique position in the Leeds trade. There is generally a strong preference by consumers for home-killed meat, but New Zealand lamb, though imported, stands in a class by itself, midway between the English and other imported meats, with the best class butchers stocking no other class of imported breef or lamb but New Zealand. The report adds: “We have already had proof that the campaign as a whole has been successful, because retailers report a big increase in New Zealand lamb sales at the expense of beef, and also that a supplementary competition emphasising the branding has done good, because the public are definitely asking for New Zealand.’