CEO Kurt Preshaw (Aug 2014–) Parent organization PepsiCo | Founded 1947 | |
 | ||
Profiles | ||
Bluebird Foods Ltd is a New Zealand division of the U.S. based PepsiCo corporation, that manufactures snack foods, cereals and muesli bars. All snacks are manufactured at the Bluebird Foods factory in Wiri, Auckland.
Contents
History
Originally part of Goodman Fielder, and then bought by Graeme Hart's Burns, Philp & Co, Bluebird Foods was purchased by snack-food and beverage giant PepsiCo for NZ$ 245m in July 2006. Prior to that, Burns Philp tried to sell Bluebird Foods to Nestlé with the Uncle Tobys sale. Nestlé was not interested and bought only the Uncle Tobys business. In October 2005 Bluebird Foods acquired Krispa and Aztec from Hansells NZ making it one of the largest snack food manufacturers in New Zealand. May 2006 saw Nestlé purchase the Uncle Tobys brand for NZ$1.1 billion. Bluebird Foods was able to use the Uncle Tobys brand until May 2007.
Later in 2008, the company starting using foil to wrap most of their chips instead of the soft plastic material previously used. The soft plastic material is still however used for corn snacks such as Twisties, Burger Rings and Rashuns.
Marketing
In 2009 Bluebird Foods teamed up with The Rock radio station and rebranded ‘The People's Chip’ campaign from Australia’s radio presenter duo Hamish & Andy. In Australia the chip flavour as voted for by listeners was gravy, while in New Zealand the flavour selected was marmite and cheese – a flavour already produced by Walkers in the UK who have the same parent company as Bluebird Foods.