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 Arnott's Distribution Centre in Huntingwood, Sydney | |
| Formerly |
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|---|---|
| Company type | Subsidiary |
| Industry | Biscuits Snack food |
| Founded | 1865 |
| Headquarters | North Strathfield, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Products | |
| Revenue | A$1.04 billion (2018) |
| Parent | KKR |
| Website | arnotts |
Arnott's Group is an Australian producer of biscuits and snack food. [1] Founded in 1865 by William Arnott, they are the largest producer of biscuits in Australia and a subsidiary of KKR. [2]
In 1847, Scottish immigrant William Arnott opened a bakery in Morpeth, New South Wales. [3] [ circular reporting? ] Later in 1865 he moved to a bakery on Hunter Street, Newcastle, providing bread, pies and biscuits for the townspeople and the ships docking at the local port. [4] Until 1975 the company was under family control with the descendants of William Arnott, including Halse Rogers Arnott and Geoffrey H. Arnott, acting as Chairman.
Arnott's, in common with the majority of Australian biscuit manufacturers, operated primarily in its home state, New South Wales, but has manufacturing plants in Virginia, Queensland (manufactures only plain, cream and savoury biscuits) and Shepparton, Victoria.[ citation needed ] In 1949 it merged with Morrows Pty Ltd, a Brisbane biscuit manufacturer, forming William Arnotts, Morrow Pty Ltd. [5] In the 1960s, a series of amalgamations and acquisitions in the Australian market resulted in the creation of the Australian Biscuit Company Pty Ltd. [6] This included Arnotts and other companies such as Brockhoff Biscuits, [7] Arnott-Motteram [8] and Menz [9] in South Australia, Guest's Biscuits [10] in Victoria, and Mills and Ware in Western Australia. [11] The Australian Biscuit Company was later renamed Arnott's Biscuits Pty Ltd.
In 1997, Arnott's Biscuits was subject to an extortion bid by Queenslander Joy Ellen Thomas, aged 72 years, [12] who allegedly threatened to poison packets of Arnott's Monte Carlo biscuits in South Australia and Victoria. The company conducted a massive recall and publicity campaign, publishing the extortionist's threats and demands in full-page newspaper ads. [13] However, Ms. Thomas was not charged with any offence as the prosecution dropped the case against her because of conflicting evidence. [13] The recall cost the company A$22 million, but Arnott's was praised for its openness and honesty in dealing with the crisis. [14]
In 1997, the Campbell Soup Company of North America, a shareholder of Arnott's since the 1980s, acquired Arnott's in full. Thus, in 1997, Arnott's Biscuits Ltd became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Campbell Soup Company. [15] This caused a significant amount of controversy in Australia, based on the desire for such an Australian icon to remain in Australian hands, and a fear that Campbell's would Americanise the products. [16]
Manufacturing of Arnott's biscuits, however, remained in Australia, and as part of a long-term expansion plan, Arnott's closed its Melbourne factory in September 2002. [17] At the same time, it expanded its facilities in Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane. [18]
In 2002, Arnott's acquired Snack Foods Limited. [19] In April 2008, Campbell Arnott's sold Arnott's Snackfoods to The Real McCoy Snackfood Co. and the company became known as Snack Brands Australia. [20]
In July 2019, Campbell Soup Company agreed to sell Arnott's to KKR for $US2.2 billion. [21] [22] Just weeks after the sale, Arnott's was in a public dispute with Woolworths Supermarkets, which reportedly wanted to charge higher prices for marketing displays. Sources said the dispute had begun in May before agreement was reached for the sale of Arnott's to KKR. [23] In August 2020, the company was renamed Arnott's Group. [24]
In December 2020, Arnott's announced it would acquire the cereal and snack company Freedom Foods Group for A$20 million. [25] In February 2021, Arnott's acquired a 75 per cent stake in Diver Foods. Arnott's established the Good Food Partners division to manage operations from the two acquisitions. [26] In May 2021, Arnott's acquired the New Zealand cracker company 180degrees. [27]
In June 2023, Arnott's opened a new factory in Avondale, New Zealand. It marked the company's return to manufacturing in the country after a 25-year absence. [28] In August 2023, Arnott's opened a 43,000sqm automated distribution centre at its Huntingwood site. [29]
Arnott's are well known in Australia and internationally for producing several quintessentially Australian biscuits. Some of their major products include:
A cookie or biscuit is a baked snack or dessert that is typically small, flat, and sweet. It usually contains flour, sugar, egg, and some type of oil, fat, or butter. It may include other ingredients such as raisins, oats, chocolate chips, or nuts.
Chocolate-coated marshmallow treats, also known as chocolate teacakes, are confections consisting of a biscuit base topped with marshmallow-like filling and then coated in a hard shell of chocolate. They were invented in Denmark in the 19th century under the name Flødeboller, and later also produced and distributed by Viau in Montreal as early as 1901. Numerous varieties exist, with regional variations in recipes. Some variants of these confections have previously been known in many countries by names comprising equivalents of the English word negro.
A biscuit, in many English-speaking countries, including Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, India, and South Africa but not Canada or the US, is a flour-based baked and shaped food item. Biscuits are typically hard, flat, and unleavened. They are usually sweet and may be made with sugar, chocolate, icing, jam, ginger, or cinnamon. They can also be savoury, similar to crackers. Types of biscuit include biscotti, sandwich biscuits, digestive biscuits, ginger biscuits, shortbread biscuits, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate-coated marshmallow treats, Anzac biscuits, and speculaas.
Pocky is a Japanese sweet snack food produced by the Ezaki Glico food company. Pocky was first sold in 1966, and was invented by Yoshiaki Koma. It consists of coated biscuit sticks. It was named after the Japanese onomatopoeic word pokkiri (ポッキリ), which is supposed to resemble the sound of the snack being cracked.
An ice cream sandwich is a frozen dessert consisting of ice cream between two biscuits, wafers, soft cookies, or other baked goods. The ingredients are different around the world, with Ireland using wafers and the United States commonly using cookies.
Maxibon is a brand of ice cream sandwich made by Froneri, and also previously owned by the Swiss company Nestlé. It consists of a block of frozen dairy dessert containing small chocolate chips with one end covered in chocolate, and the other sandwiched between two biscuits.
Kuih are bite-sized snack or dessert foods commonly found in Southeast Asia and China. It is a fairly broad term which may include items that would be called cakes, cookies, dumplings, pudding, biscuits, or pastries in English and are usually made from rice or glutinous rice. In China, where the term originates from, kueh or koé (粿) in the Min Nan languages refers to snacks which are typically made from rice but can occasionally be made from other grains such as wheat. The term kuih is widely used in Malaysia, Brunei, and Singapore, kueh is used in Singapore and Indonesia, kue is used in Indonesia only, all three refer to sweet or savoury desserts.
A Cadbury Snack is a shortcake biscuit square or two biscuits with chocolate filling, covered with milk chocolate.
Kue is an Indonesian bite-sized snack or dessert food. Kue is a fairly broad term in Indonesian to describe a wide variety of snacks including cakes, cookies, fritters, pies, scones, and patisserie. Kue are made from a variety of ingredients in various forms; some are steamed, fried or baked. They are popular snacks in Indonesia, which has the largest variety of kue. Because of the countries' historical colonial ties, Koeé (kue) is also popular in the Netherlands.
Tim Tam is a brand of chocolate biscuit introduced by the Australian biscuit company Arnott's in 1964. It consists of two malted biscuits separated by a light hard chocolate cream filling and coated in a thin layer of textured chocolate.
A polvorón is a type of heavy, soft, and very crumbly Spanish shortbread made of flour, sugar, milk, and nuts. They are mostly produced in Andalusia, where there are about 70 factories that are part of a syndicate that produces polvorones and mantecados. Under the name mantecados, these sweets are a traditional preparation of other areas of the Iberian Peninsula and other Spanish-speaking countries as well.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to chocolate:
A sandwich cookie, also known as a sandwich biscuit, is a type of cookie made from two thin cookies or medium cookies with a filling between them. Many types of fillings are used, such as cream, ganache, buttercream, chocolate, cream cheese, jam, peanut butter, lemon curd, or ice cream.
Barquillo is a crispy rolled wafer pastry originating in Spain. It is made from the basic cookie ingredients of flour, sugar, egg whites and butter rolled out thinly and then shaped into a hollow cylinder or a cone. It was traditionally sold by roadside vendors known as barquilleros who carried a characteristic red roulette tin. It was introduced to Latin America and the Philippines during colonial times. In Spain and former Spanish colonies, barquillos are commonly regarded as a type of Christmas cookie. It is also popular during various fiestas. It spread to neighboring countries and today is extremely popular in East and Southeast Asian countries.
A snack is a small portion of food generally eaten between meals. A snack is often less than 200 calories, but this can vary. Snacks come in a variety of forms including packaged snack foods and other processed foods, as well as items made from fresh ingredients at home.
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