Dark chocolate
There’s bitterness in the air at the Cadbury factory, mingling with the lingering scent of chocolate. Hamish McNeilly reports.
Campbell McPhee still loves chocolate after decades working in Cadbury’s Dunedin factory, but he won’t be buying Cadbury products again.
The last ever product made at Cadbury’s Dunedin-based factory, Pineapple Lumps, rolled off the production line on Friday evening, with the factory set to close its doors on Thursday.
That was likely to produce a lump in the throat of McPhee, who has worked 33 years in the factory, most recently as frontline leader of the chocolate-making department.
With his redundancy money he planned to take a holiday to Fiji with some co-workers before returning to Dunedin to consider his future.
Caramilk, Dairy Milk, Roses, Jaffas, Buzz Bars, Pinky Bars were just some of the brands produced in their thousands at the Dunedin operation.
At its peak, the factory employed about 360 workers, but only a few dozen remain on-site.
‘‘It’s all emptying out, it is the end of an era,’’ McPhee said.
He met his partner at the factory, his two children once worked there as did his mother, brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews.
The familiar smell of chocolate still lingers in the air around the factory, nestled between the city’s one-way system.
It is a smell and taste McPhee and other workers never tired of.
‘‘I have been here this long and I amstill eating it ... you never get sick of eating it.’’
But one thing is certain, this self-confessed chocolate lover won’t be buying Cadbury products again.
Teresa Gooch and Bora McLay have worked 17 years and 18 years respectively at the Dunedin site, and they both planned to take a holiday before reassessing their future.
Gooch said she was sad about the closure and would miss her colleagues, who were like family.
‘‘We are going through a lot of different emotions,’’ she said.
During their time they had seen increasing automation, new products, the scandal over the use of palm oil, the rise and fall of Cadbury as one of the country’s most trusted brands, and the hostile takeover by Mondelez.
‘‘We have been very loyal,’’ McLay said.
For McPhee, the one-time company catchphrase ‘‘a glass and a half’’, is now just a distant slogan.
‘‘More like a glass half empty, I reckon.’’
Richard Hudson established what is believed to be the southern hemisphere’s first chocolate and cocoa manufacturing plant in Dunedin in 1884.
In 1930 the company amalgamated with the British company to create Cadbury Fry Hudson.
That once bustling factory was now ‘‘ghost-like’’, Phil Knight, E tu¯ industry co-ordinator said.
‘‘It is hard not to think of them as they were, with dozens of people and machinery clanking.’’
The biggest positive about the closure was that consumers were now reassessing the brands they supported.
‘‘We need to think broadly about the value of overseas investment if it is not done wisely and with a long-term commitment to New Zealand,’’ Knight said.
Owner Mondelez International – an offshoot of the giant American company Kraft – took control of Cadbury after a hostile takeover launched in 2009.
That same year, Cadbury closed its Auckland plant, moving all New Zealand production to Dunedin.
In recent years the company had invested an estimated $80 million into the Dunedin site. Although it was profitable, it was just one of several Mondelez factories to close. Others targeted were in Montreal, Dublin, Chicago and Philadelphia.
Some 70 per cent of the goods produced in Dunedin were exported, mainly to Australia.
In 2006 the Government’s Strategic Investment Fund provided funding of $2m for Cadbury’s crumb research and development facility, in partnership with the University of Otago.
Dunedin City Council granted rates relief of $61,300 to the company in 2006 for a four-year period.
In August – just months after confirming the closure of the Dunedin factory, Mondelez New Zealand head James Kane visited Dunedin to announce that the historic Castle St dairy site would undergo a $7m refurbishment to house Cadbury World.
‘‘This is a unique situation, around the world any business which closes a factory doesn’t turn around and invest $7m.’’
However, that was little consolation to McPhee, Gooch and McLay, who over the years had watched thousands of tourists visit the neighbouring Cadbury World.
McLay said tourists had asked her why there was a tourist attraction next to a soon-to-beclosed factory.
Site manager Judith Mair said calls to boycott Cadbury products had not affected sales, with the launch of Caramilk over the last year ‘‘being the biggest block launch in New Zealand ever’’.
Staff had experienced a range of emotions but remained professional during their final shifts.
The company had put ‘‘a lot of time and effort’’ into their staff, including education and retraining.
Of the staff who have left, some 90 per cent had new jobs, retired, or were taking a break from work, she said.
‘‘Some employees are being offered two or three roles which is fantastic.’’
Chocolate will still be produced in Dunedin thanks to the Otago Chocolate Company (Ocho), which raised $2m through crowdfunding last year.
The company hit the headlines following an ambitious plan to make some of the Cadburyproduced Kiwi favourites in Dunedin.
But that plan was rejected by Mondelez, with Pascall Pineapple Lumps set to be made in Australia and shipped back to New Zealand.
Dunedin North MP David Clark declined to comment on the closure, despite being vocal about the company’s departure while in opposition.