Woolies is charging just $4.50 for a 375gms bottle and $10 for a 1kg tub. In fact, the new Cloverdale brand is so cheap it undercuts even Woolies home brand honey ($5.30) by at least 10%. The new imported honey brand also undercuts the traditional Capilano branded 100% Australian honey by even more; Woolies is currently pricing the equivalent Capilano branded 375gms bottle at $7.20 a jar – more than half the price of the Cloverdale brand again.
Just why Capilano’s merchant banker owners at Hive and Wellness have undercut both their main brand and the competition so savagely has prompted not a little angst in the Australian honey industry.
Last month the company’s new CEO, Ryan D’Almeida revealed sales were booming, and up nearly 30% amidst the panic-buying associated with the Covid-19 crisis.
The sales increase was achieved despite higher retail prices for honey and without any Capilano imported honey offering in supermarkets
Indeed, back in 2018 the company swore off imported honey, after Coles dumped its Allowrie imported honey brand, amidst widespread community concerns over its Chinese origin, and claims of adulteration.
And in the wake of the company’s privatization sale to a merchant banking consortium, the company told Australian beekeepers that it would be focussed on them, and on selling their honey into China.
That has all changed.
An email from Ryan D’Almeida to the company’s honey suppliers in late March 2020 listed a number of reasons for the turn about.
D’Almeida said that Australian honey production was down some 50% because of the bushfires. So Capilano is having to pay higher prices to beekeepers to secure its honey supply.
He said that the current wholesale price of $6.10 per kg is a record high.
The record high translates to a higher retail price for the company’s most popular product - a 500gms bottle; it now costs consumers $8.60 compared to just $7.30 a year ago.
D'Almeida claimed that retail honey prices are now so high that up to 30% of Australian honey consumers are buying other spreads instead of honey.
“At the current honey price of $6.10, our most popular product (500g upside-down pack) will be on shelf in most stores at $8.60, compared to $7.30 this time last year. The challenge is that at some point, value-conscious consumers (approximately 30% of the market) will stop buying honey because it is getting too expensive, when they have a choice of other spreads at half the price…”
Despite the company’s switch to imports, D’Álmeida said the company would continue to buy as much Australian honey as it can get, and would not be sourcing Chinese honey for its new Cloverdale brand.
A large proportion of the marketing budget would continue to go to the 100% Australian honey product, he said, claiming this shows the company is “supporting you and our vitally important Australian beekeeping industry”.
Now that the Cloverdale honey is actually on the shelves, with the label indicating that as little as 10% of the honey in each jar is Australian honey, the company’s beekeeping suppliers may be questioning whether Capilano’s switch to imported honey is the kind of support they really want or need.
Not happy at all. Very disappointed this passes as honey. Tastes very little like honey. If anything, it tastes like caramel syrup with honey added. Why is it so runny?
Will not take any more risk with supermarket honey, especially the Cloverdale brand from Capilano. Have now sourced a local honey seller. Their product tastes the way honey is supposed to.
We purchased a 1kg tub of Cloverdale Honey because Woolworths had run out of good, pure Australian honey. To say this honey is bad is an understatement. Cloverdale Honey is so thin and runny it’s almost impossible to get any relative quantity on a teaspoon. No matter how fast you spin that spoon it just runs off. I have to keep it in the fridge now to thicken it up.Furthermore its taste leaves you actually wondering if this is honey at all. I would go without honey if this was my only choice. This product is rubbish.
DIDN’T this ‘Company’ OWN ‘Allowrie’, Imports from China Inc.?? 10% Australian, AND, if it’s like theMajor Supermarket Chains, in ‘Fine Print’ Somewhere, It’ll say – Provision to ‘Seasonally or Locally available Producer supplies’!!
Do Yourself & your Family a Favour, & THE Australian Govt., Couldn’t care, Source a ‘Supplier’ Yourself OUTSIDE the Australian Supermarket Chains. THEY ARE ‘CORPORATIONS’, & while their P.R. Spin is ‘Buy Local’ – THEY ARE ‘PROFIT DRIVEN’!!! Honey, IS available @ Competetive Rates & Health #+ Benefits to Suit! Bee Mite ‘Issues’, especially in Current N.S.W/ Hunter region & Remote ‘Beyonds’, Including Govt MASS Colony ‘Destructions’, are A ‘Dubious’ Operational stratagem, especially on ‘Targeted Locations’!
Wellness.
I’ve been really enjoying Coverdale . I came across this as I was researching where to get more of the 1kg bucket. I totally agree that it is a ROBUST FULL BODIED tasting honey blend
There is so much wrong with the label on the Cloverdale Honey. Sweet. yeah okay, Tasty, not so much in my opinion. Then it says PURE HONEY. How can we be so sure about this when it is made up of three different honey products and only 10% Australian. If the text about this had not been so small, I definitely would not have purchased this product.
Then comes the KICKER. Made by Nature? Wow, that is ridiculous. Did you get the bees to blend this honey? No way this honey is made by nature when you have three different countries supplying their product. False Advertising.
I must also say, I do not enjoy the taste of this honey. It’s nothing like my usual honey which is Beechworth. The reason I purchased this product is because Woolworths AND Coles hadn’t had any of my favourite on the shelves for some time and I was out of stock. I may have purchased this because of the lower price over the other products available and now I believe what they say when they say “You only get what you pay for”. Correct.
I would not recommend this product to anyone and will definitely not be purchasing again. NO WAY.
Well, I’ve had my say… Noel Anderson.