Articles > Tasmania Purity Plates
Australia's leading food retailer - Woolworths, runs a chain of supermarkets Australia wide and the Purity Food Group was a subsidiary company throughout Southern Tasmania. 'Roelf Vos' was another supermarket chain distributed throughout Northern Tasmania and also owned by Woolworths. Woolworths bought Purity in 1981 and Roelf Vos in 1982.Purity Food Group plates were first registered on company vehicles from July 1st 1995 beginning with prefix P 001 on the CEO's car.
P 000 was not issued in an attempt to make the number one plate more
exclusive. The remaining numbers commenced at P 020 with numbers P 002 to P
019 not being issued.
In 1997 these Purity plates ceased at about number P 048 due to both
supermarket chains changing their names and trading under the 'Woolworths'
banner. The existing Purity plates became inappropriate within the new
corporate structure and in early August 1997, the recall went out for all
existing plates to be replaced with the new design.
| The Purity plate format used a red P prefix (embossed) followed by the letters 'U R I T Y' in red (screened) to make up the full word PURITY. These screened letters were not part of the registration combination. Three embossed digits in black followed to make up the combination. The state abbreviation was again embossed in black across the top and the company slogan " The Fresh Food People" screened in green across the bottom and a green painted border was used. |
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The replacement plate format used the red
embossed TAS prefix followed by three digits in black. The company slogan
was this time screened across the top of the plate with the state
abbreviation in blue across the bottom. The FSC logo in the centre represented the "Frequent Shoppers Club" which was a corporate reward system to encourage customers to shop at the stores. |
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Official records obtained from the Tasmanian Registration
offices while writing this article, indicate that the initial order was
for: Plates have since appeared with higher numbers which
contradict those records. These would have been ordered at a later date to
meet demand as required. |
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| Sample plates have also survived. Below are
some prototypes showing some colour differences and using high
numbers which would never be released.
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*Both the 'TAS' Fresh Food plates and the 'Purity' plates are no longer used in Tasmania by the Woolworths organisation |
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