Thanks for your comment on our use of ’smart price’ foods, which follows a similar theme to an earlier comment. As I said then, I do not agree that value or ’smart price’ products are necessarily inferior to branded products and this was borne out by recent work carried out by a nutritionist for us. We try very hard to keep the use of processed foods to a minimum but I do not have an issue with us using value products as basics; many of us use these at home and I see no reason why they should not be used as part of a balanced diet in the nursery. We are continuing to adapt our nursery menus to give the best possible nutrition to children each day and without having to increase our food cost, which would have an impact on fees.

As far as nappies and wipes are concerned, I think we offer a perfectly satisfactory product and we are always reviewing the brands we use to make sure we get a balance of performance and cost. If individual parents prefer to use highly branded products at home, including the high level of marketing and advertising costs associated with these, then that is personal choice, but most parents are satisfied with the nappies and wipes we use and would prefer that we keep fees as low as possible.

For your interest, staff salaries account for over 70% of our revenue, so the amount left to spend on overheads and resources such as food and nappies is far from huge. We try and keep a balance in all areas and we are constantly reviewing this to see how we are doing. If you have particular concerns about any aspect of your child’s nursery, could I suggest you speak to the Manager in the first instance and feel free to contact me direct to discuss individual concerns further?

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1. 

   Glad to see that you have taken into account the remarks about caged hens, & to a point i do agree with you regarding smartprice foods, but if you were to do a poll how many of us really use smartprice foods for a small children? ( yes that does make us slaves to consumer branding) But if we do or don’t it is our choice, which is what we don’t get for a service that we are paying for a nursery. If you asked many parents if they would pay a little extra for foods or are they hapy to use smartprice items i bet you would be surprised by the results. On a note regarding nappies, stores own brands are often as good, but smart price wipes are not!! Yes they are used, & are harsher than leading brands as they do have more chemcals in them, & i don’t think most parents use those wipes at home!

   Comment by Mrs Wilkins — October 8, 2009 @ 10:52 am

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