Cost of formula.....

[nannynz]

After having a dicussion with my current employer I'd be interested to know if there is any recent infomation of the cost of manufacturing infant formula. I assume it is a closely guarded industry secret but would be interested to know anyway. I did do a quick google search and found info mainly relating to USA.

Also would like to know the prices of the main brand formulas in the UK, thought a study may have being done. If not I'll have a purusal of on line shopping for the answer. And is there really no "no name" formula in the UK?

Thanks in advance.

i have no idea on the cost of making formula, though i would imagine it's minimal. milk being subsidised has a lot to do with it

prices of formula are between £6-£8 a tin roughly I think

and no, there is no "no-name" formula in the uk

So it formula subsidised in the UK then? I did not know this. Is there anywhere I can find out how much it is subsidised by? And is there a cap on how much formula(especially stage 1) can be sold for?

I hate it when one question leads to another and another....

formula as such is not subsidised.

the initial product- the cows milk- is subsidised through grants to the farmers, but once it has been collected by the milk companies, it is then no longer subsidised.

There is no upper price for which formula can be sold as far as I am aware, the restrictions relate to putting first stage infant formula on promotional offer to entice people to use it, but who then perhaps cannot sustain the purchase after the price increases to pre-promotional prices.

No Boots points for first stage either!

no, i mean milk itself is subsidised which means formula manufacturers can get lots of it cheap (as i understand it), so therefore I am assuming it costs very little to make- hence why they're so keen to sell so much

afaik there is no cap on what it can be sold for, it's certainly more expensive now than it was when i was ff ds1 5 years ago!

if you're a low income family you can get milk vouchers which can be used to purchase formula

Hmmmmmmmm, well it's all very interesting. So the cows milk is subsidised and then the making of formula can't be that expensive, although I assume some of the money goes to research and packaging and advertising but the of course it's such a profit earner that is why the companies do it.

It just gets more and more expensive and I always feel bad for the parents I work for if they've made the decision to formuala feed. And in the UK there seems to be no less cost way of getting formula except if on low income.

Same as everything - you get what you pay for.

have to disagree with that zebedee when it comes to infant feeding!

The mark-up on formula is very high indeed.

Compare the retail cost of non-formula dried milk - Tescos has it at £3.10 for 340g, or less than 1p per gram. The same store has SMA infant formula at £7.25 for 100g, or just over 7p per gram.

Formula has extra ingredients in it, which will account for some of the extra cost, I understand that. And the packaging may be of a necessary higher standard.

I wonder why it is seven times the price, though.

When I finished breastfeeding DD1 I used Aptamil follow on milk which at the time was around €13 here in Ireland.

Since we went into recession last year I notice all the supermarkets here have reduced the price to €9.50 which is a dramatic reduction.

It makes me wonder what sort of profit they were making on the €13 because they are obviously still making a profit on the 9.50 or they would be out of business.

because people will buy it? because the inflated cost makes it seem as if it is a higher quality product, which it might be? for profit - billions of pounds worth?

It costs about ten times as much in a lot of European countries as it does in the UK.

I bought one tin (1kilo) for emergencies for dd (6 yrs ago) and it cost me 38 euro.

People who ff here (Italy) often go over the border to Germany/Austria to get it cheaper. It seems very cheap in the UK compared.

How long would a £6 tin last for? I can see how it would quickly add up.

Aptamil is now £8.49 a tub - way too expensive imho!

I usually say a tin lasts just under a week. Am with twins at the moment and we're going through it like nothing on earth. Thats why the mother and I were discussing it. It's blinkin expensive.

£6 or £8 a week is a lot. Is that the cost with twins, nannynz, or per baby?

Do milk vouchers cover the whole cost?

it's a huge expense isn't it

and an expense that a lot of people wouldn't have if they'd had the right support to breastfeed as well.
one of the things that annoys me about midwives and health visitors pushing formula or saying "well, it's fine to switch to formula" etc etc is that none of them ever point out that actually, it's going to cost you a hell of a lot of money!!!

This was the thing that I was most upset about when I took the decision to stop breastfeeding. I'm so stingy!

I ff my dd as could not establish bf. I have been able to bf ds. I have worked out that so far I have saved over 200 quid so far (he is 8 months) if I continue to bf till 12 months, that'll be well over 300, not including bottles, new teats, sterilisers etc.

i think it's something very few people consider when they decide how to feed their baby too.
There must be mums out there who don't want to breastfeed, and then end up really struggling to pay for formula because they simply weren't informed enough.

it's all well and good HCP's saying "ooh well breastfeeding is free" but I think it would be worthwhile saying how much it would actually cost, on average to bottle feed a baby, inc cost of equipment as well as formula itself

Well I guess each baby is drinking a tub of formula a week, they are on Aptimal so that is £17 a week and they have being fully formula fed from about 10 weeks. Before that they were BF. It just adds up so quickly!