Hoadley's Chocolates — BrandWiki

Hoadley's Chocolates

Overview

Hoadley's

type	Private (1913–72)
industry	Food
fate	Acquired by Rowntree Mackintosh Confectionery in 1972, merged to it
founded	1913
founder	Abel Hoadley
defunct	1972
hq location country	Australia
products	Chocolate bars
brands	Polly Waffle Violet Crumble

Hoadley's Chocolates was an Australian confectionery company founded in 1913 famous for the Polly Waffle and Violet Crumble chocolate bars. The company was bought by Rowntree Mackintosh Confectionery in 1972, which was acquired by Nestlé in 1988.

History

Origin

Hoadley's Chocolates had its origin in A. Hoadley and Company, a jam company founded in South Melbourne in 1889 by English businessman Abel Hoadley. The company originally manufactured jams, but expanded its range to include preserved fruits, candied fruits and peels, and sauces using fruit from Hoadley's orchards at nearby Burwood. In 1895, Hoadley opened the Rising Sun Preserving Works in St Kilda Road, and by 1901 had four preserving factories.[1]

To overcome the seasonal nature associated with his fruit products, Hoadley diversified, and in 1901 or 1902 bought the former factory of Dillon, Burrows & Co. near

Marketing strategies

From the 1930s, Hoadley's used a number of imaginative marketing strategies and alternate distribution channels to increase their sales.

Chocolate boxes

In the 1950s Hoadley's began the manufacture of elaborate hard plastic chocolate boxes featuring embossed designs, sold with their Violet Chocolate Assortment. The original theme was a pale purple colour featuring a wave-like sculptured lid and a gold ribbon embedded with violets on its upper left.[16] Later designs included a rose theme (available in multiple colours) and an Oriental theme which was marketed as 'Pagoda Chocolates'.[17] These boxes are now sought after by collectors and may be found at auctions and auction sites.

Collectable cards

During the 1930s and 1940s a number of Hoadley's products came with collectable cards. Collection series included:

Depending on the series and year of printing, sets had between 50 and 100 cards. These cards are now sought after by collectors and may be found at auctions, auction sites and trading card dealers.[18]

Empire Games and Test Teams (cricket)
Victorian Football League players.
Victorian football "action" series
the Wild West

Radio broadcasts

In 1956 to promote their new Clancy Bar, Hoadley's Chocolates commissioned the reading of the Banjo Paterson poem Clancy of the Overflow (from which the chocolate bar was named) across a number of radio stations across the country (possibly in the evenings of Monday 20 to Wednesday 22 August). Radio stations that participated in this event included:[19]

2HD Newcastle
2KA Katoomba
2UW Sydney
3UZ Melbourne
4BC Brisbane
4SB Kingaroy
5AU Port Augusta
5KA Adelaide
5RM Renmark
6PM Perth
7HO Hobart

Showbags

As well as being sold in shops, Hoadley's products wee also available in showbags at annual Australian shows such as Brisbane's Ekka and Sydney's Royal Easter Show. These included:[20]

The contents of these showbags varied over the years.

Bertie Beetle showbag: following the success of the introduction of the Bertie Beetle the product gained its own showbag in 1965, mostly containing a number of Bertie Beetle chocolates and was traditionally the cheapest showbag on sale at the shows.
Hoadley's Chocolate showbag (later the Violet Crumble showbag): contained an assortment of Hoadley's products including one or more Polly Waffles, Violet Crumbles and White Knights. When Hoadley's first began producing Bertie Beetle in 1963, it first appeared in this showbag at the Sydney Royal Easter Show of that year.
Lady Beetle showbag: following the success of the Bertie Beetle showbag, a similar bag featuring the Lady Beetle (a white chocolate version of Bertie Beetle) was launched in the 1970s. It did not prove as successful and was later withdrawn from sale, possibly before the Nestlé takeover.

Sponsorships

In 1966 Hoadley's Chocolates began sponsoring Hoadley's Battle of the Sounds, an annual contest for unsigned music bands which began the previous year. Hoadley's sponsorship of the contest continued until the company's buy-out by Rowntree's in 1972.

Factory locations

Hoadley's Chocolates had factories and other major premises in the following cities:

Melbourne: Hoadley's original confectionery factory was the former premises of Dillon Burrows & Co. located on the south bank of the Yarra River near Princes Bridge, to the west of St Kilda Road. The factory was demolished around 1983 for the construction of Southbank, with production transferred to the Rowntree Hoadley factory at Campbellfield in the northern suburbs, which was extended in 1977 to cater for increased product lines. The factory is still in operation under Nestlé's ownership.[21][22]
Adelaide: in the post-war years (exact date unknown) Hoadley's opened a large factory in Carrington Street (on or near the corner of Surflen Street) in Adelaide and transferred production of the Violet Crumble from their South Melbourne factory. Following Rowntree's buy-out in 1972 this factory was extensively utilised for Rowntree-Hoadley's expanded product line, especially for many non-chocolate products. In the 1980s production at this factory began scaling back as the company consolidated operations in Melbourne, which lead to large-scale workforce redundancies. By the time of the Nestlé takeover in 1988, all operations had ceased and the plant had closed. While Nestlé still maintains a manufacturing presence in Adelaide, it is not in the same premises.[23][24]
Sydney: a large factory and distribution centre was constructed at Rosebery in South Sydney in the post-war years. Following Rowntree's buy-out in 1972, production was subsequently scaled back and transferred to Rowntree-Hoadley factories in other cities, eventually leaving only the distribution centre before all operations ceased in the late 1970s. In 1981, the derelict premises were destroyed in a major fire.[25] Another factory existing in Annandale in Sydney's inner west, opened c1962 by the company's managing Director Gordon Hoadley. It is believed to have closed in the 1970s when operations were consolidated after the company was bought out by Rowntree's and production transferred to Melbourne.[26]

Later issues

Consumer backlash

Following Nestlé's takeover of Rowntree Hoadley Ltd in 1988, many of the original Hoadley's products were subsequently withdrawn from sale creating backlash from the Australian public. Campaigns were often started by consumer groups pressuring Nestle to re-introduce the discontinued products.[13]

In the early-mid 2000s, Nestlé withdrew the Bertie Beetle Showbag from sale at annual shows, citing production costs as the product was now manufactured in New Zealand and shipped to Australia. A public campaign was started pressuring Nestlé to bring back the showbag, which was a crowd favourite. In 2007 Nestlé relented and the showbag was again available, first reappearing in that year's Sydney Royal Easter Show.[27] In 2006 the price of the showbag, traditionally $2, was raised to $3, resulting in public backlash. In 2007 the showbag returned to its previous price and has remained at $2 since.[28]

In mid-2009, Nestlé introduced a new recipe for the Polly Waffle along with new packaging. The new product was the same appearance as the older one, but contained a more sugary and brittle wafer and was not popular with the buying public. After 62 years production Nestlé discontinued the Polly Waffle on 23 November 2009 citing poor sales. In 2019 Nestlé signed a deal with the South Australian confectioner Robern Menz (who previously bought the rights to Violet Crumble from Nestlé in 2018) for production to resume at that company's factory in Adelaide, partly financed with federal government funding. Production is slated to recommence in 2023.[29]

In 2010 Nestlé discontinued production of "fun size" packets of Violet Crumble citing production costs. Despite calls from the public to re-introduce these bags, Nestlé refused. In 2019, after the rights to the product were purchased by and production was transferred to Robern Menz, the bags reappeared in supermarkets. In 2020 the company launched new flavours, including caramel.[30]

In 2014 Nestlé signed a deal that resulted in White Knight bars only being available from the major supermarkets Coles and Woolworths, along with a few small confectionery shops. Previously sold at a lower price reflecting the bar's smaller size (25g), the two supermarkets soon raised the product's price to match that of larger chocolate bars (typically weighing 50g-80g). In spite of public complaints, Nestlé refused to intervene (nor make the product available for sale through other retailers) and sales subsequently fell. In 2016, Nestlé discontinued production of the White Knight, citing poor sales.[31]

Production stoppages

At the peak of its operations the company was the biggest customer in Victoria for sugar produced by CSR, the Colonial Sugar Refining company. In 1988 Rowntree Hoadley temporarily ceased production after running out of sugar after a strike by CSR workers, and stood down around 700 members of its workforce.[32]

Rosebery fire

On the afternoon of 3 October 1981 a major fire broke out at the Rowntree-Hoadley factory in Rosebery, Sydney. The factory, which had already ceased operations and demolition work begun, was completely destroyed by the blaze, which was not extinguished until the following morning.[25]

Hoadley's Chocolates

History

Origin

Expansion

New ownership

Products

Confectionery

Other consumables