Dark chocolate
There’s bitterness in the air at the Cadbury factory, mingling with the lingering scent of chocolate, writes Hamish McNeilly.
Campbell McPhee still loves chocolate after decades working in Cadbury’s Dunedin factory, but he won’t be buying Cadbury products again.
The last ever product made at Cadbury’s Dunedin-based factory, Pineapple Lumps, rolled off the production line on Friday evening, and the factory doors are due to close on Thursday.
That was likely to produce a lump in the throat of McPhee, who has worked 33 years in the factory, most recently as frontline leader of the chocolate-making department.
With his redundancy money he planned to take a holiday to Fiji with some co-workers before returning to Dunedin to consider his future.
Chocolate-making in Dunedin goes back to 1884. At its peak, the factory employed about 360 workers, but only a few dozen remain on-site.
‘‘It’s all emptying out, it is the end of an era,’’ McPhee said.
He met his partner at the factory, his two children once worked there as did his mother, brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews.
The familiar smell of chocolate still lingers in the air around the factory.
It is a smell and taste McPhee and other workers never tired of.
But one thing is certain, this self-confessed chocolate lover won’t be buying Cadbury products again.
Teresa Gooch and Bora McLay have worked 17 years and 18 years respectively at the Dunedin site, and they both planned to take a holiday before reassessing their future.
Gooch was saddened by the closure and would miss her colleagues, who were like family.
‘‘We are going through a lot of different emotions,’’ she said.
During their time they had seen increasing automation, new products, the scandal over the use of palm oil, the rise and fall of Cadbury as one of the country’s most trusted brands, and the hostile takeover by Mondelez.
‘‘We have been very loyal,’’ McLay said.
The once bustling factory was now ‘‘ghost-like’’, Phil Knight, E tu¯ industry coordinator said.
The biggest positive about the closure was that consumers were now reassessing the brands they supported, he said.
‘‘We need to think broadly about the value of overseas investment if it is not done wisely and with a long-term commitment to New Zealand.’’
Owner Mondelez International – an offshoot of the giant American company Kraft – took control of Cadbury after a hostile takeover launched in 2009.
That same year, Cadbury closed its Auckland plant, moving all New Zealand production to Dunedin.
In recent years the company had invested an estimated $80 million into the Dunedin site. Although it was profitable, it was just one of several Mondelez factories to close. Others targeted were in Montreal, Dublin, Chicago and Philadelphia.
Some 70 per cent of the goods produced in Dunedin were exported, mainly to Australia.
In 2006 the Government’s Strategic Investment Fund provided funding of $2m for Cadbury’s crumb research and development facility, in partnership with the University of Otago.
Mondelez is investing $7m to revamp the Cadbury World visitor centre. But that was little consolation to McPhee, Gooch and McLay.
McLay said visitors had asked her why there was a tourist attraction next to a soon-to-beclosed factory.
Site manager Judith Mair said calls to boycott Cadbury products had not affected sales.
Staff had experienced a range of emotions but remained professional during their final shifts.
Of those who had left, some 90 per cent had new jobs, retired, or were taking a break from work, she said.
Dunedin North MP David Clark declined to comment on the closure, despite being vocal about the issue while in Opposition.