NEW GRADERS FOR EGG FLOOR

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27801, 28 October 1955, Page 7

NEW GRADERS FOR EGG FLOOR

MOST MODERN TYPE IN WORLD CARTON SYSTEM MAY BE INTRODUCED Combined Co-operative Distributors. Ltd., which operates the egg floor in Christchurch, will install next month four of the most up-to-date egg grading machines in the world. According to the manager (Mr T. S. Dove) the system of packing eggs in cartons that is proving successful in many North Island towns may be introduced when the machines begin work some time in December. Asked about the prospects of the carton system being used in Christchurch, Mr Dove said yesterday that this city had been one of the first to give the method a trial about 12 months ago when the firm had a machine which helped to fill cartons. A few thousand dozen eggs were packed in cartons each week for six weeks before the machine went to Nelson. The same machine was now being used at the firm’s branch, at Timaru.

Mr Dove said that if the firm was to introduce egg cartons it felt that it would be best .to do it at the same time as the new grading machine came into use. If cartons were used now the plant would have to be altered. The company at present has nine small grading machines with two operators on each. When the new machines, similar to a type used in Wellington but more modern, arrive, there will be four or five workers at each of the five machines.

Eggs are now being sold in cartons at Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Gisborne, Hastings, Napier, Masterton, Palmerston North, Wanganui, Nelson, ana Timaru. Wellington, at present the only town in the North Island possessing an egg floor where they are not being offered, hopes to have them in December.

The sale of packaged eggs has proved highly popular with housewives, retailers, and wholesalers. The cartons hold a dozen, but can be cut in two along a perforated line if only half a dozen is wanted. They cost Id a dozen more than loose eggs. The cartons actually cost 2d, but the retailer’s profit is cut by Id when he sells the packaged product on the theory that the cartons save him from breakages and reduce his handling time.

In the North Island centres where they have been introduced, packaged eggs are outselling the loose by four to one at least. In some cases practically 100 per cent, of the eggs sold are in cartons.