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The History of the Unilever factory

(September 22nd 2013)
Report by Coralie Smith from notes by Jim Gibson

When James R Gibson (Jim Gibson) spoke at the September meeting of the Motueka and Districts Historical Association I was unable to attend so I was very pleased when Jim presented us with his talk and some photos of the factory that he managed for Unilever back in the 1960s to 1986 when it was closed down.

What surprised me was how long the factory had been there and the number of changes it had gone through from being a dehydration plant supplying American troops during WW2 to apple canning after the war which led into processing vegetables, especially peas. The first dried peas were developed at Motueka.

A change of ownership occurred in 1949 and the IMD (Internal Marketing Division) became the NZ Packing Corporation under the chairmanship of J R Butland. His son Jack ran the Motueka factory.

Quick freezing of peas and beans came in 1954, firstly in blocks then free flowing. During the first season of this process the Motueka plant had all three types of processing running side by side - canning, dehydration and quick-freezing.

The Unilever company operating under the Birdseye Foods name had been operating in Pukekohe since 1944 and through a series of mergers and business dealings a joint private company called NZ Foods Limited was formed in 1961 with Motueka part of this company.

Jim talks about the amounts of product being produced in Motueka in the next twenty odd years and it is huge. The variety of vegetables being processed is interesting too - cabbages, onions, carrots and potatoes.

Despite the many advantages of the operation being in Motueka, it all came to an end on 17 September 1986. Food processing had moved on. Fewer products were being processed but in bigger quantities. More land at cheaper prices was required, was one of the reasons given for closure. 65 seasonal jobs were lost and 21 permanent staff were offered work elsewhere.

So ended a 42 year history of food processing in Motueka under 4 different names.

There is one building still standing in the Motueka south area of High Street opposite the Rudolf Steiner School that was part of the Unilever history. I wonder if it echoes with the sounds of machinery and the characters who worked at the plant over the years.

Do you know which building this is? Come into the Research Room at the Motueka Museum on a Tuesday and tell us. You can read Jim Gibson's full talk there too and view other material and photos we have in our archives.

Unilever from the air.

 
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