The private label milk wars heat up

By The Canberra Times
Updated April 24 2018 - 9:25pm, first published May 25 2016 - 6:19pm

Social media has empowered modern consumers to an unprecedented degree, so the chatter goes. Post a well-founded complaint or criticism of a corporation's behaviour and if that grievance elicits torrents of "likes" or goes viral there's every likelihood the intended target will execute a swift policy U-turn. It's that power to "correct" corporate behaviour that lies at the heart of a Victorian social media and traditional media campaign urging customers to drink branded milk rather than the cheaper private label milks that Coles and Woolworths stock along side the name brands in their supermarkets. The campaign is ostensibly about helping to prop up dairy farmers' livelihood, many of whom are struggling to cope financially with a recent 20 per cent reduction in the price of milk at the farm gate. But it's also, by extension, directed at the big supermarkets, both of which have been accused of exploiting their bargaining power at the expense of milk producers and processors.

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