Thursday, March 05, 2009

CW Exclusive - Parishes being hit by Sterling `rip off'

We here at CW wish to tip our birettas to THE IRISH CATHOLIC for the following story:

Hard-pressed Irish parishes are being charged a massive 25 per cent mark-up on parish supplies by a leading supplier of Church resources.

Hayes & Finch, one of Britain and Ireland's largest suppliers of Church goods has not passed on substantial savings brought about by the fall in the value of Sterling to Irish customers.

A basic clerical shirt on Hayes & Finch's British website is retailing at just £27.40 (€30.53) while the same shirt is on sale on the Irish version of their website for €40.75, a mark-up of more than 25%.

The prices quoted do not include postage and packaging.

The mark-up for the Republic means that parishes in the North can make substantial savings.

In fact, some parishes in the Republic are having items delivered to addresses in the North to avoid paying the inflated prices.

The value of Sterling has fallen dramatically in recent months, and there has been widespread criticism of British retailers for failing to pass on the savings to their Irish customers.

On altar wine, there is a mark-up of almost €20 on a case of one of the most popular brands.

A case of 'Vin D'Autel' is available to Sterling customers at £74.80 (€83.11) while customers who order from the Irish website are charged €113.01.

Altar breads too are being hit by the mark-up; customers in the North can purchase boxes of 1,000 altar breads for as little as £8.72 (€9.70) while south of the border, the same box costs €12.90, a mark up of more than £3 per box.

The revelation comes as Tánaiste Mary Coughlan has ordered the Competition Authority to investigate whether British suppliers are profiteering on imported goods.

One Dublin-based priest said he was ''very annoyed''about the mark-up.

''It's absolutely disgraceful that we're being expected to pay so much more than parishes in the North, I can't help but feeling that we're being ripped off.''

A Cork-based priest told The Irish Catholic this week that ''a lot of parishes are struggling to make ends meet, so every penny counts. It's disgraceful that we're being treated so unfairly when the value of sterling has dropped so much''.

The value of Sterling against the euro has dropped by 30% in recent months.

John Mann, Chief Executive of Hayes & Finch told The Irish Catholic: ''When the exchange rate started to change, we decided not to alter the Irish website immediately because we hoped the disparity in rate would be only temporary - updating all the prices on the website is a lengthy and costly process."

''Since the exchange rate now seems likely to remain at or around its present level for the foreseeable future, we are presently going through the process of updating our web prices.''

Mr Mann also said that costs in Ireland are ''considerably higher'' than in Britain.

He also cited a higher VAT rate in the Republic (21.5% as opposed to 15% in Britain).

However, this would only account for a mark-up of 6.5%.

Surveys have shown that Irish consumers are being charged a margin of up to 50% more than counterparts in Britain.

**READ THE STORY UNDERNEATH FOR FURTHER INFO IN RELATION TO THIS MATTER**
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(Source: IC)