The Co-operative Group will be without own-label washing up liquid for more than a month after its supplier pulled out of the UK market.

Own-label washing up liquid would not be on shelves until 3 October, the society said, after it had to hastily switch supply from Dicom Dalli UK to McBride.

“We have recently had an availability issue on The Co-op washing up liquids because our supplier pulled out of the UK market on the grounds that it was no longer commercially viable,” a spokeswoman said. “Unfortunately, it gave us very little notice, hence the gap in supply. Our first production run from our new supplier is on the 22 September and we anticipate that depots will be back in stock on the 3 October.”

The spokeswoman added that a number of tertiary brands had been introduced in stores to help The Co-op meet the shortfall, including Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy washing up liquid.

Dicom Dalli UK reported a pre-tax loss of £464,597 in the year to 31 December 2010, the latest available set of accounts filed at Companies House. Turnover dropped 42% from £13.6m to £7.9m during the period due to “the loss of contracts in the spring of 2009”.

It confirmed in the accounts: “As a result of the difficulties in securing new contracts, the decision was made in December 2010 to cease operations in the United Kingdom.”

The company would cease trading in the first half of 2011, it added.

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