Shop owners in Northern Ireland have threatened to rip newspapers and magazines out of their store over wholesaler Newspread’s latest carriage charge increase.

Unlike in mainland UK, stores in Northern Ireland must pay two wholesalers, Newspread and Menzies, to receive full supply. This results in some stores paying more than £150 per week in carriage charges.

Julie Brown, Northern Ireland Fed president and owner of Livingstones Newsagents in Comber, said: “I don’t know where we go from here. We would like to see a review of the charges. They are crippling businesses and leave us with very small profit margins.”

Eugene Diamond, owner of Diamonds in Ballymena, said: “It’s ridiculous. You are being charged for being a successful newsagent. People just can’t afford to pay these carriage charges anymore. It’s going to be a trade where nobody is in it apart from the supermarkets.”

Judith Mercer, of Hamilton News in Cregagh Road, Belfast, added: “The template that Newspread uses for carriage charges is criminal. I think this is just one of the final nails in the coffin for some retailers.

“A lot of our members are actually working for below the minimum wage, and it’s not going to be worth their while to sell newspapers.”

Small stores subsidising larger ones

The Fed’s news and operations director Brian Murphy said that the Irish wholesalers need to work on a “solution”, like News UK and its Direct to Retail (DTR) operation in England, that removes the need for dual carriage charges, “or they run the risk of more retailers exiting the market and both losing out”.

He continued: “A volume-based template, rather than the current value based one, is clearly needed, as small stores subsiding larger ones is unfair.

“We are very disappointed that, once again, retailers have not been consulted, and this slam dunk approach continues to leave a sour taste.

“Publishers and wholesalers have to accept that retailers have choices, and this remains the only category in-store that operates in such a poor way.”

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