Last of NZ-made chocolate goes to Cadbury staff
The supply of New Zealand-made Pineapple Lumps will be gone within months.
Dunedin’s Cadbury factory closes for good on March 29. However, the final production run of the last remaining chocolates finished last night.
From next week, Pascall’s Pineapple Lumps will be made in Australia and shipped to New Zealand.
Dunedin Cadbury site manager Judith Mair said the company’s staff would be given some of the last New Zealand-made products.
She expected those Pineapple Lumps, which had a shelf life of 12 months, would be ‘‘snapped up quite quickly’’. The last standard run would produce several tonnes of the product, she said.
Mair was confident products made in Australia would taste the same as their Kiwi counterparts.
Oamaru’s Rainbow Confectionery still makes Pineapple Chunks, based on the original recipe, which predates Pineapple Lumps.
Cadbury’s owner, Mondelez International, announced last year that it would stop manufacturing Cadbury products in Dunedin in March 2018, with the loss of 350 jobs. The decision was part of a
$4.2 billion cost-cutting strategy that reportedly began in 2014.
After three companies showed interest in purchasing the factory but all pulled out, Dunedin city councillor Jim O’Malley set up a group, Dunedin Manufacturing Holdings, to raise $20 million in crowdfunding and investment to buy the factory and keep Pineapple Lumps, Jaffas, Buzz Bars and Pinky Bars New Zealand-made.
Mondelez gave O’Malley’s campaign, Ownthefactory.com, two weeks to raise the money.
In its first 12 hours, it received
$1.2m. After failing to raise $20m, the company switched plans to make boutique chocolate in Dunedin instead.
The adjoining tourist attraction, Cadbury World, will remain open when the Cadbury factory closes. Some staff members could be re-employed at Cadbury World.
E tu¯ food industry union coordinator Phil Knight said the changes had been tough but staff morale was generally positive.
‘‘The vast majority have plans in place – either they have a job lined up, or they’re retiring, and some are just taking a bit of time to evaluate what they do next.’’