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The Griffin's Food Company
Formerly
  • Griffin & Sons, Ltd. (1895–?)[1]
Company type
Founded1864; 160 years ago (1864)[1][2]
FounderJohn Griffin
FateAcquired by Nabisco in 1962
Headquarters
Auckland
,
New Zealand
ProductsCookies, chocolate confection, crackers, cereal bars, snacks
Brands
Number of employees
800 (2014[3])
Parent
List
Websitegriffinsfoodcompany.com

The Griffin's Foods Company is a New Zealand food company currently headquartered in Auckland and established by John Griffin as a flour and cocoa mill in the city of Nelson in 1864.[1] The company started biscuit manufacturing in 1890.[1] Products commercialised by Griffin's include cookies, chocolate confection, crackers, cereal bars, and snack food.

Since 1962, Griffin's has been owned by several companies including Nabisco, Danone, Pacific Equity Partners and Universal Robina. As of 2021, it has been wholly-owned by Intersnack. Griffin's had sales of approximately NZ$300 million in 2011.[4]

History

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John Griffin, founder

The company was founded by English John Griffin (1813–1893)[5] in Nelson, New Zealand in 1869[6] as a flour and cocoa miller in 1864. Griffin had arrived in Nelson in 1854, commencing business in a bakery shop one year later. After it was severely damaged by an earthquake in 1855, Griffin moved to Christchurch, then returning to Nelson a few years later when conditions improved.[5]

Newspaper records show biscuits were in production by the 1880s and the confectionery arm of the business launched in 1886. By the 1890s Griffins were producing a range of candied peels and by the late 1900s drinking cocoa. Main produce was distributed via the Griffins manufacturing plant on Ashmole Street in Christchurch.

Griffin's factory in Nelson, c. 1905

After Griffin died in 1893, his sons J.H. and G.R. Griffin carried out the family business. When in February 1895 a huge fire caused a new disaster, they formed a public company with a capital of £5,172. In search of further capital to expand the business, in 1897 a chocolate factory was acquired.[5] Griffin's expanded, making army ration biscuits during World War II,[6] those where the times of the biscuit industry as a provider of goods for war purposes that helped it become larger than any other industry in New Zealand.[5]

Griffin's opened a new factory in Lower Hutt in 1938,[1] transferring its entire biscuit manufacturing operation there and leaving the Nelson factory entirely to confectionery manufacture.[5] In 1959, Griffin acquired the Southern Cross Biscuit Factory, a rival company owned by the Dustin family.[1]

In 1962, Griffin was purchased by Nabisco.[1][7] Griffin bought confectionery manufacturer Sweetacres in 1971. The company also added British Huntley & Palmers' crackers to its brand portfolio, and two years later Griffin acquired "Eta Foods" including its range of snacks and potato chips brands.[1] The Nelson factory was closed by Nabisco in 1988, with the loss of 137 jobs, most of them women's. The former factory was then demolished.[2] In 1989 Griffin's acquired biscuit company Hudsons, taking on the copyright for the famous Hudson's icon Cookie Bear. When Nabisco was effectively broken up, Griffin's was acquired by Britannia Foods in 1990,[1] but in December of the same year Danone bought it from Britannia Foods.[8]

In 2006 Danone divested Griffin's to Pacific Equity Partners.[9] One year later, Griffin's acquired the "Nice & Natural Wrapped Snacks" company to become the leader snack food manufacturer in New Zealand.[1]

The Lower Hutt plant closed in 2008 with the loss of 200 jobs,[10] with all production transferred to the Auckland sites. In 2009 Griffin's moved the production of its cream filled biscuits, which account for 2.5% of production, to Fiji.[11]

In July 2014, Pacific Equity Partners divested of Griffin's Foods, selling the operations to Philippine company Universal Robina for NZ$700 million.[12][3] In October 2015, Universal Robina announced they were expanding the Griffin's brand to the Southeast Asian market starting with the Philippines.

In December 2019, Universal Robina and German company Intersnack formed Unisnack ANZ, a joint venture comprising Griffin's and Snack Brands Australia. Intersnack held a 40% stake in the consolidated business.[13][14] In August 2021, Universal Robina exited the Australian and New Zealand market by selling its remaining 60% stake in Unisnack ANZ to Intersnack.[15]

Products

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The company's food range comprises:

Brand Products
Griffin's Cookies, chocolate confection, crackers, muesli bars
Eta Potato chips, nachos, cheese puffs
Nice & Natural Muesli bars, protein bars [16]
Huntley & Palmers [note 1] Crackers
Kettle Potato chips

Biscuits

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See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ a b Under license
  2. ^ A joint venture between Universal Robina and Intersnack
  3. ^ Part of JG Summit Holdings

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Celebrating 150 Years of Griffin’s, timeline on Scoop website
  2. ^ a b Griffin's Factory in Nelson on The Prow.org.nz
  3. ^ a b Biscuit maker Griffin's sold for $700m on Stuff NZ, 22 July 2014
  4. ^ "Australia's PEP set to tap buyers for Griffin's Foods". Reuters. 22 September 2011. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  5. ^ a b c d e JOURNAL OF THE NELSON AND MARLBOROUGH HISTORICAL SOCIETIES, VOLUME 2, ISSUE 6, 1995
  6. ^ a b "About Griffin's | Griffin's". Archived from the original on 2 September 2008. Retrieved 31 August 2008.
  7. ^ Company information [permanent dead link‍]
  8. ^ "Big players call tune". The New Zealand Herald. 9 January 1999. Retrieved 2 October 2011.
  9. ^ "Pacific Equity buys Griffin's Foods". The Age. Melbourne. 1 April 2006.
  10. ^ "200 jobs set to go as cookie factory crumbles". The New Zealand Herald. NZPA. 16 November 2007. Retrieved 2 October 2011.
  11. ^ Griffin's moves biscuits to Fiji
  12. ^ Australasian food rush continues with PEP selling New Zealand firm to Philippines' Universal on Reuters, 21 July 2014
  13. ^ "URC sells stake in snacks joint venture to partner Intersnack". BusinessWorld Online. 30 July 2021. Retrieved 5 January 2023.
  14. ^ Berry, Kim (17 July 2019). "Snack Brands Aust owner and Intersnack Group deal". Food & Drink Business. Retrieved 5 January 2023.
  15. ^ Burgos, Jonathan (2 August 2021). "Philippine Gokongwei Group Exits Australia, New Zealand Snack Foods Business". Forbes. Retrieved 5 January 2023.
  16. ^ Ward, Stephen (3 March 2007). "Griffins tipped to gobble up more". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 2 October 2011.
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