The cutthroat milk pricing in supermarkets is having an impact on dairy farmers across the country. Strikingly, one of the oldest milk rounds in the country has now had to close after over a century of deliveries.
Bond Brother’s milk round has been running for 114 years, after Fred Bond established the business; milking cows by hand and delivering bottles throughout Buckinghamshire by horse and cart.
His descendants, Andrew, Ashley and Guy Bond, who now run the business, which serves 350 customers, will have to close the business as it is no longer economically viable.
With supermarkets trying (and mostly succeeding) to cater to every need a person has, they have garnered huge market shares and the vast majority of people depend on them for their groceries and supplies. When the stores feel their market shares are threatened, they fight between themselves to cut prices and gain customers. Although this can be good for customers, it is the outside businesses who bear the brunt of the struggle.
Not only does supermarkets selling milk at incredibly low prices attract customers away from the traditional business of milk deliveries, but also puts pressure directly on dairy suppliers.
There were protests within the last few months where dairy farmers attempted to make supermarkets aware that they are pricing these British businesses out of business, often with dairy farmers making less money on a pint of milk than it actually cost to produce.
Guy Bond summed it up succinctly: “The supermarkets haves killed our business.”
A spokesman for the National Farmers Union said that “the dairy industry is losing farmers on a daily basis and this just foes to show the great pressured our industry currently faces.
“This constant devaluing of an iconic British product is not sustainable.”