Page 22 - Food & Drink magazine June 2021

BAKERY BUSINESS
Baking a new business
As one of Australia’s most iconic brands, Arnott’s, embarks on building a whole new business unit, Kim Berry catches up with some of the team to find out how a heritage brand maintains currency and drives growth.
THE Arnott’s Group portfolio of brands continues a 155-year legacy of the Arnott family.
It is headquartered in Sydney with operations in New Zealand and bakeries in Sydney,
Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Indonesia
and Auckland. Around 3500
people work for the
company.
In addition to Arnott’s products, the brand also includes Campbell’s in Australia, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Japan, and 180degrees based in New Zealand.
It recently purchased the majority stake in Diver Foods and the cereals and snacks division of Freedom Foods, which have combined to form a new business unit, Good Food Partners. More on this later.
HERITAGE FAVOURITES
The constant challenge for a heritage brand is to not get left in the past in the eyes of consumers. Arnott’s chief marketing officer, Jenni Dill, says the mindset is about acknowledging a rich, 150-year history while focusing on building a strong brand for the next 150 years.
“We’ve had to adapt to find effective and relevant ways to communicate about our Arnott’s masterbrand to consumers, reigniting our loyal customers, while bringing new generations into our portfolio,” Dill says.
Over the past few years, Arnott’s has focused on dialling up its “locally made” message, reminding consumers that their favourite bickies are baked in one of three bakeries across the country with Australian- made ingredients.
Dill says there are always new flavours and biscuits in the innovation pipeline – the latest launch being a collaboration with Krispy Kreme on five new flavours of teeVee snacks – but she can’t give away too many secrets.
“We’re looking to release a ‘free from’ range soon, so watch this space,” she says.
TIME TO GROW
In November, The Arnott’s Group acquired Freedom Foods Group’s Cereals and Snacks business for $20 million.
Since then, it has bought a 75 per cent stake in snack foods and cereal specialist, Melbourne-based Diver Foods, and the New Zealand premium cracker company 180degrees.
Arnott’s Group head of transformation Simon Lowden says the acquisitions were
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