Sales of NDD/RDS magazines kept newsagency cash registers ticking over in drought impacted areas of Australia in the first half of the year, but the worst is yet to come, an NDD marketing survey has revealed.
Retail sales values through drought-declared area were up in NSW by 2 per cent, Victoria (+3.7%), and South Australia and down by 0.2 per cent in Queensland and 1.7 per cent in Western Australia, according to the NDD survey. “Some major regional centers were not too badly hit in the January-June period and this is reflected in our figures, with things like stock sales and local meatworks still at full capacity, but this was at the expense of the farming community, who were desperately selling off ” said NDD General Manager, Rayma Creswell.
“That activity is fast coming to a halt and the newsagents we’re talking to, like all rural business people, are battening down for the tough times ahead. This will certainly impact sales in the second half."
NDD/RDS was ready to work with Federal and State newsagent bodies to offer what assistance it could to help see rural newsagents through the current crisis said Creswell and called on other distributors to adopt a similar sympathetic approach.
“We would look to working with the associations on an individual case basis”, she said, “The degree of impact on individuals is so varied and newsagent representatives are best placed to co-ordinate who needs what to get through."
The NDD/RDS survey identified that although first half retail sale values were stable, falls in magazine volumes ranged from 5.5 per cent in drought declared areas of Victoria, 2.3 per cent in Queensland, 1.7% in Western Australia and 1.3% in NSW, South Australia went against the trend with a 2.7 % volume lift.
Drought-declared areas have widened markedly since July. NSW is now up to 99 per cent drought declared. It is expected that, without good rain, the Christmas trading will see most country people using up the last of their spare funds.
Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show that 40,000 rural jobs have been lost and the impact on Australia’s city dwellers is increasing. Australian Retailers Association policy director, Stan Moore estimated food prices, particularly meat, would increase between 10 and 20 per cent and warned that city consumers had not yet felt the full impact. This will dilute the amount of discretionary income available for other purchases, such as magazines.
Veteran newsagent Joe Snare from Dubbo in Central Western NSW agreed the NDD numbers were about right and said businesses in his usually thriving town which relied on a strong rural economy, were preparing for a tough 2003 by cutting down expenses where possible and not replacing staff who leave.
“It’s far worse to the west of us”, said Joe, who has spent a lifetime in Dubbo and can recognise the signs of a real downturn. "It’s all about money now and everyone is keeping what’s left in their pockets, the farm people are not coming into town nearly as much, one fellow has even cancelled his delivery of “The Land”, that’s bad.
“They’ll find some money for Christmas, they always do, but that will be the end off it unless it rains.”
“The abattoirs here are working overtime, but the workers are keeping the money in their pockets as they know the work won’t last. We’re doing a lot of promoting, trying everything we can to keep sales moving, but there’s just no money around” he said.
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