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FT-Nov17-eMag

THE SOURCE FOR FOODTECHNOLOGY INFORMATION MONDELEZ LEAVES NEW ZEALAND Oamaru’s Rainbow Confectionery says it could have easily made marshmallow to the standard of Mondelez, and it is disappointed that the confectionery giant has pulled the production of Kiwi favourites from New Zealand. At the hub of many great food and beverage manufacturing projects is a great finance company. Let’s do great things together. Visit www.creditone.co.nz for a 60 second Online quote or call 0800 300 500 24 NOVEMBER 2017 Specialists in: • Equipment Finance • Plant & Machinery Finance • Truck Finance • Working Capital • Vehicle Finance FT360-C Operations manager Brent Baillie says his company has been negotiating with Mondelez for several months to make Jaffas, Pineapple Lumps and other confectionery in New Zealand, after the latter announced the closure of the Dunedin Cadbury factory next year, with the loss of 300 jobs. Mondelez New Zealand country head James Kane says the company has invested significant effort over the past six months in trying to find a potential local manufacturing partner. “We looked at a range of potential solutions, from partnering to make the full portfolio, through to offering individual products to potential suppliers,” he says. “We were absolutely hoping we could make a local solution work for the entire portfolio, which included multiple visits by members of our Dunedin, ANZ and regional teams to the site to assess their existing technologies and work processes. The iconic Kiwi products require particular technologies, production processes and skills, and very few manufacturers anywhere in the world could take on this work while continuing to match our product requirements.”  However, Baillie says Rainbow could have manufactured the products here. “However, the decision has now been made to move all manufacturing over to Australia,” he says. “There is nothing special about the manufacturing process that through minimal investment, we could not have achieved.” E Tu national industry strategy director (food) Neville Donaldson says the union is surprised by and sceptical of Mondelez’s decision. “We have clearly been duped,” he says. Three companies originally expressed interest in making the Kiwi sweets. “We have been duped,” Donaldson says. “New Zealand customers need to consider when purchasing confectionary whether they want to buy Mondelez and Cadbury products and support the Australian and Asian workers…or whether they want to support the job security of New Zealand workers.” However, all is not lost – Rainbow will continue to make its ‘Pineapple Chunks’, first made in 1953 to the same recipe Charles Diver developed under the Regina brand. The company employs 80 permanent staff and recently completed a multi-million-dollar expansion of its factory.


FT-Nov17-eMag
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