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Cadbury Limited : Records

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Reference NumberARC-0977Date1873-2020CreatorCadbury LimitedDescriptionThe collection Includes directors' minutes, a small quantity staff records, shareholder records, other financial records, records relating to buildings and factory plant, records relating to Hudson Cookie Bear, visitors books, Social Club records, publications, and other records. Extensive photographic records mostly relate to chocolate and biscuit products and packaging, displays, merchandising, staff, and the Dunedin factory. Film and other audiovisual material relates mostly to advertising and staff training. The collection does not include corporate correspondence, apart from isolated examples.
Only a small part of the collection is digitised and available through Digital Collections. Information about other items can be found on the Hākena catalogue, through the Library Catalogues link above.
History / BiographyRichard Hudson established a wholesale biscuit manufacturing business in Dunedin in 1868, on a site off Princes Street, about where no. 178 (Great Wall Takeaways) is today. In 1871 a new factory was built on the south side of lower Dowling Street. By this time R. Hudson & Co. boasted a range of ‘celebrated machine-made biscuits, confectionery, cakes etc.’

Hudson purchased the old Masonic Hall in Moray Place in 1873 and converted it to factory purposes. In 1885 Hudson imported equipment for the manufacture of cocoa and chocolate. R. Hudson & Co. became a limited liability company in 1899. The factory again moved in 1901, to the familiar site between Cumberland and Castle streets.

Cadbury Bros was founded in Birmingham, England, in 1824, and established a subsidiary business in Wellington in 1890. The parent company merged with J.S. Fry & Sons in 1919, and the following year its New Zealand operation became Cadbury & Fry’s (NZ). In 1930, Cadbury purchased a controlling interest in R. Hudson & Co. resulting in the formation of Cadbury Fry Hudson Ltd (CFH). Chocolate and cocoa products were mostly sold under the Cadbury brand, with biscuits and some confectionery marketed under the Hudson name. An additional biscuit manufacturing plant opened in Papakura, Auckland, in 1965.

In 1969, Cadbury Group (UK) merged with Schweppes Ltd to form Cadbury Schweppes PLC. This led to CFH becoming Cadbury Schweppes Hudson Ltd (CSH), effective from January 1973. In 1990, CSH transferred its Hudson biscuit business and Papakura factory to Britannia Foods, in exchange for that company’s Griffin’s confectionery business and Avondale factory. This saw the departure of longstanding products such as Shrewsbury, Chocolate Chippies and Toffee Pops, as well as the familiar Hudson Cookie Bear, which had been a brand mascot since the early 1970s.

CSH dissolved in 1991 and its assets were transferred to the newly incorporated entity Cadbury Confectionery Ltd. As part of the Britannia Foods deal, Cadbury gave up its rights to sell products under the Hudson name. It chose to apply the Pascall brand to the former Griffin’s confectionery lines. The Pascall name derived from the confectionery business of James Pascall Ltd. Established in London in 1866, Pascall had entered into a joint partnership with Cadbury in Australia in 1921, and CFH took on a license to make Pascall products in the 1930s. The UK company merged with R.S. Murray in 1959 and Pascall-Murray was sold to Cadbury in 1964. Other brands manufactured by Cadbury Confectionery included the Red Tulip and Van Camp chocolate ranges.

The Head Office moved to Auckland in 1996 but manufacturing continued in Dunedin. A Cadbury World tourist attraction opened in 2003. The Avondale factory closed in 2009 and production consolidated on the southern site, now under the name Cadbury Ltd. In 2010, Kraft Foods Inc. acquired Cadbury business worldwide. It became part of Kraft’s global snacks business, which was split out as Mondelez International in 2012. The Dunedin factory closed in March 2018, ending Cadbury production in Aotearoa, and resulting in the loss of more than 350 jobs. Production shifted to Australia. The government purchased the Cumberland Street property as a site for the inpatient block of the new public hospital. The old factory was demolished between 2020 and 2022, with the exception of the ‘old dairy’ buildings on the southern boundary of the site.

Photograph

Hudson Chocolate Chippies, Shortbread, and Hokey Pokey biscuits

Hudson Robbie Burns Shortcake Biscuits [wrapper]

Hudson Chocolate Chippies [wrapper]

Hudsons Chocolate Chippies [wrapper]

Hudson Chocolate Chippies [wrapper]

Hudson Shrewsbury, Chocolate Chippies, and Toffee Pops

Hudson Chocolate Chippies

Hudson Cookie Bear

'Cookie Bear Flyer' float at the Oval, Dunedin

Cadbury Hudson 'Pack 'em back to school' competition'

Hudson Cookie Bear sitting at a desk

Hudson Cookie Bear in Rarotonga

'War' window display advertising Cadbury products at Hayman Brothers, Octagon

Display for Honeycomb and other Cadbury's chocolate at St Heliers

Display for Honeycomb and other Cadbury's chocolate

Display for Cadbury's King George Chocolates and Prince of Wales Assortment

Display for Honeycomb and other Cadbury's chocolate

Archival Text

Hudsons Chocolate Chippies

Hudsons Chocolate Chippies, 'Home-style!'

Hudsons Chocolate Chippies

Hudsons Biscuits, new biscuit packs [sales aid]

Hudson 'Surf into Summer' [sales aid]

Cadbury Y2K Bug

'Cadbury Schweppes Hudson Limited: Fine Biscuits from New Zealand' [brochure]

'Cadbury creme eggs: A quite surprising egg' [sales aid]

'Hudson Biscuits from New Zealand' [brochure]

Cadbury's Show and Sell display stand

Toffee Pops

Cadbury & Hudson Chocolate Sultana Pasties, Chocolate Oat Wafers

Cadbury & Hudson Chocolate Roughs, Top 5

Cadbury & Hudson Dairy Milk Wafers, Mint Wafers, Orange Wafers, Chocolate Fingers

Cadbury & Hudson Chocolate Caramalt, Chocolate Rings, Ripple Slims

Cadbury & Hudson Chocolate Wafers

Cadbury & Hudson Chocolate Toppers, Chocolate Slim Jims

Cadbury & Hudson Chocolate Wheaten, Afghans, Chocolate Caracrunch

Hudsons Things and Fiddle Sticks

Hudsons 'Cream Sandwich Biscuits': Shrewsbury, Belgian Biscuits, Vanilla Creams

Hudsons Wild Strawberry, Apricot Creams, French Vanilla

Newbury's Rusks

Hudsons Chocolate Chippies, Shortbread

Ephemera

Application form, 'The Hudson Cookie Bear Offer'

Invitation for 'Fork Dinner' at La Scala restaurant marking 100 years of business by R. Hudson & Co. and Cadbury Fry Hudson Ltd

Social Club News: Soccer Match Fun Game

Cadbury's Project Chart

Girl Guide Biscuit Week [poster]

Hudsons Nut Milk Chocolate [label]

Hudsons All Nut Assortment [label]

Cadbury Fruit & Nut Chocolate [wrapper]

D.I.C. Junior League [label]

Hudsons Water Biscuits [label]

Hudsons Marquis Chocolate [label]

Cadbury's Dairy Milk Chocolate [wrapper]

Cadbury's Tray Chocolates [wrapper]

Cadbury's Turkish Delight [label]

Hudsons Milk Chocolate Bars [label]

Newbury's Rusks for Children and Invalids [label]

Newbury's Rusks [label]

Hudsons 1d. Milk Chocolate Bars [label]

Hudsons Curiously Strong Peppermints [sign]

Prize Reduction 14 Varieties Cadbury's 1/2 lb. Blocks [sign]

Hudsons Abernethy Biscuits [label]

Hudsons Empire Assorted Biscuits [label]

Video

Cadbury & Hudson Chocolate Sultana Pasties

Cadbury's Booty

Cadbury's Continental new floral boxes for Christmas

Cadburys 'Highest Order' Contest

Cadbury & Hudson Chocolate Sultana Pasties ('It's all in the big blue H')

Hudsons Shortbread ('It's all in the big blue H')

Cadbury's Moro (with Ray Henwood)

Cadbury's Booty

Hudsons Shortbread ('It's all in the big blue H')

Chocolate waterfall at Cadbury World MS-5400/0882/001

Depicts Or Relates To

NamesCadbury LimitedCadbury Confectionery LimitedCadbury Schweppes Hudson LimitedCadbury Fry Hudson LimitedR. Hudson and CompanySubjectsBusiness enterprises - DunedinChocolateBiscuitsConfectioneryManufacturing industriesFood industry and trade

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Cadbury Limited : Records

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