Anchor milk. Photo / Kenny Rodger
Anchor, New Zealand's most famous milk, will be harder to find in Foodtown, Woolworths and Countdown supermarkets.
The brand, owned by the country's biggest company, Fonterra, has lost out in a battle over fridge space at the Australian-owned Progressive Enterprises supermarkets.
Progressive wanted to promote its own label
of milk products and called for bids for the remaining shelf space.
Anchor lost to Meadow Fresh, owned by billionaire Graeme Hart.
Progressive Enterprises said the aim of the move was to provide a greater variety of milk brands.
"The full range of Anchor milk will continue to be sold in upper North Island stores. Selected Anchor products will also continue to be sold in the lower North Island and South Island stores," a company statement said.
The managing director of Fonterra Brands New Zealand, Peter McClure, said the tender process took place last month.
"They decided they wanted to carry their own brand of milk and one other brand so they held a tender between us and Meadow Fresh.
"But they're not kicking us out. They're basically making Meadow Fresh the more dominant product in their stores and giving less space to Anchor.
"We'll take a little bit of a hit but we think there are other opportunities for us elsewhere. Progressive still remains an important customer for us, not only in milk but in all our food brands."
He would not elaborate on the other opportunities but said: "There's another major player in town called Foodstuffs and we're reasonably well positioned with Foodstuffs."
