Chch milk war escalates

Press, 3 September 1981, Page 4

Chch milk war escalates

Christchurch's flavoured milk war is escalating, the demand keeping both the distributors of Big M and Zap busy and a third product about, to enter the market from Ashburton.

.Both Canterbury Dairy Farmers. Ltd, which produces Big M and the Tai Tapu Central Co-op Dairy Company, Ltd, which distributes Zap from the North Island, said the sales were “fantastic” although the companies could cope with demand.’

Mr L. G. Gilray, the distribution manager of Tai Tapu, said that company vans were working all day to keep shops stocked. He was confident that demand for Zap would continue, although sales could slow after the initial public reaction. Almost all retailers in Christchurch were stocking Zap and some dairies were taking three deliveries a week.

Mr C. B. Lorigan, general manager of Canterbury

Dairy Farmers, said that the company was barely keeping up with the demand for Big M and had probably, not even “scratched the surface” of the market. About 80 per cent of dairies were stocking the product and the company had just started to reach full distribution. The biggest advantage of Big M was its low fat content, which gave the flavoured milk a thin consistency similar to other beverages.

Following close behind the release of Big M and Zap, an Ashburton town milk producer, K. B. Dairies, is getting ready to enter the market with a cartoned milk product of its own. It will be known as Get Fresh and will be similar in taste, packaging and price to Big M. A spokesman for the company said that Get Fresh should be available in Ashburton by the end of this month or early in October. He said the company had been planning to market the flavoured milk for about a

year, and the introduction of Get Fresh would coincide with its release by town milk producers in the North Island. To his knowledge, K. B. Dairies would be the only South Island town milk producer to release Get Fresh. A Christchurch berry fruit grower, Mr Bert Green, of Styx, said he was concerned to find that a container of weedkiller on his property bore the same brand name as the Dairy Board’s flavoured milk product • now being marketed in Christchurch — Zap.

He was worried that there might be an element of danger, particularly to children, resulting from confusion between the two. However, Mr P. De Vere, sales administration manager of New Zealand Farmers Fertiliser Company, Ltd, said in Auckland that the weedkiller, Zap, had been off the company’s product range for at least two years.