Prices To Rise In Cakes, Pastry

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32396, 8 September 1970, Page 14

Prices To Rise In Cakes, Pastry

Cakes and pastry lines from most manufacturers will cost more as from next Monday. Pies will also increase in price “sometime in the next few weeks” and the price of prepacked bread, both sliced and unsliced, is expected to be increased also. It will be the second increase in pie prices in four months.

The manufacturers say that the increases—which will range between 8 and 25 per cent —are because of the latest wage increases for bakers’ tradesmen, of about 20 per cent, which came into force yesterday, and increases in the prices of ingredients which have been borne by the manufacturer over a number of months.

The president of the Canterbury branch of the New Zealand Master Pastrycooks’ Society (Mr. H. Templeton) said yesterday that it was “up to the individual” to decide on the various increases, but from next Monday he was putting up the prices of his

goods by between 15 and 25 per cent. Besides the latest wage increases, other rises in costs faced recently by the manufacturers have included an 11 per cent pay increase for tradesmen five months ago, price increases in flour, butter, margarine, tinned and dried fruits, shop assistants’ wages, drivers’ wages and the payroll tax. The managing director of Ernest Adams, Ltd (Mr H. A. Adams) said he expected some of his company’s products to increase by about 8 per cent. This was, he said, only a provisional estimate as a lot of costing remained to be done before the increase could be determined accurately. No Estimate

The manager of the Sockburn Bakery (Mr R. J. Walker) said his prices would also rise but he would have to in-

Ivestigate the costing of it before he could give a estimate [of tbe increase. The bulk of other manufact irers are expected to increase their prices so that the price of small cakes will be about 60c a dozen and buns about 48c a dozen. The increase in pie prices will probably be 10c a dozen wholesale; retailers are most likely to pass the increase on as 1c a pie. The last increase in pie prices was in May when retailers said that the 261 per cent increase in meat prices, the second in six months had, together with other rising costs, eroded profit margins. Eggs Steady

The managing director of Murphy’s Perfect Pies (Mr S. M Murphy) said yesterday, however, that the 1c a pie increase by the wholesalers then “didn’t anywhere near cover the increase in meat.” He said that the only thing that had not increased in cost to the manufacturers since then had been eggs. “A pie at 15c is still cheaper than some food bought at lower prices when its food content is taken into account,” he said.

The manager of Stevenson and Son (Mr B. E. Stevenson) agreed that a price increase was necessary, but could not say when the increase would come into effect other than “some time in the next few weeks.” Bread Lines Bread bakers in Christchurch either would not comment on possible price increases, but some are likely. Some lines of bread, the staple “quarter, half and whole loaf” are subject to price control, but the increasingly common prepacked bread, either sliced or unsliced, in plastic, cellophane or waxed paper, is not con trolled and is expected to increase in price shortly.