A chain of health food factories, wholesale branches, and retail shops in Australia and New Zealand, operated by the Health Food Department of the South Pacific Division, under a board of directors. Headquarters for the firm are at 146 Fox Valley Road, Wahroonga, New South Wales, 2076, Australia.
Products include Weet-Bix, a flaked-wheat breakfast-food biscuit; cornflakes, and other cereal foods; Marmite, a yeast-extract flavoring; peanut butter; vegetarian meats and textured vegetable protein; and So Good, a nondairy soy milk.
In 1993 the company was operating 11 factories in Australia and New Zealand and seven large wholesale branches. Until 1988 the company operated a chain of retail shops and four cafés scattered in the main cities of the two countries, but because of changing market conditions and declining viability, these were closed or sold. Total net worth was approximately $195 million. Approximately 1,500 workers were employed, and the company’s products were stocked throughout the grocery trade in Australia and New Zealand. A growing export trade was also being developed, principal markets being in the South Pacific, most Far Eastern and Middle Eastern countries, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Canada, and the United States.
The gross annual revenue sales were $197 million in 1993. The company contributed an amount equal to 48.5 percent of its annual budget to the South Pacific Division. In addition, nearly half of the general administrative expenses of the division are met by the company as operational costs.
History. The motivating influence leading to the establishment of health food work in Australasia is found in an address given by Ellen White at the Brighton, Victoria, camp meeting in 1894. She spoke of different aspects of the work, and urged the leaders to move forward along medical lines, including manufacturing of health foods and establishing vegetarian restaurants. In response the Australasian Union Conference on Oct. 31, 1895, “Resolved that the Executive Committee be urged to take steps to commence such work in the various large cities of these Colonies by the establishment of both houses and depots for the supply of Health Foods, Sanitary Clothing, etc. as the way may open” (Minutes, p. 30).
In 1897 a consignment of granose, granola, oatmeal, and wheatmeal biscuits arrived from Battle Creek, Michigan. A small factory was rented in Northcote, Melbourne, where the production of granola, caramel cereal, and peanut butter was begun. The firm, registered Apr. 27, 1898, was first known as the Sanitas Supply Company and then as the Sanitarium Health Food Agency. Processing was done under the direction of E. C. Halsey, from Battle Creek.
The results of the Melbourne enterprise were not satisfactory, and Ellen White counseled that the factory be moved to Cooranbong to be operated in conjunction with the Avondale School for Christian Workers (now Avondale College), to which the managing committee agreed. Present at the meeting when the decision to move was made were A. G. Daniells, S. N. Haskell, W. C. White, E. R. Palmer, G. W. Morse, and G. B. Starr. At this time the firm’s present name was adopted. Operations at Cooranbong began in May 1899.
Mrs. White, who was residing in Australia at the time, began giving important counsels in support of health food work and shared in many of the major decisions relative to the development of the business after receiving guidance on the matter in December 1897. At first all sales of health foods were made through conference tract societies, but a retail shop was opened in Sydney in 1902 in association with the first vegetarian restaurant. However, the business was not financially successful, and by 1904, when the whole health food enterprise was heavily in debt, many of the denominational leaders favored closing it. At this stage G. S. Fisher, of the Echo Publishing Company (now Signs Publishing Company), Melbourne, was invited to lead the health food work, a responsibility he discharged until 1920, when he became manager of the Avondale Industries. Success was achieved, and in 1906 the first donation by the food company for island mission work was made. The sum of £25, contributed by the Sydney Shop and Cafe, was the beginning of the great stream of financial help that has been an important factor in the program of the South Pacific Division.
Between 1907 and 1913 shops and cafés were opened in Melbourne, Brisbane, and Adelaide, followed later by branches in Hobart and Perth. The manufacturing and wholesale sections of the business expanded rapidly in the period 1920–1940, during which new buildings and plants were provided to cope with the rising demand for the products. In 1928 the company began to sell directly to retail grocery stores, bypassing the wholesale merchants. Despite predictions of disaster, this move proved highly successful and is a milestone in the company’s history.
Two competing businesses were acquired in 1928 and 1929, respectively—Grain Products manufacturers of Weet-Bix, and the Cerix Company, manufacturers of puffed cereals. These acquisitions widened and strengthened the company’s activities.
The development of the health food work in New Zealand paralleled that in Australia. Manufacturing began at Christchurch in 1901 in a small plant operated by E. C. Halsey, who had been transferred from Australia. Shops and cafés were opened in the main cities, and in 1920 a new factory was built in Christchurch under the management of A. J. Dyason. This was the beginning of an era of rapid growth, which has since continued. The Auckland and Christchurch factories of Grain Products, Ltd., were acquired in 1930. A third factory, in Palmerston North, began operation in 1952.
From the time that the health food work first gained departmental status, the following have occupied the position of health food department secretary (later being also the general manager or managing director): G. S. Fisher, 1918–1920; J. H. Camp, 1920–1922; W. O. Johanson, 1922–1926; G. T. Chapman, 1926–1936; G. E. Adair, 1936–1941; C.F.L. Ulrich, 1941–1943; A. W. Dawson, 1943–1946; B. O. Johanson, 1946–1962; W. L. Kilroy, 1962–1970; F. C. Craig, 1970–1982; D. C. Myers, 1982–1986; E. W. Grosser, 1986– .