C.W.S. PURCHASE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 96, 23 April 1940, Page 12

C.W.S. PURCHASE

LONGBURN WORKS

SOCIETY IN THE FREEZING

BUSINESS

The Co-operative Wholesale Society, Ltd.,; of Manchester, has purchased the Longburn freezing works from the National Mortgage and Agency Company of New. Zealand^1 Ltd.

'■ The Co-operative Wholesale Societyhas been the largest purchaser of New Zealand primary produce in very large shipments for some years past. The Co-operative .Wholesale Society of Manchester has been interested in the , t purchase of New Zealand meat and butter and cheese for many years past and its purchases of New Zealand primary products alone for the year ended December 31, 1939, amounted to the value of approximately £6,000,000. The society's interests extend not only to the wholesale distribution of goods.to its vast chain of retail. shops, but it also manufactures, for its own trade, clothing, furniture, soap, various foodstuffs, and has its own,tea plantations, flour mills, and shipping services. It has, too, its own bank, the tenth largest bank- in' the United Kingdom and British Dominions. The Longburn freezing 'works .has been established for some 40 years. The National Mortgage and Agency Company is a London company, the New Zealand headquarters 'being situated in Dunedih.

Negotiations for the purchase of the works by the C.W.S. have^ been proceeding for some time past.