NATIONAL WASTE

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 62, 15 March 1933, Page 8

NATIONAL WASTE

A LEAKY AVENUE

DISTRIBUTION COSTS

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, February 9.

It has long been acknowledged that the technique of production has seriously outstripped the' technique of distribution, and it is interesting to note that the British Committee of the International Chambers of Commerce proposes to make investigations into the subject. Half the income of the country passes over the counters of shops. Of this sum well over half goes to pay the cost of distribution. Tho i distribution industry employs nearly 2,000,000 persons, excluding proprietors and managers of shops. The number employed between 1924 and 1932. increased by more than 50 per cent. With these facts before it the British. Committee of tho International Chambers of Commerce, under Lord Luke's chairmanship, appointed a subcommittee to consider the subject, and the latter now suggests the establishment of a British Distribution Committee drawn from and supported by business for the purpose of assisting in the improvement of distributive methods in Great Britain. The committee's first step must be, it is said, an examination of the facts which would benefit'producers and distributors. This study of the position is described in the sub-committees-rep-ort as "One of the most important ever undertaken in connection with British commerce and industry." It is proposed that the committee should be drawn from and supported by business. A permanent staff would be required, and in the view of the committee tho necessary organisation would cost £4000 to £5000 per annum for a minimum period of three years. The task of the committee was such that it should not be commenced at all unless provision could be made to maintain an adequate organisation for 'a period of at least three years. IMPROVEMENTS POSSIBLE. The case for establishing the proposed organisation, it is stated, rests upon the importance of distribution in modern life, the present large total of distributive expense, which diminishes the effective markets for good, as well as consumers' real purchasing power, and the relative neglect of distribution, which has resulted in a grave lack of basic data and in wide differences of efficiency. The members of the sub-committee are convinced "that improvements da our distributive technique are possible, and that such improvements, touching as they do every manufacturer, every trader, and every consumer throughout the land, are a matter of national concern." • The proposed . British Distribution Committee will-have as its principal tasks the collation of existing basic data bearing on distribution, the coordination of efforts for improving such data, specific investigations in appropriate cases, and such general work as may be necessary to further the improvement of distributive methods and technique. . ■ : It is estimated that the total retail trade of the country passes through the : various agencies in the following proportions:—Departmental store, 5 to 7J per cent.; co-operative movement, 12 to 15 per cent.; multiple shop, 15 to 20 per cent.; small independent shops, 50 I to 60 per cent. . "In numbers, the small independent shop probably accounts for as much as 90 per cent, of all retail outlets, so that, if these different estimates are reason- i ably near the mark, large scale distributors, though numbering no more ! than 10 per. cent, of existing outlets,are responsible for possibly 45 per cent, of the trade."

The proposed committee ought to be,it is stated, "a clearing house and a generating station.'?