§ Mr. C. Smithasked the Minister of Food (1) whether he will make a statement on the range in costs of flour milling in the year ended 31st August, 1943, and in the year for which he has most recent comprehensive information; how the costs of a representative high cost and representative low cost mill during the two 129W periods were divided as between production costs, sales costs and delivery costs; and whether he will compare the rate of profit per sack of flour, 280 lb. for the two mills in the two periods;
(2) what information is in the hands of his Department with regard to flour milling costs; whether he will state the average costs of milling a sack of flour during the most recent period for which he has information covering mills which accounted in the aggregate for 50 per cent. or more of flour production; how that cost is divided between production costs, sales costs and distributing costs; and what is the average rate of profit per sack of flour milled.
Mr. Strachey, pursuant to his reply [OFFICIAL REPORT, 19th December, 1947, Vol. 445, c. 427–428], supplied the following information.
The year ended 31st August, 1946, is the latest period for which sufficiently comprehensive information is available to enable a fair comparison to be made of the costs of production, etc., of a sack of flour with similar costs in the year ended 31st August, 1943. Financial returns have not yet been received from all the flour millers for the year to 31st August, 1946, but figures given for that year in the following comparative table relate to the costs of approximately 75 per cent. of the industry, on a production basis:
— Year ended 31st August, 1943. Year ended 31st August, 1946. s. d. s. d. Direct production costs, excluding wheat and intake costs. 3 10 4 6 Selling costs 1 1 1 1 Delivery costs 1 9 1 11 Administrative costs 1 5 1 3 8 1 8 9 It is not possible to separate the costs of production of flour from the costs of production of wheatfeed and the figures given above represent the total costs of the joint operation.
The average rate of profit per sack of flour production, based on the returns so 130W far received for the year to 31st August, 1946, is approximately 2s. 5d.
The ranges in costs per sack of flour production on which the above averages are based are as follows:
Year to 31st August, 1943, from 4s. 11d. to 22S. 3d.
Year to 31st August, 1946, from 6s. to 25s. 7d.
The highest costs in these ranges are due to special circumstances; in very few cases do the costs approach the maximum of the ranges.
The costs per sack of flour production for what might be considered a representative high cost and a representative low cost miller are:
— Year ended 31st August, 1943. Year ended 31st August, 1946. High. Low. High. Low. s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. Direct production costs, excluding wheat and intake costs. 4 9 3 0 5 10 3 3 Selling costs 1 2 1 5 1 2 1 6 Delivery costs 1 9 1 5 1 10 1 3 Administrative costs. 1 5 1 4 1 5 1 6 9 1 7 2 10 3 7 6 d. s. d. d. s. d. Average rate of profit per sack of flour production. 9 3 2 9 3 3