1) Why are you changing where you make products like Moro, Minties and Eskimos?Moving products to different factories, especially overseas, was not an easy decision to make as we know many consumers would prefer the products they love are made in their backyard.
The reason we are moving some of our products to factories outside of New Zealand is to help secure manufacturing and employment in New Zealand for the long term. In the last two years, we have invested heavily to restructure our factories in both New Zealand and Australia so that they specialise in manufacturing particular types of products. These specialist factories (including Dunedin) have had antiquated equipment replaced with modern, state-of-the-art technology that allows us to make products more quickly, efficiently, and more cost effectively.
We are investing for the long-term in New Zealand so that our Dunedin factory will operate to world class standards. Confectionery manufacturing is an incredibly competitive business and we need to operate smarter to secure local production and provide Kiwi jobs. It’s simply not economical for us to make the same types of products in all of our factories so by specialising our products to certain factories we are able to keep costs down.
Creating specialist manufacturing facilities has also been an important part of helping us keep costs down for consumers, especially at a time when the price of confectionery ingredients such as cocoa and sugar has skyrocketed as it has in the last two years.
2) What Kiwi products are moving to different factories?The products moving to different factories include some lolly and chocolate products. Please see the table below for the full list.
3) When will the products that are made in different countries arrive on the shelves?A small number of the products that are being made in different factories are on shop shelves now including Cadbury Jaffas, Pebbles, Crunchie, Cadbury Dairy Milk blocks, Pascall Minties, Milkshakes, Curiously Strong Mints, Fruit Burst and Halls Throaties.
Products including Pineapple Lumps, Perky Nana, Pascall Chocolate Eclairs, and chunky bars such as Black Forest, Energy and Energy Scroggin will arrive on shop shelves between now and early next year.
Crème Eggs from the UK will arrive in January, and other products such as Moro, Eskimos, Jet Planes, Fruit Jubes, Wine Gums and Freddo will arrive in New Zealand stores between February and June next year.
4) Will these products taste the same when they move to different factories?Wherever possible, we are not changing the recipes of the products as they move to different factories. Cadbury is doing everything possible to ensure the taste that people love so much is retained.
In isolated cases in the early stages of factory change-over, as occurred recently with Minties, you may notice slight taste differences in some products. In many cases this can be caused by the different machinery used in the manufacturing process and not by a change in the recipe itself. Where such differences occur, we will continually work to ensure the taste is kept as close to the original as possible.
We understand that moving the production of some of these products away from New Zealand may be upsetting to some people and it was tough decision for Cadbury to make because we know how much people love these products. Unfortunately we can’t make them here anymore because the equipment is old and we need to specialise so that we keep jobs in Dunedin and ensure our products remain affordable for consumers.
5) Will you make the products you’ve moved offshore in New Zealand again?No. The Dunedin factory will be at full capacity making all of the boxed chocolate for New Zealand and Australia, chocolate crumb for both countries, as well as some Asian countries, and making marshmallow products as well as sugar panned products like Jaffas and Pebbles.
Whilst we would like to be able to make all of New Zealand’s iconic products in New Zealand, it is no longer possible. Confectionery manufacturing is incredibly competitive and it’s simply not economical for us to make the same types of products in all of our factories. By specialising our products to certain factories we are able to keep costs down.
6) Are you closing the Avondale, Auckland lolly factory?Yes. The Avondale lolly factory in Auckland closed in December 2009.
A number of favourite Kiwi products made at Avondale including Jaffas, Pebbles, Pineapple Lumps and Snowballs will now be made at the specialist Dunedin factory.
Other products previously made at Avondale such as Jet Planes, Minties, Milkshakes and Fruit Burst will be made at specialist Cadbury factories in Australia or Asia.
7) How much have you spent at Dunedin to make it a specialist factory?Cadbury is investing $69million dollars to replace old and tired equipment with state-of-the art machinery at the Dunedin factory.
So far we’ve built a new chocolate ‘crumb’ factory inside Cadbury Dunedin. Chocolate crumb is the base ingredient in Cadbury Dairy Milk milk chocolate and we export some of this to Australian and Asian Cadbury factories.
We’re now making Jaffas and Pebbles in Dunedin as well as marshmallow eggs. When the Dunedin upgrade is complete in mid 2010, we will have expanded our current production of boxed and assorted chocolates such as Roses, Milk Tray and Continental to include both New Zealand and Australia.
8) What will be made at Dunedin?A number of popular products will and are being made at Dunedin including: Jaffas, Pebbles, Pineapple Lumps, Roses, Continental, Milk Tray, marshmallow eggs, Easter Eggs, Snowballs, Chocolate Fish and Turkish Delight.
9) Why didn’t you tell us earlier you were making these changes?Once the decision had been made to close the Avondale lolly factory and turn the Dunedin factory into a specialist chocolate factory, we made public announcements to say that production of local lollies would move to other Cadbury factories in New Zealand, Australia and a small number would move to Asia.
Now that we are nearing the completion of replacing our factory equipment, and some products are being produced in different factories, we are reminding people of these changes.
Let's chat about these changes at
www.choclovers.co.nz