Sweet Easter for firm in Cadbury’s wake
The lead up to Easter has proven a sweet time for New Zealand’s now largest confectionery maker following Cadbury’s factory closure.
More than 8 million chocolate Easter eggs rolled off Rainbow Confectionery’s production line at its upgraded Oamaru factory for this weekend’s Easter festivities.
Starting in November, the company completed its busiest Easter preparation period yet by mid-February, Rainbow Confectionery general manager Brent Baillie said.
It hired another 40 staff to join the halves of chocolate eggs together by hand.
Most of the extra hands on deck
''This is a very, very under-the-radar business.'' Brent Baillie
belonged to university and high school students working a summer job.
Some of the eggs had been sitting in supermarket distribution centres since before Christmas, Baillie said.
All of its Easter eggs were marshmallow-filled. It made a limited edition All Blacks-branded eggs this year.
Baillie wanted to use the annual sugar-laden celebration to remind Kiwis that New Zealand-made confectionery was still on shelves, despite Cadbury’s owner Mondelez shutting down its Dunedin factory for good this week.
As news of the closure raged, Rainbow underwent an expansion of its South Island site. It bought more machinery and built a new storage warehouse.
Baillie said Rainbow had capacity to make up to 8000 tonnes of confectionery a year – 5000 more tonnes than it currently made
‘‘This is a very, very quiet, under-the-radar, large scale business that New Zealand hasn’t yet identified with,’’ Baillie said.
‘‘Australia, you can take the pav[lova], you can take the gumboot, you can take the thong and the chilly bin, but you are not taking our lollies.’’