Afterwards, NFRN CEO Paul Baxter said: “Our discussions with Newspread were open and to the point and we left the wholesaler in no doubt that our members in Northern Ireland still require recompense for the excessive surcharge first applied in 2013 and still applied today. We explained how our members now require a period of stability with neither unnecessary nor unrealistic increases in carriage charges to occur.
“Newspread has to recognise that any such increases would be unacceptable and intolerable given that fuel prices are so low and the volumes delivered continue to decline.”
Mr Baxter continued: “Clearly, the news category has its challenges and the NFRN and its members are mindful that with two principle suppliers operating in Northern Ireland that carriage charges will continue to be at least double that of UK supplied retailers and that this is unlikely to be addressed until government intervention takes place.
However, for the interim we discussed ways in which we could work more closely together on clear sales opportunities for non news products and consumables and have identified methods that will progress this. I am hopeful of better working relationship with Newspread into the future.”
