‘Sold down the river’

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33513, 19 April 1974, Page 1

‘Sold down the river’

Mr M. A. Mclver, senior vicepresident of the Christchurch branch of the Retail Motor Trade Association, said last night that lack of an increase in the profit margin for service stations caused him concern.

j In Dunedin, Mr G. Millis, the Dominion chairman of the service station division of the association, said petrol retailers had been “sold down the river” by the Minister of Trade and Industry (Mr Freer). The 9c price increase had made selling petrol an unprofitable business. Mr Millis said, according to a Press Association message. Some j retailers were considering closing their petrol outlets. Mr Mclver said: "We would like to see the profit margin restored to what it was — about 10 per cent. This would mean about one cent on the price of petrol. "Under the National Government a formula tied thej ptofit margins to wage, increases. If wages went up the profit margin went up hv half that amount. "However, when the Labour Government made its wage order of 81 per cent, we got only just over a 2 per cent increase, about half of what we expected. And when the 2.7 per cent wage adjustment was made we got nothitg.” '

The Canterbury branch of the association will meet on Monday and Mr Mclver said there was a possibility that JgVs a.m. to 5 p.m. hours, five davs a , Mr Mclver also complained about the Government’s embargo on the amount of the price rise until midnight The announcement used to be made for the 9 p.m. television news, he said, which gave station owners time to adjust their petrol pumps before starting in the morning. “The present Government has left it up to the oil companies to inform station owners — and the oil companies did not hear about it until 4 p.m. Some owners will have to adjust their pumps in the morning and since it takes five to 10 minutes for each pump they may lose customers.” Three service stations were open last night and al! reported that business was higher than normal after the increase was announced but before the size of it was generally known. One garage said it was selling three times the usual amount of petrol. At 10.30 p.m. the queue at the Blue Star station in Moorhouse Avenue was a quarter; of a mile long. J