Nick Sinis
Gippsland Jersey is taking the fight to Coles after they have largely been pulled from many of the supermarket’s stores including throughout Cardinia.
The producer has been appealing to their supporters and wider public to help find other stockists as they now grapple with a surplus of milk.
The brand claims they have been unable to meet Coles’ margin requirements and “weren’t consistently reaching the sales targets they set each week” noting that while they respect that the supermarket is a major player in the industry, it was “unsettling to see the extent of power they hold in our food system”.
Co-founder and director Sallie Jones labelled the situation as a David versus Goliath battle.
She highlighted they are very proud of their products, even winning Australia’s best milk recently and was thankful for the support they’ve been receiving.
“We’re pretty proud of that, our dairy farmers in particular, for them to see the support as well has been awesome,” she said.
“We’re just little producers, producing amazing quality milk that people actually love.
“And the disappointing thing is people should have a choice at the supermarket if they want to support a little brand like ours.”
Formed in 2016 following the dairy crisis, with its processing facility in Lakes Entrance, the brand prides itself on producing high quality milk while ensuring a fair price for farmers, many of which are located in the West Gippsland region.
“Gippsland Jersey was really born out of adversity and we have three pillars so one, that farmers have to be paid a fair price and the second one is around creating social change in rural mental health,” Sallie said.
“And the third one is kindness.”
Sallie noted they had a very loyal customer base throughout Pakenham and Berwick, which was evident when the first lockdowns hit.
“We had nearly 15 pallets of milk that were cancelled on us on a Friday afternoon and we had nowhere to go,” she said.
“We filled up our truck and we actually blocked the road all the way out to the freeway, people came and grabbed a carton of milk during lockdown and helped us unload all that milk.”
They are now appealing to any independent supermarkets and businesses who would be interested in stocking their milk.
According to Coles, Gippsland Jersey has only been ranged in some Victorian stores and in the stores where Gippsland Jersey will continue being sold, they have agreed with the producer to provide extra shelf space to help ensure the item is visible to customers and to give it the best chance of selling to customers.
“Giving customers choice when shopping is an important part of our offer at Coles,” a Coles spokesperson said.
“To ensure we have the right products available on shelf, we regularly review the ranges on offer to understand how items are being received by customers, and to help ensure the right products can be purchased by shoppers in parts of the country where there is most demand.
“We remain committed to continuing to support independent and local producers, and from July, we will focus on selling Gippsland Jersey in 16 stores in Victoria where we see most demand for this local brand from customers.”
