Unibic is Australia's fourth-largest biscuit maker. The company has been producing biscuits, cakes and pastries since the 1950s...
... chief executive Michael Quinn told his 170 employees that the factory would be closing down after the company appointed administrators on Wednesday....
Jennifer Dowell, the national secretary of the food and confectionary division of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, says food manufacturers are doing it incredibly tough.
"What we are actually seeing is cost-down pressures coming back from both supermarkets," she said...
Ms Dowell says there are a number of factors at play.
"This was one of them and it is a very important one but what we are seeing is the systematic closure of factories, loss of jobs and in our discussions with food manufacturers, almost impossible pressures coming back on the food processing industry right across the board," she said.
A fortnight ago, Mr Quinn told a newspaper that the price war between Coles and Woolworths had made it impossible for Unibic to pass on soaring commodity costs.
Australian Food and Grocery Council chief executive officer Kate Carnell says the answer is a supermarket ombudsman...
"Coles and Woolworths have a level of market concentration in Australia that, along with New Zealand, is the highest level of market concentration in the world."
High dollar + carbon tax + Coles-Woollies duopoly = the perfect storm to destroy local producers.
So while the brainless Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan talk up the "new economy", business is decimated.
The Australian Party, Protectionist Party and Doug Cameron look smarter every day ...
File under: market failure.
The Australian Party has potential. The only problem is that it supports high immigration as it believes ongoing population growth is needed to further "develop" Australia. One wonders how importing millions of Third World immigrants from dysfunctional cultures will improve the country. Most objective observers would argue that Australia has gone backwards since we opened our borders to mass, non-European immigration.
ReplyDeleteI did not know the AP supported high immigration. Katter might have grounds to argue that we need to populate Oz (I assume he means water the desert) - because otherwise China might just decide to take it in the future. But more 3rd World immigrants is just suicidal. Even Sarkozy said so the other day.
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