ATM - A2 Milk Corporation Limited

[NT001]

And here's more great publicity - in a major British trade newspaper, The Grocer.

http://www.thegrocer.co.uk/buying-an...371344.article

Great to see A2MC is using an academic from the Curtin University clinical trial in Western Australia to push the message in Britain. If grocery and supermarket managers get the message that they can possibly help solve consumers' intolerance problems, that's a huge credibility boost. I wish Countdown and Fresha would push that message here in NZ. Maybe Fresha's not yet capable of meeting increased demand - that could be an issue to raise at the ASM. Can we hire Snapiti's friend to do publicity for the company?

[NT001]

Earlier I speculated that maybe Fresha Valley is unable to supply Countdown and other outlets with enough A2 milk to meet demand. That’s NOT TRUE.

Being a strong believer that getting the facts can often be quite useful, I just picked up the old telephone and had a very interesting and constructive chat with the owner-manager of Fresha Valley, which is the sole NZ supplier of A2 Milk.

Several things emerged.

They supply basically every Countdown store in NZ, plus a few New World stores (Porirua is one) and other outlets including health food stores.

They have plenty of A2 milk available, tonnes more than they have orders for, and won’t refuse any supermarket that asks for it. If any supermarket is running short it’s because they aren’t ordering enough, and we should tell them that Fresha says so.

They’re located in Waipu, in Northland, but they deliver to outlets in the whole of the South Island the day after processing.

They’re quite a big outfit, one of the only non-Fonterra firms in the country with their own big processing plant for domestic supply. A2 milk is just a small part of their total operation and they have quite a chunk of the Auckland market for standard milk.

They have a contract A2 herd which supplies them, and surprisingly the entire herd is Friesian, but of course every cow has been tested as A2-A2.

They are well aware of what the science says about A1/A2 and what’s going on in Australia and England, and would like to promote A2 milk here for its health attributes. But whenever they do they get heavied by big lawyers (he won’t say who for, but one could guess) and they can’t afford the time or expense to get involved in bigtime litigation. So they leave it to Keith Woodford to make the case for A2 in NZ.

Also they have to maintain good relations with Fonterra because they live and do business in the same world as Fonterra and there’s quite a bit of milk trading between them although Fresha is independent.

Hope that’s helpful.

[iceman]

Thanks for sharing this NT001. Very interesting !

[ziggy415]

Earlier I speculated that maybe Fresha Valley is unable to supply Countdown and other outlets with enough A2 milk to meet demand. That’s NOT TRUE.

Being a strong believer that getting the facts can often be quite useful, I just picked up the old telephone and had a very interesting and constructive chat with the owner-manager of Fresha Valley, which is the sole NZ supplier of A2 Milk.

Several things emerged.

They supply basically every Countdown store in NZ, plus a few New World stores (Porirua is one) and other outlets including health food stores.

They have plenty of A2 milk available, tonnes more than they have orders for, and won’t refuse any supermarket that asks for it. If any supermarket is running short it’s because they aren’t ordering enough, and we should tell them that Fresha says so.

They’re located in Waipu, in Northland, but they deliver to outlets in the whole of the South Island the day after processing.

They’re quite a big outfit, one of the only non-Fonterra firms in the country with their own big processing plant for domestic supply. A2 milk is just a small part of their total operation and they have quite a chunk of the Auckland market for standard milk.

They have a contract A2 herd which supplies them, and surprisingly the entire herd is Friesian, but of course every cow has been tested as A2-A2.

They are well aware of what the science says about A1/A2 and what’s going on in Australia and England, and would like to promote A2 milk here for its health attributes. But whenever they do they get heavied by big lawyers (he won’t say who for, but one could guess) and they can’t afford the time or expense to get involved in bigtime litigation. So they leave it to Keith Woodford to make the case for A2 in NZ.

Also they have to maintain good relations with Fonterra because they live and do business in the same world as Fonterra and there’s quite a bit of milk trading between them although Fresha is independent.

Hope that’s helpful.

amazing...all that from a phone call...real interesting

[Harrie]

Thanks NT, that is highly revealing. Vested interest on multiple levels. So we know its not a supply problem in NZ.

[see weed]

Thanks NT for that info. What I have done is printed out some a2 info and give a copy to people I see buying milk at the supermarket. I make sure I have a few copies on hand wherever I go, to promote it. Sometimes petrol stations ask if you want a coffee with your purchase, and I say has it got a2 milk in it, if not I will give them an a2 info copy. So if all us shareholders did the same, it would not take too long before word got around about the benifits of a2, plus mention Keith Woodford and his Devil in the Milk book. Any other ideas of promoting a2 is welcome, please let us know.

[NT001]

Thanks SW, I think every little bit of pushing the message can be useful. But I'm rather thinking of whether we can come up with something that reaches a broader public in a slightly more professional way. I have some PR and journalistic background and in principle it's not too difficult although there is a financial cost, plus the need to avoid antagonising mainstream dairy. I rather think it might be an idea to contact A2MC, which I'm happy to do - we don't want to do anything in an organised way that actually cuts across the company's own strategy. From what I see happening in Oz, it seems that A2MC is ready to be bolder than in the past because it has a basis for making clinical claims, which it has never had until now. And with Woodford's articles plus some of the stuff from Oz there's really no shortage of material to work with. It would be really good, though, if we could get real-life NZ stories about "how A2 changed my life", like those that have been appearing in Australian media and like the story of Snapiti's friend.

I think it would probably be very difficult to get any of the supermarkets to make material available to customers - they would immediately come under mainstream dairy pressure. So the big question is how to reach consumers, knowing also that the mainstream NZ media are fairly reluctant to run stories that (they think) might displease Fonterra. Real-life examples are a great starting point. Any thoughts and suggestions would be welcomed.

[Carpenterjoe]

I was at a clients house yesterday, they live in the Northern parts of Sydney, opened the fridge for a cuppa and here's the A2 bottle looking out at me.
One suburb up I have another Client who only drinks a2, had along conversation about it, she won't go back to ordinary milk.
Thought holders might appreciate this,

[Balance]

http://www.theage.com.au/business/re...09-10cxhb.html

Something to be aware of.

[see weed]

http://www.theage.com.au/business/re...09-10cxhb.html

Something to be aware of.

Fair comment. Two Countdown stores I went to yesterday had sold out, so I bought Soy milk to go on with. Did notice fresha valley had about 8 rows of the a1 version , and the blue label looks just the same but without a2 on it. Nearly bought the a1 brand by mistake, also noticed they were selling the 2litre bottles for $2.