EXTRAORDINARY DEMAND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23811, 18 May 1939, Page 7

EXTRAORDINARY DEMAND

NEW ZEALAND GOODS POPULAR DEPARTMENT STORES IN DIFFICULTIES (Special to Daily Times) WELLINGTON, May 17. The surprisingly big part played by New Zealand manufacturers in supplying the stocks of big department stores and the difficulties which that class of business is at present experiencing as an indirect result of the sudden wide demand for New Zealand made goods were indicated by a Wellington manager in an interview to-day. “ Our greatest difficulty to-day is not the lack of imported goods but the trouble we are experiencing in obtaining stocks from New Zealand factories now that they have to face a sudden greatly increased demand for their products,” he said. “For the past three years 66 per cent, of our stocks have consisted of goods made in New Zealand, and we are now more than ever dependent on that source of supply. “Some factories with whom we placed business throughout the depression period—but mind you I am not suggesting that this applies to local manufacturers generally—now say they don’t want to supply us because they can obtain better prices from,the small retailer. That may be so to some extent, but we have always been prepared to pay a price that showed the manufacturer a reasonable profit, and it should be remembered that we kept those firms to which I refer going during the depression when they had few other avenues to dispose of their goods. “As I have said,” he added, “ this outlook is by no means shared by local manufacturers generally but, even those firms which are still supplying us without complaining, are in most cases unable to meet their delivery dates because of the extraordinary demand for their goods that has recently developed.”