The NFRN has renewed calls for rip-off carriage charges to be scrapped in response to news that wholesaler Menzies Distribution will increase its prices in April.
Menzies Distribution has announced that from 2 April retailers will be paying up to £72.54 a week for a seven-day supply of newspapers and magazines.
National President Jason Birks said: “Yearly carriage charge increases blight our lives and threaten the future of small shops and their communities. Over the past 10 years, carriage charges have gone up by a whopping 40% yet the number of copies of newspapers and magazines that news wholesalers handle have fallen considerably.
“At best, this latest increase could give retailers another valid reason to look at the time, space and effort it takes to sells news compared to the profit it makes and to give bigger and better displays to other products that are more profitable and easier to manage. At worst, it could cause many Fed members to close their shops for good.”
Birks added: “News wholesalers and publishers trot out the old excuses of rising labour costs and increases to the CPI when they put up their charges or cover prices, but they need to realise that we are facing exactly those increases too.
“If the money that Menzies – and Smiths News for that matter – recouped from these charges was used to improve its service to retailers then the reason for carriage charges would be more comprehendible.
“But as we reported at our news summit last month, the service we get, particularly on Saturdays, is shambolic. The industry needs to get around the table again and quickly to find better ways for the supply chain to operate so publishers and wholesalers do not pile on more costs on hard-pressed retailers who can ill afford them.”
