Strauss Group Ltd. (TASE:STRS) has permanently cut prices on 36 items by 5-10%, including cocoa, Turkish coffee, Para (cow) brand chocolate, cookies and wafers, and hummus and other salad. The price cuts are in response to the cottage cheese consumer boycott movement.
Strauss has also frozen executive pay and raised salaries of low-paid employees. It will also hire contract workers as regular company employees.
"We realized that it isn't enough to lower consumer prices. We also have to look at our 6,000 employees in Israel," said Strauss Israel CEO Zion Balas.
In early September, Strauss launched discount campaigns on its Milky puddings (NIS 10 for a pack of four) and Sky white cheese (two 250-gram containers for NIS 10), and in October, it cut the prices for these another items by 6-12% in the updated price list for retailers. The latest price cuts are in addition to the October reductions.
In January, when the discount campaigns end, the recommended price for Milky will be NIS 2.85 per container and for Sky white cheese will be NIS 6.40 per container.
Cottage cheese protest organizer Itzik Alrov said in response, "In recent years, Strauss has sharply raised the prices of many products, and these reductions on a limited number of products are simply not enough, although every savings by the citizenry is welcome. The cottage cheese protest has publicly made the demand for an across-the-board 30% price reduction on consumer products. Until that happens, the public will continue to fight and limit its purchases of theses companies' brands.
"We expect today's cabinet meeting, which is discussing the Trajtenberg committee report, to show responsibility and liquidate the monopolies in the consumer market in general and in the food market in particular, which will result in lower consumer prices."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 4, 2011
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2011