Independent shop owners in the Midlands have been put on alert by their dairy suppliers after an unknown supplier started targeting stores with offers of discount milk, bread and eggs.
Over the past few weeks, hundreds of independents and C&Cs across the West Midlands and north west have received leaflets from Morning Fresh Dairies (Midlands), which gives as its address a cul-de-sac in Wolverhampton and a mobile as its contact point.
The business is not registered with Companies House and is a complete unknown to the dairy trade in the Midlands. Crucially, Morning Fresh Dairies (Midlands) is not the same as Morning Fresh Dairies, a respectable dairy supplier based in Nottingham, whose own customers have also been targeted.
The leaflets sent out by Morning Fresh Dairies (Midlands) offer two litres of milk to shops for 65p, six pints for £1.15, Hovis White 800g for 55p and Kingsmill at 65p. By comparison, typical prices charged by suppliers are 90p for two litres of milk and 70p for a loaf of Hovis White. Premier Foods, which makes Hovis, and Allied Bakeries, maker of Kingsmill, declined to comment.
Wolverhampton-based JN Dairies claimed its customers were being targeted particularly aggressively by Morning Fresh Dairies (Midlands). It cited a leaflet from Morning Fresh Dairies (Midlands) that reproduced a letter sent by JN Dairies to its customers earlier this year, announcing price rises on the back of hikes in the cost of raw material, fuel and packaging. The leaflet incorrectly stated that "no milk supplier has moved any milk prices as there have been no increases in milk prices nationally" and "it has come to our attention that one company has moved its prices upwards, and this is simply to line their own pockets."
JN Dairies said the leaflet had been devised to "fool our customers". All major middle-ground suppliers had recently raised prices, and Morning Fresh Dairies (Midlands) had been set up to "destabilise our business and the wider market", it added.
Over the past few weeks, hundreds of independents and C&Cs across the West Midlands and north west have received leaflets from Morning Fresh Dairies (Midlands), which gives as its address a cul-de-sac in Wolverhampton and a mobile as its contact point.
The business is not registered with Companies House and is a complete unknown to the dairy trade in the Midlands. Crucially, Morning Fresh Dairies (Midlands) is not the same as Morning Fresh Dairies, a respectable dairy supplier based in Nottingham, whose own customers have also been targeted.
The leaflets sent out by Morning Fresh Dairies (Midlands) offer two litres of milk to shops for 65p, six pints for £1.15, Hovis White 800g for 55p and Kingsmill at 65p. By comparison, typical prices charged by suppliers are 90p for two litres of milk and 70p for a loaf of Hovis White. Premier Foods, which makes Hovis, and Allied Bakeries, maker of Kingsmill, declined to comment.
Wolverhampton-based JN Dairies claimed its customers were being targeted particularly aggressively by Morning Fresh Dairies (Midlands). It cited a leaflet from Morning Fresh Dairies (Midlands) that reproduced a letter sent by JN Dairies to its customers earlier this year, announcing price rises on the back of hikes in the cost of raw material, fuel and packaging. The leaflet incorrectly stated that "no milk supplier has moved any milk prices as there have been no increases in milk prices nationally" and "it has come to our attention that one company has moved its prices upwards, and this is simply to line their own pockets."
JN Dairies said the leaflet had been devised to "fool our customers". All major middle-ground suppliers had recently raised prices, and Morning Fresh Dairies (Midlands) had been set up to "destabilise our business and the wider market", it added.
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