Record level of sales achieved by company

Press, 13 March 1986, Page 29

Record level of sales achieved by company

PA Wellington More than 1.1 million cartons of lamb were sold to North America in the last 12 to 15 months, said the chairman of the Meat Export Development Company, Ltd, Mr Ron Cushen.

Giving his report to Devco shareholders, Mr Cushen said the company had achieved a record level of sales and it was pleasing to report a profit after tax for the 15 months of $1,734,080. The company had sold 660,400 cartons of lamb to the United States and 503,539 cartons to Canada in the 15 months to December 31. Sales to North America in the year ended 1985 increased 45 per cent on 1984 figures, with growth in the United States an impressive 71 per cent, he said.

This growth had been

helped by processing the lambs into smaller cuts. The company’s new plant in Virginia and another small plant had produced and sold three million chops in 1985.

The chief executive in charge of the enterprise in the United States was optimistic about the future and there was a demand for New Zealand spring lamb as a nutritious product. “It is delighting palates in the gourmet dining rooms of hotels and restaurants and earning respect from caterers as a meat liked by diners as well as being economical and easy to serve,” said Mr Cushen. In Canada, the New Zealand Lamb Company continued its remarkable growth and sold nearly 60,000 more cartons of lamb last year than in 1984.

New Zealand lamb had

cornered about 75 per cent of Canada’s lamb market and the company now supplied about 80 per cent of all Canadian lamb imports. This was more than 4>/ 2 times the Canadian production of domestic lamb. Lamb is now an accepted product in the United States and Canada, and the Meat Export Development Company is spending more than $700,000 a month in promoting its products. The promotion campaign to convince North Americans that lamb is delicious, healthy, and nutritious was important as they were serious about health and diet, he said.

By the end of 1986 the company expected to be selling 12 per cent of the total New Zealand lamb kill, and by 1990 to have increased that to 20 per cent.