Bread Not To Be Returnable

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31305, 27 February 1967, Page 14

Bread Not To Be Returnable

All bread deliveries to shops and dairies on and after Wednesday would be made under a no-credit system. This meant that unsold bread could not be returned to the bakeries, said the president of the Canterbury Bakers’ Association (Mr W. R. Hawker).

Mr Hawker added that the new terms of sale would result in shops and dairies carrying smaller stocks, and, perhaps, only bread which had been ordered. Mr Hawker said that the present realistic prices of flour, which were between four-and-a-half and five times the prices paid previously, did not permit bread on consignment to retailers. As a contribution to the difficulties of retailers in meeting the changed conditions manufacturers had continued to accept returns for a time. A Papanui dairy owner yesterday said that retailers had received with mixed feelings the decision of manufacturers not to accept bread returns. Reduction In Orders Some would reduce their daily orders to the number of loaves ordered, plus a very small amount of spare bread. Another dairy owner said that he planned to carry the same quantity of spare bread as before as a service to his customers and to attract new customers. Into Operation Bakers have accepted limited returns of unsold stale bread from distributors for many years. For 26 years, however, the practice has been

contrary to the Board of Trade (Return of Bread) Regulations, 1941. Under the regulations it has been an offence for any person to take back any bread delivered to a retailer unless the retailer has a right to reject the bread as not in conformity with a contract of

sale. The 26-year-old regulations have come into operation because of the removal of the flour subsidy, which has increased the price of flour from £lO a ton to £46 a ton. Bakers have been able to accept returns in the past because flour has been cheap.