Newsagents to campaign against new increases

Newsagents to campaign against new increases


Anna-Marie Flynn

THE CEO of Ballina Chamber of Commerce has come out in support of the Independent Retailers and Newsagents, who held a series of meetings in Ballina, Westport and Claremorris last week outlining unprecedented financial pressures currently facing the industry.
Addressing new issues facing the sector, the members discussed the impact of increases in delivery changes from one of Ireland’s two main newspaper distributors, combined with the reduction in their margin from Independent Newspapers and the Sunday World. It is now expected that members will campaign to get such measures reversed. Similar campaigns are already under way successfully in Dublin, the Midlands, Galway and Cork in a bid to curtail the further erosion of their margins.
Sandra Cribben, CEO of Ballina Chamber, who attended the meeting in the Downhill Hotel in Ballina, described the atmosphere as ‘determined’.
“Retailers told how they had to sell at least 119 newspapers to cover the delivery costs alone and of delays in getting credits returned to their accounts by some of the distributors,” said Ms Cribben.
Other cost factors that are affecting all businesses at the moment, such as energy, staff costs and problems with cash flow due to the tightening up of the credit facilities in the banks are affecting news retailers. 
“They have been hit with a double whammy of an increase in their flat delivery charge from Newspread and with a 5% increase in the wholesale price of the papers in the Independent chain. This is having a devastating effect on the small independent retailer and is contributing to the closure of twelve such shops a week throughout the country. These closures and layoffs are going unnoticed but are adding to the unemployment levels and also in some cases the withdrawal of services including post offices in rural areas where people may no longer be able to buy the paper and basic foodstuffs.”
Ms Cribben went on to say that the fear is that if one of the distributors is allowed to increase the delivery charge without a fight then the other distributor will follow suit and that the increase in the wholesale price from the Independent chain will be followed by similar increases across all publications.
“This would result in a drop in the margins of retailers.  The newsagents have put a plan of action together which will include the withdrawal of certain publications from their shelves”.
Pledging the backing of the Chamber, she added: “Ballina Chamber supports the news retailers, many of whom are members in this action and would ask that all suppliers to maintain or reduce their prices in these difficult times as increases cannot be absorbed in the long term by the retailers and the raising of prices to the consumers is not an option either.”