Dick Smith Foods out of business just announced in the news, discuss…
Dick Smith Foods out of Business
onetwothreefour on 26/07/2018 - 12:07
Last edited 26/07/2018 - 12:18 by 1 other user
Last edited 26/07/2018 - 12:18 by 1 other user
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saying Aldi “basically forced us out of business”.
I.e. they were better at business.
Also… Either he's lying, or he really needs more economics knowledge, because this:
“Yes, but that means your children and grandchildren will have a job.
In support of tariffs, is flat out wrong. Ask blue collar workers in auto manufacturing how much tariffs help. It might delay the inevitable, but it'd just be pushing it to a generation down the track.
I don't know why he picks on ALDI. It sells jars of Argentinian peanut butter for $2.39. Coles/Woolworths? $2.39 but from China instead.
But wait… Coles/Woolworths are listed on the Australian stock exchange, and virtually everyone who has ever worked owns a piece of those companies. ALDI is privately held in Germany, so it's much easier to bash a German family than publicly owned companies. Dick's agenda is clear now.
As I said, Coles and WW stock his product, that's why he didn't target them
Aldi makes it stock look like branded products. If it really believed in its products it wouldn’t resort to this; however, it probably helps it consumers to pretend they’ve bought a premium product. The funniest thing I read was about the Argon oil appeal. It basically came down to it didn’t mislead the consumer because the product was in an Aldi discount bin so the consumer should’ve been aware of what they were buying. Aldi tried to spin it but the message was pretty clear. It might cost me more but I prefer to support Australian food supplies.
Dick Smith wasn't above playing the same game. Look at Ozemite's packaging. The chosen colour scheme was very close to Vegemite.
Coles and Woolies also do this. They’ve got heaps of knock offs!
I think the picture of Dick on something you are about to consume may point you in another direction.
Aldi's products are often just relabelled brand names, not unrelated knock offs. Aldi's food quality is much better than generic Coles/Woolsworth brands.
Not to mention that the way he went after the small business that owns the Aussiemite trademark (on the grounds that he'd thought of OzeMite well beforehand and never got round to filing) was a disgrace.
A lot of the stuff that Aldi sells is premium. Their cheeses for example are awesome - and much cheaper than the other supermarkets
Some of the wine that sell is fantastic and their gin is really good
@R4: It's been a while since I've bought it but I think the ALDI sliced cheddar cheese is just relabelled Bega sliced.
Actually there've been more than a few court cases on this subject, and it's been solidly established (by Aldi and accepted by the Courts) that Aldi does this to basically tap into customers' established familiarity between certain (food) products and colour schemes for convenience rather than to mislead. In this example - as even DS does it - Peanut Butter is generally in Yellow and Red containers, while 'light' Peanut Butter is in Yellow and Blue, for example.
I think Aldi does believe in its own products, because it doesn't market its products as being inferior - only cheaper. Unlike, for example, "Home Brand" products where one look at the packaging shows it's the budget option in both price and quality, or Woolies own (not premium) brands.
Delaying a generation being on unemployment benefits isn't a good thing?
Tariff's (or other industry support) can be essential to maintaining a diverse and balanced economy that provides the jobs people want and the nation needs.
China has a sustained competitive advantage in steel manufacturing that USA can never get close to (enviro regs + labour costs).
So do you think America leaves that industry exposed in a tariff/subsidy free environment? Of course not, their national security relies on having a steel industry.All major economies engage in tariffs of subsidies of one form or another: China, Japan, EU, USA, Australia (much more minimal than most), Canada, Mexico etc.
Which industries are chosen as ones necessary for a nation or disposable are political decisions but a nation that does without all protections is one that gets eaten for lunch. Note how Australia's brands (that have not been protected) have all been closed down or bought up to leave us with housing debt and holes in the ground, unsustainable and impoverishing nonsense.
Note: when you study economics 101 at university (which is essentially neoclassical economics 101) you are left dangerously short on knowledge. The kind of economics you refer to does not take into account sustainability, equality, equality, employment or any other factor except 'overall maximisation of utility' even if it only advantages 1 in 10,000.
(From someone who is definitely pro-capitalism but aware of the nuances required to get the best from it).
Dick actually does know what he is talking about.
It really saddens me to see so much hate for Dick Smith here. I can understand people not buying his products because other brands are cheaper. But to be happy that Dick Smith Foods is closing, when they only sold Australian products, is something that I fail to understand.
Do people not realise, that when you buy Australian produced food, you are helping keep Australians employed?
Not everyone can afford to do that, most people are struggling hence why no one is buying his overpriced and mediocre products.
People are trying to stay afloat than think about keeping other Australians employed.
If people had the money, they will spend locally and support local. It's not rocket science to understand why ALDI for example and Coles and Woolworths products sell well, if people do struggle to understand, maybe you earn too much.
@RocketSwitch: Sure, I can understand that a lot of people can't afford his products. But that's no reason to hate Dick Smith for promoting and selling Australian food. That just does not make sense to me.
@RocketSwitch: Is that the chicken and the egg?
I can't afford to buy Australian made because I don't have a well paid job.
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My well paid job doesn't exist anymore because not enough people prioritise buying Australian made.
@domcc1: Not all Australian made products are ripping Australians off though. Big difference. Many Australian brands have thrived.
@rogerm22: Might not be the reason, nothing wrong with that, but he needs to blame himself, than use others like ALDI as scapegoats. He doesn't mention why other Australian brands have thrived? Yet, doesn't look at what he did wrong and whine and use excuses.
@RocketSwitch: He says people are buying other brands because they are cheaper. That sounds like the truth to me, rather than an excuse.
@rogerm22: How does he know? Did he do a study on all those people who purchased other brands and why they did? He showed a graph. Didn't see anything on the taste or ingredients of a product. Most people didn't even see or know his products existed. Lots to blame others and doesn't look from within. A problem lots of people have, but I do not have studies to prove it ;)
@rogerm22: Dick smith has done alot more for Australia and cares a lot more about Australia than the average person.
@brad1601: The answer you will find is the exact reason his brand is dead. Why do you think the products were expensive? Find that out and you will find your answer.
I think Smith has brought a lot of hate down on himself. He's almost gone socialist - after he has made his millions though capitalism
I wonder how many competitors, suppliers and other business he broke, rode over, bullied on his way to his fortune?
Why support Australian jobs? We are basically part of the universe not a politically defined island dictatorial state aren't we.
I view supporting Australian jobs as small minded and ultimately a con.Let’s relax about the whole “keeping Australians employed”.
Who do you think aldi hire? Robots? Non Australians?
I can't afford to buy Australian made because I don't have a well paid job.
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My well paid job doesn't exist anymore because not enough people prioritise buying Australian made.Additionally, when your unemployed neighbour gets hungry and desperate, he’ll start looking in your direction.
Social order only works when people are satisfied.
@RocketSwitch: He knows because he's brand is about the only one that uses 100% Australian peanuts. By process of elimination, it means people must be buying imported ones
@Savas: What I mean is, how does he know people who purchased his products didn't like the taste or ingredients? I noticed his OzEmite has 13.2+g more sugar than Vegemite per 100g severing and includes another colouring for example. So I wouldn't buy his product purely because of the sugar content, so I would op for Vegemite.
@RocketSwitch: Sorry, I don't think I read your comment properly. Also with Vegemite and his jams all the competition is Australian made anyway, I always thought his brand was stupid in that way
@Savas: When he first started selling OzEmite, Vegemite was made owned by Kraft, which is owned by cigarette company Philip Morris. So it may have been made in Australia, but profits were going overseas. Bega didn't buy it, until the start of last year.
It is better to realise the inevitable and look to see where those investments could be better made. basically everyone was paying a tariff to keep a moribund industry alive, those billions could have been spent retraining or investing in alternative industries.
Every country subsidises local manufacturing to some extent. That’s because majority aren’t going to become rocket scientists or successful entrepreneurs, and, an employed and productive population is better than destitute one.
@AlexF: When you are subsidising them to that extent it is basically welfare, not productive work. Yes every country subsidises manufacturing to some extent but you should be smart about how you do it, Australia was brain dead about it. The money spent supporting a dead industry could have started whole new industries that actually had a future.
basically welfare
no, because beyond incentivisation subsidy, companies generated profit and paid tax, or rather should have paid tax - gaming the tax and welfare systems is the norm in Australia.
started whole new industries that actually had a future.
no, because government shouldn’t be in business of competing with business.
But I will give you examples of objectionable welfare - reduction of a personal tax obligation through loss of what should be a business (renting of property) tax obligation; and, various tax concessions on capital gain - only this is welfare for those that truly don’t deserve it.
@AlexF: Problem is they weren't making profits, we were basically paying them to make cars while they siphoned any profits overseas. It is not smart or productive to subsidise an industry and drive up consumer costs to keep an industry alive that was always going to die. We lost 20 years and billions of dollars that could have been given to other industries that had a future, funny you say government should not be in business of competing with business, yet that is EXACTLY what they were doing with the car industry.
@Ighulm
Hear hear!!
Agree. Overall, I like what Donald Trump is doing, but on tariffs he is dead wrong
The closure of Dick Smith Foods .. will put three employees out of work and will indirectly affect “thousands”.
Wait, what?
They just rebrand stuff made by others, so they themselves don't really need a lot of employees.
Dick Smith Foods doesn't manufacture anything.
Given they only have 3 employees, I'm guessing they don't have sufficient sales people to ensure people buy their rebranded shit.
Huhwut? Is that true?
It's true for a lot of products, especially clothing. OEM manufacturing is the flavour of the decade.
Oh. And fishing tackle. Crapload of OEM manufacturing outside of the big brands. Unbelievable stuff really.
@EightImmortals:
Tbh, I didn't even know DS made food. Having said that, if I came across DS branded food, I'd probably give it a pass anyway.@muncan: I think it's fairly uncontroversial that, at least for the most part, he is labelling products from Australian manufacturers.
@Drew22: shrugs I thought I read it further up the page…could have got the wrong idea though. Do you know the truth?
@EightImmortals: Dick Smith Foods contracted other Australian companies to produce food and put a Dick Smith sticker on it.
You can almost certainly still buy the Australian brands, just not with Dick on them.
Also, this graph is misleading.. comparing a supermarket compared to a 'manufacturer' is not like for like.
It'd be better to have two graphs, one of DSF OzeNuts sales vs Bramwells Peanut Butter sales. One of Colesworth vs Aldi.
If anything what probably happened (having lived through this period I guess we all have an idea) is that Aldi came over and popularised "white label" brands without actually having a white label, forcing Colesworths to respond with their own coloured label brands. This showed up that people are actually either just perceiving that products with a coloured label are better, or they actually don't care about quality but they do care about if they look cheap in front of their mates. So therefore Dick blames Aldi and not Colesworths because they are just responding to the Kraut threat.
a guy that doesn't know how to innovate and adapt to a changing environment blames others for his own shortfall. people like him and the Gerry Harvey's of this country is what makes us so behind. lack of inspiration, innovation and foresight for the future.
Yep, if it was possible, they should have joint forces with Aldi to offer 'Australian' foods to promote both businesses. Instead, they stayed exclusive to Woolworths and Coles. Even making a deal with IGA might have helped.
probably because he didn't get a big enough kick back from aldi as he does from coles/worthes
That's why so many Brand name products are higher in price at Colesworth. A friend of mine worked for a company that had products in Aldi for $1.99, that were $3.79 at Woolworths. Same ingredients/recipe, different packaging. Invoice prices inflated to cope with rebates, instore reps, Endcap advertising/promotional areas, catalogue specials etc
@hbg: FMCG in our economy is worth billions. companies will do anything to move their products in front of customers. buying shelf space, giving kick backs, paid representation in catalogues and advertising, cross promotional products.
think current coles miniature collectables.. how much money would have the companies paid coles to have their product as part of that collection. only 30 miniature varieties of a possible thousands those 30 spots most likely went to the highest bidders or contributors,
@hbg: But it would have been halfprice at Woolies/Coles ever 2nd week (and why buy from W/C if it isn't 50% off?) so Aldi is more expensive?
No way mate. This YouTube ad (ya ya, I'm not a premium Red user) keeps popping up and telling me, "they call us the innovation nation, but did you know…".
We're the innovation nation, mate!
Use brave browser. Set in settings to play with screen turned off. Free youtube red.
Is this how you get them computer viruses?
You are seriously calling Dick Smith out for lack of innovation in the general sense? Kids these days…
Are you saying Dick Smith is innovative?
baby boomers these days…
"My success in Dick Smith electronics and Australian Geographic was just to go around the world and copy the best, pinch the best ideas from everyone I could see," he said
http://abc.net.au/news/2016-05-06/dick-smith-talks-winning-t…
The market constantly changes, just because you were innovative in the past doesn't mean you will succeed in the future.
Many examples are present e.g. Nokia vs Apple, IBM computers, Apple prior to Steve Jobs return,
To succeed you have to constantly change and innovate to beat the competition and attract customers. Resting on your past/name can only get you so far.
the government should probably do more to ban imported crap food. I can't think of any other brand that uses 100% australian peanuts.
Also, if it's just so uncompetitive to grow and sell peanuts here in Australia…. maybe don't grow peanuts.
why are you so keen to eat imported nuts from New Zealand and China? Ozenuts isn't even that more expensive and all the profits went to charity.
As long as the imported goods are checked and comply with all the import regulations I don't really see a problem with this.
This clearly shows you that people don't care about this and are happy to spend less, even if the peanuts are imported. If the same product is made more efficiently overseas and border security makes sure that they are fit for consumption in Australia, what's the problem?
Profits, not revenue. To put that into numbers:
Mr Smith said it had generated total retail sales of about $480 million and given more than $10 million to charity over the past 19 years.
Also, it's not even a small difference. Again from the article:
OzEnuts $4.80 for 375g ($1.28/100g) vs Aldi Peanut Butter $2.39 for 500g ($0.48/100g)
That's over 2.5 times more expensive.
@dresh:
Because border security cannot check everything.Check how many products are on recall currently (includes local and imported) http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/industry/foodrecalls/recalls…
@HighAndDry: the minimum wage in Australia is 2.5 times more than the US so that makes sense.
edit: I just realise Aldi peanut butter is made in Argentina I think? I thought they could've been US
@rompastompa: Sorry, was just emphasizing the point that they only donated profits, not revenue, so it's not all that much money.
@HighAndDry: Unfortunately they're a bit ambiguous with their comments.
I read that as $480m revenue (and lets say $100m in profit), of that, $10 million of that profit to Charity.
I'd say that's a big chunk.
@rompastompa: No, they apparently donate all their profits. But their profits only make up 2% or so of total revenue. Where'd the other 98% go if they've only got 3 staff members?
Revenue is hard to fudge, but you can say profit is anything depending on what you classify as expenses, wages, etc.
@HighAndDry: They probably didn't have only 3 employees back in 2001. But yes, my $100m in profit is incorrect ;) I meant more $100m to the business after buying the manufactured goods.
So, in 2017, 3 employees with a revenue of $1.5million (according to that graph). Each employee at $150,000 means just over $1m in revenue.
Overheads such as offices, re-labelling, advertising, and actually buying the product - profit maybe $100,000 to charity in 2017.
I'd also say, that DSF did a good job at giving away to charity. Like all charities though, I have doubt how much 'profit' they choose to make, and instead line their own pockets, including all the middle men (buying from original manufacturer, ColesWorth advertising kick backs etc).
Note: all numbers above made up, so means nothing! :D
Edit: $1million donated in 2014. Revenue was apparently $2million according to that graph.. I guess the previous years had a lot more overheads.. :O It also doesn't say how long they held onto that money ;) Could have been in an account gaining interest for a couple of years.
@Savas: No, it's a trade system that allows customers to pay less for the same or similar product. Should we stop importing cars into Australia? Or mobile phones? Should we aim to produce everything here and pay a car twice the price?
@rompastompa: I am fully aware of it as I worked in food import. The solution is more controls, not stopping importation of products.
@Savas: lol. We need to focus on products that can be manufactured here competitively. I am not willing to pay double for my car and I bet nor would you. Oh and by the way, I assume that everything you buy is made in Australia? You know, clothes, electronics, food and so on. Have you ever had Parmigiano Reggiano or just the Perfect Italiano Parmesan?
@dresh: Not sure about cars, I only catch public transport. My parents bought one of the last Falcon's produced in Australia. If you want to buy imported crap from overseas that won't be as good quality and give all your money to the rich I guess that is your choice.
@Savas: why do you think that stuff imported from overseas is crap and is not as good as stuff made in Australia?
@Savas: And you are basing this on actual facts or propanganda you have fallen for? Some imported yes, whole heartedly agree that it is garbage, personally I don't buy any foods from China but once again personal pref not saying everything from there is tainted. But saying this is the case across the board? That's a bit silly and throwing the baby out with the bath water.
The population can vote with their money. You're suggesting the government acts directly against the wishes of it's people and force higher spending. Boooooooo.
What about the imported stuff that is better than Australian goods and complies with much stricter regulations such as beer, German, South Korean, and Japanese cars, machines and is produced more effectively and efficiently?
I would rather buy something that works and is from the UK, Japan, the US, or Germany than something that is Australian, of lesser quality, and two times as expensive.
Yeah, you grow peanuts you get peanuts! Simple concept.
Dick Smith Foods this time.