Excitement about deposits: branded goods manufacturers criticized "ideological measure"

Bureaucracy has reached a pain threshold for companies and consumers have to bear the costs. New campaign for branded items.

Since January 1 There is also a deposit on PET bottles and cans in Austria. There are still hardly any goods subject to a deposit available in stores, but this will change Change shortly. Because manufacturers of corresponding goods are gradually switching to the new system.

The deposit system caused a lot of criticism before it was introduced – such as recently from the Styrian bank Waste disposal cleaner. Now bumps Günter ThumserManaging Director of the Branded Goods Association (MAV) after. Among other things, he speaks of “arbitrariness”.

That’s how we get to them Costs in trade of at least 350 million euros manufacturers in addition. “Significant additional investments are necessary, for example in logistics and labels.” The Austria-wide collection rate is currently 80 percent. The 90 percent also specified by the EU would have been easy to achieve if there had been more collection in Vienna. And to separate the plastic bottles from the yellow collection bins from the rest, only one would have single-digit million amount must be invested in the collecting societies, says Thumser.

That the introduction with that in Romania and similar countries does not count for him. “They didn’t have any functioning systems at all.” Ultimately, there is no argument for the deposit in Austria – except ideological and political reasons.

In general, Thumser speaks of “Craziness” and “planned economy”when he thinks about the bureaucratic requirements from Brussels, but also in his own country. “The Playrooms will be for companies always one. And it’s not to the benefit of consumers or the environment either.”

As an example he gives the number of 13,000 new regulationswhich have been added to the EU in the last five years alone. “In the USA there were only 3,500,” said Thumser. The EU Packaging Regulation alone comprises 333 pages. This multitude of regulations does not add value.

Medium-sized companies in particular would “suffer brutally from it“, adds the president of the branded goods association, Josef Braunshofer. “The bureaucracy has one Pain threshold achieved.” Government interventions are often paralyzing and he also warns against advertising bans or new taxes such as those on sugar. The situation is unbearablehe appeals to the local EU representatives to support one De-bureaucratization to use. “Because in the end it’s the consumers who pay for it.”

At the same time, according to Thumser, it is increasing Threat to brand diversity through the high one Level of concentration in trade. “There has been a huge contraction in the last 5 years.” According to a GfK analysis, Number of branded products Depending on the area and chain, sales in domestic supermarkets have fallen by up to 49 percent. Accordingly, there were also declines in the number of items that could be selected. “Still doing it Original significantly more than half of retail sales,” sums up Thumser.

In order to raise consumer awareness of branded products, the event starts next week 29. Branded merchandise campaign under the motto “The brand does it! The original”. “Brand quality has more dimensions than price,” said Thumser. The price discussion, which has become all too heated due to inflation, limits the value of food too one-sidedly to the price.