BOOST IN BRITAIN FOR DOMINION DAIRY PRODUCE

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 October 1948, Page 5

BOOST IN BRITAIN FOR DOMINION DAIRY PRODUCE

(Recd. 9 a.m.) LONDON, October 14. Tooley Street, famouls for its associations with the butter world, is again to become the address of the official New Zealand dairy representatives in London. The New Zealand Dairy Products Commission returns to Saint Olaf House tomorrow to re-occupy the offices vacated by the former Marketing Department of the Export Division aftei’ a flyingbomb hit the premises. In former- days the Tooley Street headquarters of the buttex- buying” and distributing firms was a place for dairy farmers all ovei- the world to conjure with in their conversations. Its influence on buttex- and cheese markets, however, has greatly decreased since the Ministry of Food has become the chief buyer of British food imports, and today the street’s principal function is distribution.

“Prestige” Advertising It is with the Ministry of Food and the distribution agencies in Tooley Street that the New Zealand Commission under Mi- H. E. Davis has its chief business, while also ensuring that the interests of New Zealand produce are maintained. Part of the commission’s work is to carry out “prestige” advertising of New Zealand products. It supervises undei- the direction of Mi- H. R. Hill, the advertising manager, what is known .as “dealer assistance” in stores and shops, and in association with the New Zealand Meat Producers’ Board undertakes advertising the “background” of dairy produce and meat in periodicals, cinemas, schools, and exhibitions.

For the past two years substantial sums have been spent in providing retailers with material drawing attention to New Zealand butter and cheese in their shops.

Retailers, it has been found, have welcomed the advertising material provided for their shop windows and counters, and it has been decided to increase the expenditure to meet the demand. In the bigger London, and provincial stores it is now possible to see photographs of New Zealand scenes as well as advertising material. Many of the smaller shops would welcome the opportunity of making such displays. The limiting factor, however, is the shortage of paper and, in. some cases, of labour.

£40,600 This Year

In conjunction with this type of advertising the commission, with the Meat Board, is spending £40,000 this year in advertising New Zealand butter, cheese, lamb, beef and pork.

The purpose of these campaigns is not to sell New Zealand produce for today all of it is rationed. It is rather to emphasise the contribution now being made by the Dominion to British larders and to maintain goodwill against the day when rationing will be a thing of the past—whenever that may be. Many housewives, of course, remember the pre-war days when they had before them a wide range of goods from which to make a selection. A new generation of housewives is arriving, however, and it is for them as well as schoolgirls of 12 to 15 that the present advertising is designed to impress.