Whittaker’s launches its next blast from the past

Chocolate maker Whittaker’s is reinventing another old favourite in the Kiwi lexicon of sweets – this time its own Toffee Milk bar.

The Porirua-based manufacturer has launched a limited edition of the sweet, featuring toffee milk pieces combined with its own milk chocolate in 50-gram bars and 250g blocks.

Whittaker’s latest creation follows a string of chocolate products that have been paired up with Kiwi favourites including L&P and K Bars.

Not to be outdone, rival Cadbury retorted with Jaffa and Apple Crumble chocolate blocks, and concern was high about the fate of Pineapple Lumps and Jaffas when it was announced last month that the Dunedin Cadbury factory would close.

More generally, marketers say there is big business in childhood favourites which is why there has been a public outcry over the loss of New Zealand staples such as Snifters, Sparkles and Pascall’s Licorice Allsorts.

Public relations expert Sue Allen said nostalgia evokes powerful memories which consumers will pay good money to recapture. ‘‘From a marketing perspective, exploiting nostalgia makes a lot of sense. If your content can evoke feelings of nostalgia, it will also make people feel good.’’

Toffee Milks belong to Whittaker’s, which created them in the 1930s.

‘‘So extending the concept is a natural step,’’ the company’s assistant marketing manager, Jasmine Currie, said.

Whittaker’s has also commissioned a Wairarapa company to build a horse-drawn cart, similar to one used by its early founders.

Samples of the chocolate bars were distributed from the cart yesterday in Auckland but the rest of the country will have to wait until they hit retailers’ shelves on May 1.

SFO on Fuji Xerox alert

The Serious Fraud Office will consider any new information which might require it to take action after Fuji Xerox revealed accounting irregularities at its local subsidiary will cause losses of $285 million. This followed news that the agency responsible for government contracts said it was monitoring Fuji Xerox New Zealand, which had been paid more than $55m for all-ofgovernment contracts since 2012. On Friday, Japan-based FujiFilm Holdingsset up an independent investigation committee to review the appropriateness of accounting practices at Fuji Xerox NZ.

NZ-owned banks triumph

A greater proportion of customers with locally owned banks believe they’re being paid ‘‘competitive’’ interest on their deposits than do customers of their Australian-owned rivals. People who bank with TSB, Kiwibank or the Co-operative Bank are also far less likely to say they’re considering switching bank. These are the findings of a Consumer NZ survey of bank satisfaction, which has led the consumer watchdog to give the three banks a joint ‘‘People’s Choice’’ award. TSB topped the ‘‘nationally representative’’ survey of 1085 people with an overall customer satisfaction of 87 per cent, followed by The Co-operative Bank at 77 per cent and Kiwibank at 71 per cent.

Support workers to strike

Thousands of support and administration workers will strike this week to protest a lack of progress in bargaining for job security. About 3000 staff from the operational arm of IHC said they would walk off the job for an hour at 8.30am on Thursday to protest the lack of progress in negotiating a new collective agreement. IDEA Services workers had been negotiating via the E tu union for two new collective employment agreements since October last year. Workers wanted to strengthen job security and health and safety rights. IHC said services would not be affected.

Appeal dismissed

Federation Clothing’s appeal against a fine of $450,000, for understating the value of goods imported and evading hundreds of thousands of dollars in GST, has been dismissed. The charges were laid last year after Customs found the companies undervalued imported goods from China between 2010 and 2014 by about $2.8 million. As a result they avoided paying about $680,000 in custom duties and GST. The court dismissed the appeal, saying the offending was serious as it occurred over four years and involved 112 erroneous import entries and the companies evaded more than $600,000 in duties and GST.

Trilogy trims interest bill

2degrees’ majority owner is seeking to cut the interest bill on hundreds of millions of dollars of debt it used to finance the mobile phone company. Trilogy International Partners, which listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange last year, is currently paying a hefty 13.37 per cent interest rate on bonds, to compensate investors for the high risks involved in its business. However, a plan by Trilogy would see those bonds paid off ahead of their 2019 due date, and its business refinanced by the issue of US$350 million (NZ$500m) of new debt, which would pay interest at the more modest rate of 8.87 per cent.