1.2 Jones Dairy Ltd (Jones) operates a ‘doorstep’ fresh milk delivery service. Two brothers carry on the business that they inherited from their father in the early 1970s. They are the business’s only directors. The business operates from a yard on the outskirts of Trepont, a substantial town in mid Wales.

Jones expanded steadily from when the brothers took over until the early 1980s, by which time it employed 25 full-time rounds staff. This was achieved because of four factors:

(1) some expansion of the permanent population of Trepont, (2) expanding Jones’s geographical range to the villages surrounding the town, (3) an expanding tourist trade in the area and (4) a positive attitude to ‘marketing’.

As an example of the marketing effort, when new residents move into the area, the member of the rounds staff concerned reports this back. One of the directors immediately visits the potential customer with an introductory gift, usually a bottle of milk, a bottle of wine and a bunch of flowers. He then attempts to obtain a regular milk order. Similar methods are used to persuade existing residents to place orders for delivered milk.