KEEN COMPETITION

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 112, 15 May 1939, Page 12

KEEN COMPETITION

MARGARINE DEMAND

BRAKE ON BUTTER MARKET

"New Zealand has yet to realise the j competition of margarine with butter." remarked the Minister for Marketing (the Hon. W. Nash) in addressing the big dairy conference held in Wellington. How great that competition may be is evident in observations made recently in London by Mr. Albert van den Bergh chairman of van den Berghs and Jurgens, Ltd., London. Mentioning a popular brand of margarine retailing at 8d per lb in the United Kingdom, he said sales had reached a record height. The company had also been highly successful, he added, in marketing other grades, "those grades of margarine which are particularly suited to consumers with limited incomes. Here again we have been able to establish trade on a branded line. 4d AND 5d PER POUND. "The housewife quickly appreciates the unwritten quality guarantee which she gets with every branded article she buys, and when .at 5d . per pound she can purchase margarine, containing vitamins A and D, she has not hesitated to avail herself of the opportunity, and sales of —— have been fully maintained in spite of severe competition from lower-priced lines. Where necessary, this competiJ tion has been met by the introduction ol a new brand, . which sells to the consumer at 4d per pound. This hasj been the means of retaining to your company business which might otherwise have been lost to the competition referred to. and although has only been on the market since November, it has proved a useful and popular addition to our range of products." NET PROFITS OVER £1,000,000. Net profits of the company for the year were stated to be £1,140,929; preference stock required £297.625, and a dividend of 124 per cent, per annum on ordinary stock absorbed £656,250, leaving a surplus of £187,054, out of which it was proposed to allocate £100,000 to general reserve and £50.000 to contingencies reserve, leaving £37.054 to be added to the balance on profit and loss account, which, with- the balance of £150.471 brought forward from 1937, amounted to £ 187,525.