Food and drink sales up $95 million

Press, 2 September 1981, Page 12

Food and drink sales up $95 million

PA Wellington Food and drink wholesalers saw the value of their sales rise more than $95 million in the year to June 30. Statistics Department figures show that the value of wholesale sales increased more than $3OB million during the year. Food and drink wholesalers sold goods worth $553.2 million in the three

months to June 30 compared with $457.4 million a year ago. The value of all wholesale sales in the June quarter was $2.22 billion compared to $1.91 billion last year. All of the Department’s wholesale categories saw the value of sales rise during the year, the biggest being a 20.6 per cent rise in the electrical supplies category and the smallest 3.9 per tent in the general merchants category. The .food and drink category is the department’s biggest in dollar terms. Electrical supply wholesalers sold goods worth $49.9 million in the June quarter compared with $39.4 million a year earlier. General merchants saw the value of their wholesale sales rise from $127.6 million to $132.6 million. The value of wholesale sales in the June 1981, quar-

ter were 16.1 per cent higher than a year earlier while the value of wholesale stocks at June 30 was 13.2 per cent higher. Wholesale stocks' at June 30 were worth $1.39 billion compared with $1.22 billion a year earlier. Food and drink wholesalers had goods worth $213 million in their warehouses at June 30 while hardware and automotive wholesalers both had stock worth $202 million. All the wholesale categories had stock worth more money on hand with the exception of general merchants whose stock value was down 2.8 per cent. Beer and flour production was higher in July than a month earlier while chocolate confectionery and biscuit production was higher in the June quarter than the March quarter.