| 
Tip Top
Tip Top Milk Bar, Courtenay Place, Wellington, ca. 1936
- Dominion Post.
Leonard Aloysius Patrick (Len) Malaghan was
born in Queenstown on 18 February 1906.
His business instincts
were soon evident - at
the age of ten, with money he had earned from gathering
and selling cocksfoot grass seed, he purchased a cow, which
he proudly drove home down the main street of Tapanui. By
age 13 he owned five cows, milking them twice a day (before
and after school) and selling
the milk to the local cheese factory.
Len left school at age 14 to work as a cheese
and butter-maker at the Tapanui Co-Operative Dairy
Co.. By 16 he was a second assistant, by seventeen a
qualified cheesemaker. By the age of 18, he had qualified
as
a dairy factory manager (the youngest person in the country
with Grade Notes at the time).
Hungry for experience, he moved to Dunedin
to work for the Taieri & Peninsula
Milk Supply Company which had both butter and milk supply
operations. While there he worked in every department, including
the laboratory, and applied for a patent for a butter-making
device he invented.
In 1926 he applied for a senior position with the Dairy Division of
the Department of Agriculture, but at 20 he was considered too young. Instead
he
was
given the opportunity to train in ice cream production under an American
expert,
a
Mr
Munro,
at Frozen Products Ltd (Frosty Jack brand)
in Wellington. After
a
season there
he
returned
to
Dunedin
and worked under another American, a Mr van Every, at Crystal Ice Cream for
about three years.
In 1931, Len left Crystal with the idea of starting his own business, however
he was offered a position with the Dunedin
Ice
Cream
Manufacturing
Company (Royal Ice Cream brand) as ice cream maker
and
Manager.
Len was at Royal for four
years, developing a new ice
cream
formulation and a bottled cream delivery business. With surplus cream, the
company set out to investigate butter production and in 1933 Len went on a trip
around the North Island to purchase machinery. To cover expenses, he demonstrated
at ice cream factories the manufacture and decorating of ice cream cakes with
fresh cream.
In Auckland, he was approached with a proposition
to start ice cream manufacture in the Hygienic Dairy Company factory in Epsom,
but being committed in Dunedin, was unable to accept.
Around this time, he went into a highly profitable venture to make milk ice blocks
with a Mr Waddington
of
Arctic Ice Cream Co., Petone, selling the recipe and method
of manufacture to ice cream manufacturers throughout New Zealand.
Len had become friends with
Albert
Edward (Bert)
Hayman,
one
of
Royal's
customers,
who owned
the
Sunshine Milk Bar in the Octagon in Dunedin. The milk bar was a new concept,
following
American trends,
selling healthy
milk-based drinks, both hot and chilled, usually along with soup,
sandwiches and other snacks.
In 1935
Len and Bert decided to go into
partnership to
start a new type of milk bar
business,
focussing on ice cream and milk shakes. They chose
Wellington
as the location.
On their way up to
Wellington, Len and
Bert had discussed
their plans with
a mutual
friend, the manager
of the Oamaru Railway
Refreshment Rooms.
His response was "Why,
that's Tip-Top",
and an ice cream
brand name
was
born.
Len
Malaghan and Bert
Hayman in later years.
On their first day in Wellington they
selected a shop in Manners St,
so
confident
in the concept
that they entered into a 10-year lease
at
an annual rental almost equal to their total capital, £750, a brave move
in
the
midst
of the Great Depression.
The name of the new business was Health Foods, Ltd and their
ice
cream
brand was to be "TIP TOP".
On the day he left
Dunedin to move to
Wellington, Len married
Ann, his
partner
for this venture
and many more.
The shop fit-out took about six weeks, using the red, white
and blue colour scheme that would become synonomous
with the brand.
On the 10th
of October 1935 the
new milk bar at 36 Manners
St,
in central Wellington,
was officially opened by J. A. Murdoch,
Minister of Agriculture and Chairman of the Dairy Control
Board, ensuring that the new venture received plenty of publicity:
- Evening Post, 10 October 1935.
The original Tip Top milk bar, 36 Manners St, Wellington, 1935.
- The Early Tip Top Story, Tip Top archives
Emerging from the Depression
years, milk and dairy products were seen as having excellent food value. Ice
cream
and
milkshakes
were seen as a nutritious treats for adults,
not so much the younger market that we associate milk bars with these days.
Health
Foods Tip Top Milk Bars advert,
Evening
Post, 19 December 1936
Bert's Dunedin commitments meant that Len became the active partner in the
Manners St. business, the success of which quickly led to expansion. A second
Tip Top Milk Bar was opened
on Lambton
Quay in March
1936,
managed
by
Bert's
brother Gordon
Hayman and his wife.
In May 1936, they registered a new company, Health Foods New Zealand,
with
a
capital
of £15,000, to acquire the Wellington shops and Bert's shop in Dunedin,
and to expand their milk bars into other areas.
Interior view of the Tip Top Milk Bar on the corner of
Manners and Cuba Streets,
ca. 1936
-
Alexander Turnbull Library Ref: 1/1-015556-F.
Tip Top milk bars were opened in Eastbourne, Upper Hutt (1937),
Blenheim, and around the lower North Island.
The Sunshine
Milk Bar in Nelson acquired the "Tip Top agency" for Nelson
Districts
in 1936. The
Sunshine's counter and buffet share several design elements in common with
the Wellington
Tip
Top
Milk Bars, suggesting that a standardised Tip Top Milk Bar
fit-out was part of the franchise arrangement.
Black & White Milk Bar opening, 64 Willis St., Wellington,
11 June 1936
- Dominion Post.
The Black & White Milk Bar had opened
a second shop at 64 Willis St, Wellington, on the
11th of June 1936, and this was possibly another Tip Top "agency" -
a
photo of
the opening function (above) shows almost identical panelling and light
fittings.
Both
Black & White
Milk Bars were
taken
over
by
Health
Foods in 1937. By December that year there were five Health Foods (NZ)-operated
Tip
Top Milk Bars in central Wellington, two of them in Cuba St. The Tip Top
Milk Bar chain
would
eventually grow to twenty shops.
Health
Foods (NZ) Ltd. Tip Top Milk Bars advertisement,
Evening
Post, 11 December
1937
Above and below: Exterior
and interior views of a Tip Top Milk Bar, Hastings or Napier, 1937-38.
-
Knowledge Bank.
For the first year of business, "TIP TOP" ice cream had
been supplied to Health Foods' milk bars by the Dunedin Ice
Cream Manufacturing Co.. On leaving
the company,
Len
had been due payment for the ice cream formula that he had developed
while working there - instead, he negotiated a supply of
ice cream at a reduced
cost, for one
year.
This was quite a logistical achievement for the time - freighting ice cream
from Dunedin
to Wellington, by refrigerated ship. On arrival it was
stored at the Co-operative Dairy Producers Freezing Co. Ltd's cool stores
on Waterloo
Quay in central Wellington.
By the end of that first year, they were ready to make their own ice
cream. Bert sold his Dunedin shop and made the move to Wellington, to
take a more active role in the business.
In July 1936 the Tip
Top Ice Cream Company was registered as
a manufacturing company, to supply Health Foods (NZ)
with ice cream, and some time later, Tip Top
opened its own factory
at rented premises on the site of the Co-operative
Dairy Producers Freezing Co.
Ltd's
cool
stores
on Waterloo
Quay in central Wellington.
The freezing stores business,
primarily involved in storing export cheese and butter,
provided refrigeration and steam, and leased factory
space to Tip Top at £10
per week.
Len Malaghan made sure that the new factory had
the very latest equipment, including a number of "firsts" for
New Zealand - the first Vogt continuous freezer;
the first direct expansion holding vats; the first
vehicle
with
its own refrigeration
unit installed; the first refrigerated articulated
vehicle.
In 1926 Clarence Vogt of Louisville, Kentucky had
developed and patented a continuous, scraped-surface
freezer
("Votator"),
which revolutionised the ice cream industry, opening the
way for true mass production.
Tip Top became the first company in New Zealand to employ the new
"instant" freezing technology:
Willow
Milk Bar advertisement, Hutt News, 24 May 1939
By 1938, Tip Top Milk Bars were operating successfully all
around the lower North Island, Nelson and Blenheim, with
average per shop ice cream sales around 9000 gallons
a year. Bert and Len began to think about the giant Auckland
market, where the climate was even more suitable for the
ice cream trade.
May
1938 - Tip Top Ice Cream Company
Auckland Limited was launched, with Tip
Top Ice Cream Company (Wellington), Health Foods
(New Zealand)
Ltd, Bert Hayman and Len Malaghan as major shareholders.
Len knew that the Hygienic Dairy Company premises
at 20 Dunkerron Avenue, Epsom were still available,
so they purchased the
factory and started production.
The first Auckland
Tip Top Milk Bar was opened by Health Foods (Auckland)
Ltd. in
1938 at 53 Queen St:
The
first Auckland Tip Top Milk Bar, lower Queen Street shopping
feature,
NZ Herald, 28 September 1938
Tip
Top Ice Cream and Ritz Tip Top Milk Bar advertisement, NZ
Herald, 16 November 1938
The
New
Ritz
Tip Top
Milk
Bar sold
Kapai
Chocolate-covered Bars for 3d each.
As well as Milk Bars, Tip Top sold
packaged ice cream through the usual
dairy and
grocery outlets. By August 1939, Tip
Top already had distribution depots at Hamilton,
Rotorua, Taumaranui and Tauranga.
Interestingly, Tip Top was marketed
as "American" or "Real
American" ice cream, made with the "latest
American instant freeze process" and made to "the
exclusive and original American Ice Cream Formula".
Tip Top's by-lines were "Eat Energy"
and "The
Extra Cream Ice Cream".
Tip
Top Ice Cream Co. Auckland Ltd delivery van, ca. 1939.
-
Tip Top archives.
Tip
Top Ice Cream Auckland Ltd delivery vans, ca. 1939.
-
Tip Top archives. In 1939 Len and Bert went to the U.S. to study the
latest methods of manufacture and to purchase new
machinery.
One story illustrates how up to date they
were already.
While
in New York, they were invited
to a demonstration of the prototype of the Anderson
Automatic filling machine. They declined, saying
that they had already seen it in operation. The
Americans were most surprised, saying that only two
machines had been built, one for demonstration
and the other sent "somewhere down under." Bert
and Len gently explained that the other prototype
of the new machine
was already working in the Tip Top factory
in Wellington.
In November 1940, Tip Top Auckland
ran a "Will-Share" advertising
campaign promoting the sharing of ice cream treats
over the summer
holidays.
Tip
Top Ice Cream Sandwich advertisement, NZ
Herald, 23 November 1940
One
of the products featured
as was the
Tip
Top Ice Cream
Sandwich (above)
apparently launched that year and sold
for
3d (threepence). It was also referred to as a Threepenny
Slice, the forerunner of today's Vanilla Slice.
Also featured were Tip Top
Threepenny
and Sixpenny Cartons, Dixie Cartons (small waxed
cardboard cups sold for 3d each) and a chocolate-covered
ice cream-on-a-stick called a Tippy-Tip,
which sold for 3d.
Tip-Top Milk Bar Upper Hutt advertisement,
December
1940.
Tip Top Wellington
appears to have started to use the classic scripted
version of the "Tip-Top" logo
(see side-bar above) around 1939-1940.
Both Wellington and Auckland companies were also using
the block
capitals "TIP-TOP" version
around this time, but eventually the
scripted version took over. A hyphen and/or quotation
marks were added from time-to-time over the next
20 years.
Tip Top sales conference, 1940s. Milk Bar managers
and staff learned about sundaes, floats and sodas, efficient
scooping practices and how to keep
dippers ice-free.
With the arrival of the Second World War both
Wellington and Auckland-based chains of Tip Top
milk bars began
to struggle with distribution and staff problems.
The
milk bar side
of
the business, Health Foods (NZ) Ltd., was wound
down in the early 1940s, although independent Tip Top milk
bars continued to operate around the country.
Sugar restrictions
and rationing
were imposed in 1942, severely
limiting
ice
cream manufacturing.
Sugar supplies were cut in half; milkfat by a third.
However by 1944, the large numbers of U.S. servicemen
stationed in New Zealand had stimulated demand
and the government began to recognise the value
of ice cream in raising morale.
In November 1944, Tip Top
Auckland ice cream mix was supplied to Camp Tui, a beach
rest
centre
on Guadalcanal
in the Solomon Islands, where an ice cream plant
had been installed for the use of RNZAF servicemen
on leave
from the fighting.
Advertisement for Tip Top Ice Cream in the Auckland Star,
October 1944:
JUNGLE FIGHTERS
IN ACTION EAT ICE CREAM
One of the recorded strange facts of this war is
the authentic story of jungle fighters in the
Solomons enjoying cooling, refreshing Ice Cream.
The Ice
Cream
mix was supplied by the Tip Top Ice Cream Company, whose products are so
well known to Aucklanders, and was completed "on the spot" by the Allied canteen authorities.
The comment was made that ''although the fighters achieved both tasks satisfactorily,
licking the Tip Top Ice Cream was a much more enjoyable matter than licking the
foe." Needless to say, both were "licked" thoroughly. Aucklanders agree that
as an energy builder as well as a morale builder, Tip Top Ice Cream is unequalled. |
Initially, Len Malaghan had a third of the shareholding of
the Auckland operation and travelled regularly between
the
two factories.
He designed the original Auckland factory layout and supervised
manufacture until sufficient staff were trained to carry
on. Particulars
of every mix were sent to Len in Wellington by telegram and
he worked on formulations.
However, as the Auckland business grew, Bert Hayman wanted to raise more funds
for expansion by
forming
a
public
company. Len didn't agree, and they decided to go their separate ways.
Shareholdings were re-arranged so that Len retained the Wellington business,
which
stayed
a
private
company,
and
Bert took over
the Auckland business.
1947 - Tip Top Auckland became a Public
Company, with a capital
of £105,125.
The two businesses were run quite separately for the next 15 years, although
each retained the Tip Top name and continued to exchange ideas, new formulas,
flavours, plant data and
research information.
An agreement was drawn up limiting the Auckland company's activities to the upper
half of the North Island, while the Wellington company could operate in the lower
half of the North Island and the South Island. The demarcation line was 50
miles north of New Plymouth, north of Waiouru, and north of Hick's Bay.
Both businesses expanded aggressively through the late 40s and into the 50s.
1949 - Tip Top Auckland was listed on the Stock Exchange.
Tip Top Wellington built a South Island factory in Nelson and had distribution
points
set
up in Blenheim, New Plymouth, Hawera, Stratford, Wanganui, Palmerston North,
Dannevirke,
Hastings, Napier, Waipukurau, Wairoa and Masterton.
Len
was
also behind
the
company's first refrigerated trucking operation which became Refrigerated
Freight Lines Ltd.
Tip
Top Milk Bar, Upper Hutt, 1949.
Tip
Top advertising on tram, Queen St, Auckland, 1949.
- Alexander Turnbull PAColl-7171-06
In the early 1950s the manufacturing side of both Tip Top
businesses went from strength to strength .
Tip
Top (Auckland) staff loading freshly-filled cans into a blast freezer,
Dunkerron
Ave.
factory, 1950's.
-
Sparrow Industrial Pictures Ltd, Auckland War Memorial Museum
online collection.
Ref. PH-NEG-SP-2914[i].
Tip
Top vehicles outside the Dunkerron
Ave. factory, ca. 1948.
-
Tip Top archives.
Tip
Top (Auckland) signwriters, Dunkerron
Ave. factory, 1950's.
-
Sparrow Industrial Pictures Ltd, Auckland War Memorial Museum online collection.
Ref. PH-NEG-SP-2914[iii].
As the two Tip Tops became more efficient and more powerful,
many small producers
either
went
out of business, merged, or were taken over, absorbed into one or other of the
two companies. The Auckland business was particularly aggressive
in pursuing takeovers.
Tip
Top became
by far the country's
largest ice cream brand.
It wasn't just the provinces that Tip Top had in its sights - in 1950 Tip Top
Ice Cream Company (Auckland) Ltd, under Bert Hayman, launched a new ice cream
business in Melbourne, Australia, Toppa
Ice Cream Ltd.
Toppa ice cream carton, 1950s.
- Ephemera Society of Australia Inc.
 More
of
the Toppa story ...
Tip
Top Ice Cream steel advertising sign, early 1950s.
The cartoon character was known as "Toppy"; Daisy was the brand of Daisy
Cones Ltd, est. 1948.
- Steve Williams.
1950 - Tip Top Auckland took over Royal Ice Cream, Thames.
With its greater economies of scale, Tip Top was able to invest in the technology
to produce more sophisticated water ice and ice cream stick novelties. One of
the
earliest was the Topsy , a chocolate-coated vanilla ice cream
on a stick, reputedly named after one of Len's favourite cows.
1951 - the classic Kiwi stick ice cream, the Jelly Tip was
born. Creamy Tip Top vanilla ice cream on a stick, tipped with a raspberry flavoured
jelly, and coated with chocolate, selling for sixpence.
Tip Top Auckland purchased Frostee in Fiji.
15 ton Leyland truck, refrigeration by McAlpine,
1951.
- Frostee Digest.
1952 - Tip Top Auckland merged with Peters Ice Cream Co. (N.Z.) Ltd, Auckland.
1953 - Tip
Top Auckland merged with the Robinson Ice
Cream
Company
Ltd, one of its largest Auckland competitors,
and as a result
came to own the rights
to
manufacture
the
popular Eskimo
Pie.
Read
more about the Eskimo Pie story.
In 1953,
Tip Top Wellington opened a new factory in Johnsonville on 4 1/2 acres of freehold
land.
The processing area was built to Len Malaghan's own design and
featured
many
innovative
technologies and efficiencies. Freon replaced ammonia in the freezers and churns,
allowing automation of the process, and plate heat exchangers were used for
pasteurisation and ice banks for chilling.
Filling ice cream cartons in the new Tip Top Johnsonville
factory.
Still taken from the short film, "From Cow to Cone: The Tip Top Story", 1955.
- Nga
Taonga Sound & Vision.
At this time Miss Joyce Treloar, Len's trusted financial
advisor, became a shareholder in the Wellington business.
1954 -
Tip Top launched the Strawberry
Toppa -
vanilla ice cream on a stick, coated with a shell of strawberry water ice.
By now Tip Top (Auckland) was
operating in North Auckland, Auckland, Waikato, Victoria, Tasmania, Fiji, Samoa,
Niue and
Tonga, and was selling into the Chatham Islands.
Tip Top display promoting the serialised "radio space thriller" Rocky
Starr ,
ca.
1955.
Flavours
shown
include Vanilla, Neapolitan, Rainbow, Orange Ripple, Raspberry Ripple, Dandy
Candy.
- Tip Top archives.
1955 - Tip Top launched the TT2 "ice-lolly" on
a stick (ice block). Legend has it that the name 'TT2' came from the numbering
system used for trial recipes in Tip Top's product development process - TT
stood for 'Tip Top', and
it was recipe No.2! The original TT2 expanded into a whole range of stick
ices.
Tip Top Auckland's Dunkerron Ave factory, 1956 (Whites
Aviation)
- Alexander Turnbull WA-42756.
Tip Top van salesman Ray Rinsma on deliveries with
truck #17, Whakatane, 1956.
- Ed Rinsma.
1956 - Tip Top Auckland's
frozen foods subsidiary, General Foods (N.Z.) Ltd. obtained
the rights to distribute Wattie's frozen foods (produced by J. Wattie Canneries
Ltd).
The following year (1957), Tip Top Auckland began merger
discussions
with
J.
Wattie
Canneries. )The merger didn't take place until 31 years later, when Tip Top
was
part of the Goodman Fielder group, which merged with
Watties to form Goodman Fielder Wattie).
1958 - Tip Top Auckland merged with the McDonald Ice
Cream
Manufacturing
Co. Ltd, based in Hamilton.
1959 - Bert Hayman and his Managing Director Frank
Orr continued
their aggressive moves into frozen foods. Firstly they took over a Nelson
frozen vegetable processor Quick
Frozen Foods Ltd. and, later
in
the
year, took a controlling interest in the Dunedin Ice Cream Manufacturing
Co.
Ltd (Royal brand).
Both moves helped expand frozen foods distribution
in the South Island - the latter company owned a Wattie's frozen foods distribution
franchise. A new parent company was set up to cover both ice cream and
frozen foods businesses - General
Foods Corporation (New Zealand) Ltd.
General Foods began to sell frozen beans and peas under the Tip Top brand.
Detail from Tip Top Frozen Foods double-sided metal footpath sign, ca. 1959.
Packs of Tip Top frozen beans and frozen peas.
"The Frozen Food of the Nation" - "Grown in sunny Nelson, N.Z."
(Ice cream was advertised on the reverse of the sign - "
Tip
Top - it's Creamier!") .
- jessiesmum.
1960 - The Auckland
company's moves to expand into the South Island had upset
the long-standing territorial agreement with Tip
Top
Ice Cream Company (the Wellington-based business),
and created some tension between the two companies. Discussions began on how
to resolve the situation.
The
Wellington
and
Auckland
Tip
Top
ice
cream
businesses
merged on the 1st of May 1960 as part of General
Foods Corporation (NZ) Ltd, which now had Bert Hayman
as
Chairman,
and
Len
Malaghan
as
Managing
Director. As well as reuniting the founding partners and their burgeoning
businesses,
the
merger
opened
the
way
to
national
distribution,
which
was
achieved
within four years.
That same year, General Foods acquired Apex Ice Cream
Co.
Ltd.,
giving
the company a larger South Island manufacturing base, using Apex's factory
at 100 Durham St,
Christchurch.
Earlier
that
year,
Apex
had merged with Top Notch Delicacies, Christchurch's third-largest
ice cream
producer.
1961 - General Foods
took over the Lucky Ice Cream Co.
Ltd. of
Westport.
Tip Top Johnsonville factory, ca. 1960.
- Tip Top archives.
Cream tanker, ca. 1960.
- Tip Top archives.
Delivery vehicles, New Plymouth depot, 1961.
- Tip Top archives.
Photo: Tip Top TV advertising shot, take home pack, 1961.
- Tip Top Ice Cream. K E Niven and Co: Commercial negatives.
Ref: 1/2-213213-F. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington,
New Zealand.
Tip Top display in a Dairy & Milk Bar window, early
1960s.
- Tip Top archives.
In 1962, General
Foods built what was at the
time the Southern Hemisphere's
largest and most advanced
ice cream
factory, at a cost of NZ$700,000.
The Mt Wellington Tip
Top factory under construction, 21 Aug
1962.
Whites Aviation Ltd.
- Ref:
WA-58315-G. Alexander Turnbull
Library,
Wellington,
New Zealand. http://natlib.govt.nz/records/22329818
Tip
Top Mt Wellington, Auckland factory grand opening, 21
November 1962.
-
Tip Top archives.
Prime
Minister Keith Holyoake (centre) with iceblock, factory
opening, 21 November 1962.
- Tip Top archives.
Frank
Orr, Managing Director of General Foods Corp., and
Bob Fyfe, General Manager.
- Frostee Digest.
The Prime Minister Right Hon.
Keith Holyoake attended
the grand opening ceremony
on 21st November 1962, along with 600 guests.
The Tip
Top factory included staff
houses and 20 acres of farm
land overlooking
a bend in Auckland's Southern
motorway. Over time, the Tip Top factory
became a New Zealand landmark,
known to generations as 'Tip
Top Corner'.
1963 - General
Foods acquired Supreme
Frozen Products and Supreme
Ice Cream Co. Ltd., a frozen vegetable processor
and ice cream manufacturer based in Timaru.
And that year,
General Foods purchased a six acre site on Blenheim Road
in Christchurch, for the
construction
of
a planned new South Island factory.
1964 - General Foods made an offer for
the Crystal
Ice Co. Ltd, based in Dunedin, owners of the Dunedin
Ice Cream Manufacturing Co. (Crystal and previously
Royal brands), Rices Ice Cream Co., Invercargill,
and Southland
Ice Cream
Co., Invercargill. The Crystal group had just
completed the acquisition of Newjoy Ice Cream Ltd.,
and only the previous year had taken over Rosco
Ice Cream Ltd. (operations
in Hamilton, Auckland,
and
Palmerston
North), so this was a major expansion for General Foods
and consolidation of Tip Top's dominance in the market.
By 1964,
Tip Top had achieved full national distribution.
A colour documentary film, "All About Ice Cream" was
produced, showing extensive footage inside the new Tip
Top Mt Wellington Auckland factory, and a range of products
being
manufactured and distributed around the country, and up
into the Pacific Islands:
"All
About
Ice Cream" (1964) Robert Steele Productions - Nga Taonga Sound & Vision.
Seven-lane
Gram stick novelty machine, Tip Top Mt Wellington factory,
1964.
Still
from the documentary film, "All About Ice Cream", Robert Steele Productions.
- Nga
Taonga Sound & Vision
1964 - Tip Top launched the Tip Top Trumpet,
its version of the European cornetto-style, waffle-coned ice cream sundae
with nuts
and chocolate.
The original Trumpet sold for 1 shilling (1/-), and came with an extensive
advertising campaign, including one of our very early TV
advertisements.
More
about
the very first Tip Top Trumpet.
1965 - General Foods took over Christchurch's Perfection
Ice Cream Co. Ltd (inventors of the Joy
Bar).
As well as it's own brand, Perfection was by then one of several regional manufacturers
making and selling Gaytime ice cream - Gaytime seems to have
been a collaborative effort to establish a national brand. Gaytime was kept alive
by Tip Top for another six years at least, and the Gaytime Goldmine stick ice
cream novelty probably became the Tip Top Gaytime.
1965 - Tip Top opened its new factory in Fiji.
Tip
Top Fiji delivery truck and staff (ca. 1970).
-
Tip Top archives.
Tip Top product range poster, ca. 1965: Pint, Quart, Tub, Sundae, Party Loaf,
Slice,
Gaytime, Topsy, Toppa, T.T.2.
- Steve Williams
Around this time, Tip Top took over Auckland's Eldora Ice
Cream Co. Ltd, which was also manufacturing ice cream under
the Gaytime brand.
1966 - Len and Ann Malaghan made a donation
of 100,000 General Foods Corp shares to the Wellington
Institute of Cancer and Medical Research.
Len
had been diagnosed
with
Hodgkin's
disease in 1962. The Institute was later re-named the Malaghan
Institute of Medical Research in his honour.
25 December 1967 - Len Malaghan,
co-founder of Tip Top, passed
away at his Khandallah home, aged 61.
1968 -
General Foods (Tip
Top) opened its new South Island ice cream factory on Blenheim Road in Christchurch.
New General Foods Tip Top factory, Blenheim Rd, Christchurch,
November 1968.
Wattie's, Gaytime, Tip Top and Bluebird delivery trucks
in the foreground.
- Christchurch Star | Christchurch
City Librarie.
The same year,
General Foods Corporation (NZ) merged with J. Wattie Canneries Ltd and Cropper-NRM
to form Watties Industries Ltd.. Tip Top became part of
the Watties Frozen Foods division.
1969 - A new high rise freezer with a 70 foot stud
was built at Tip Top Johnsonville, with glass insulation
throughout and incorporating a new system of palletised stacking and loading.
1972 - Albert Edward Hayman, co-founder
of Tip Top passed away at the age of 79.
Tip
Top Johnsonville factory, with women workers, 1972 (Evening Post photo).
- Alexander
Turnbull Library - 1/4-021010-F
General
Foods Corp (NZ) Ltd Wairoa depot, 1970s.
- Tip Top archives.
Tip Top novelty range poster, 1970s.
- Steve Williams.
- Tip Top archives.
Tip Top R2D2 novelty wrapper.
- Steve Williams.
1978 - Tip Top R2D2 was
launched; New Zealand's biggest ice cream block-buster, from
Star Wars'
heyday.
Last tram to Hataitai, 19 September 1979
- Tip Top archives.
1980 - Tip Top acquired the Wall's ice
cream brand and business from Rangitaiki Plains Dairy Co., effectively
absorbing its largest competitor. The Crofters frozen
cheesecake operation was also part of this acquisition. Tip Top continued
to market Wall's
as a secondary brand for a few years, eventually allowing it to lapse.
Tip Top FruJu poster, 1980s.
- kiwigame
Tip Top sales staff, 1980s
- Tip Top archives.
1984 - New American Ice Cream launched
the legendary Goody
Goody Gum Drops ice cream flavour. It would later become part
of the Tip Top
ice cream range.
1985 - Supermodel Rachel Hunter appeared
for the first time
on television at (only just)
16 years of age in the famous 'VW Beetle' advertisement for Tip Top Trumpet.
Tip Top Trumpet 'Beetle' TV advert, 1985.
Tip Top Trumpet poster, ca. 1990.
November 1987 - Watties
Industries merged with trans-Tasman food group Goodman
Fielder Ltd
to create Goodman Fielder Wattie Ltd.
Tip Top Christchurch factory, Blenheim Road, ca. 1990
- Christchurch Star | Christchurch City
Libraries.
1991 - The Tip
Top Christchurch plant was given a major upgrade to cope
with
increased export demands, and to meet the standards and requirements
of (in particular)
the Japanese market. The plant was optimised for the production of high-value,
small-pack, super-premium ice cream made under extremely strict hygiene
standards. Brands manufactured under contract
included Lady Borden.
Tip Top Paradiso.
October 1992 - the H.J.
Heinz Company of Pittsburgh, USA, purchased the
Wattie’s
group of companies (including Tip Top) from Goodman Fielder.
April 1997 -
Tip Top was
purchased (from
Heinz Watties)
by a West Australian
food processor, Peters & Browne's Foods.
This merger of Peters & Browne's and Tip Top created the largest independent
ice cream business in the Southern Hemisphere with combined sales of
$550 million.
Shortly afterwards, Tip Top purchased the New American factory
in Otahuhu, and closed it down, transferring equipment to its Auckland
and Fiji operations. By then, New American was Tip Top's largest competitor
in the New Zealand market so Tip Top was refused permission by the Commerce
Commission to purchase
the whole New American business.
New American's owners, United Dairy, by then a wholly owned subsidiary of New
Zealand Cooperative Dairy Company Limited (NZCDC), continued to own and distribute
New American brand take home ice cream, with Tip Top being the contract manufacturer
and packer.
September 1997 - Tip Top Memphis Meltdown Gooey Caramel was
launched, a technical world-first for Tip Top ice cream technologists,
a "triple-dipped" premium
ice cream stick novelty with a caramel sauce layer between double-coatings
of real chocolate. The technology was patented in the US.
On the 18th June 2001 Tip Top Ice Cream became part of Fonterra
Co-operative Group after Fonterra purchased the Peters and Browne's
Foods Business.
The New Zealand dairy industry now had control of the country's largest
ice cream manufacturer, with factories in Auckland, Christchurch and
Perth.
September 2005 - Kapiti Fine Foods'
brand new $10m ice cream factory in Palmerston North was commissioned,
the first in Australasia to use
revolutionary
new low temperature churning technology. Just two months later, Fonterra
announced that it had agreed to acquire Kapiti from its owners, Foodstuffs
Wellington
and United Milk.
2007 - Tip Top closed its Christchurch export plant
with the loss of 70 jobs. Chief executive Ray O'Connor explained that
demand from Japan had fallen and that the plant would have needed
more than $13 million spent on it over the next five years, whereas
a $40 million upgrade of the Auckland plant was near
completion.
2010 - Tip Top produced what was believed to be the world's
first
novelty ice cream wrapped in marshmallow, Memphis
Meltdown Rocky Road.
A team of 100 people spent more than 2,000 man hours and went through 12,500
litres of pink marshmallow before finally coming up with the final product,
a chocolate ice cream rippled with raspberry jelly, dipped in pink marshmallow,
and smothered in chocolate, nuts and coconut - on a stick.
In 2010, Tip Top Ice Cream embarked on a $40 million project to enhance its
product development capabilities and improve its working environment including
a raft
of new health and safety measures and extensive renovations at Tip Top Corner.
In 2011, Tip Top celebrated its 75th anniversary,
with the original Trumpet girl Rachel
Hunter, and various promotions including a free giveaway of 50,000
Jelly Tips.
November 2011 - In an ironic twist, Fonterra Brands,
the parent company of Tip Top Ice Cream, won an appeal in court against a trademark
registration by the owners of Dunedin's Tiptop
Cafe.
Located on the corner of the Octagon, the Tip Top Cafe had been an institution
in Dunedin for 75 years. Operated as the Sunshine Milk Bar by Albert Hayman,
it became one of the original Tip Top milk bars in 1936, when Hayman's new
Wellington milk bar venture with business partner Len Malaghan, Health Foods
(NZ) Ltd, took
it over.
The business had been renamed Tiptop Cafe and had moved five doors down the
road, in Princes St, in 2007.
The site of the original Tip Top Milk Bar in the Octagon is now occupied
by the Alibi Bar.
- Tip Top .
17 July 2012 - Tip Top Ice Cream celebrated the conclusion
of a two-year, $40 million site modernisation project, with a dawn lighting
up of
its new look building on Tip Top corner (above).
Once known for its rainbow stripes, the building now sports a fresh new look
characterised
by 600m2 of glass walls.
Rachel Hunter, whose big break came in 1985 following
her starring role in a Trumpet television
commercial, assisted with lighting
up the transformed building before dawn.
To share the building's makeover with New Zealand, Tip Top ran
a Facebook competition to give away a day of magic moments in Auckland
for one lucky winner. The winner,
Christchurch's Shirley-Ann
Griffiths and her children Anna (10) and Liam (12),
joined in the celebration to switch on Tip Top corner's lights for the first
time.
Tip Top's annual production was now 35 million litres of ice-cream; 106 million
ice blocks and 14 million Trumpets. Tip Top Corner filled more than 11 million
tubs of ice cream every year - the site's two lines could make up to 45 two
litre tubs per minute.
Tip Top's three most popular flavours were french vanilla, vanilla and hokey
pokey.
Tip
Top container kiosk, 2015.
- Retail Dimension.
2016 -
Tip Top launched its new Top Notch range,
reviving an old Christchurch ice cream brand that dates back
to the 1930s, courtesy of Tip Top's takeover of
the Apex
Ice
Cream Co. in 1960.
- Tip Top .
2016 was also the year that Tip Top celebrated
the company's 80th birthday with a new flavour, 80,000 giveaway
ice creams each month, and
$2 Trumpets.
- Tip Top .
Whites
Dairy, Devonport, long famous for scooping
Auckland's biggest ice creams,
receives a visit from the Tip Top delivery man, February 2016.
- Chris Newey.
13 May 2019 - Tip Top was sold by Fonterra
to Froneri,
a joint venture between PAI Partners and Nestle, for $380 million. Froneri
is the second-largest manufacturer of ice cream in Europe. Froneri stated that
the Tip Top name and its operations, including the Auckland factory site at
Mount Wellington, will be maintained. 
- Tip Top .
November
2019 - Tip Top Boysenberry Ripple won
the Supreme Award for Large Manufacturers at the NZ Ice Cream
Awards for the fifth time, an amazing feat for a Standard
category scoop and take-home ice cream, up against premium
and super-premium products. A classic flavour and family
favourite, showcasing Nelson Boysenberries and Tip Top quality.
March 2020 - Tip Top launched a dream collaboration with another
Kiwi icon - the Whittaker's Peanut Slab Chocolate Ice Cream Bar.
- Tip Top .
Today, more than 80 years after the first Tip Top Milk Bar opened in Manners
Street, Wellington, Tip Top remains by far New Zealand's largest ice cream
manufacturer, responsible for much-loved
iconic
Kiwi
products
such as
Boysenberry
Ripple,
Goody Goody Gum Drops, TT2, Topsy, Strawberry Toppa, Traffic Light, Trumpet,
FruJu, Jelly Tip, Choc Bar,
Rocky Road, Joy Bar, Eskimo Pie, Vanilla Slice, Kapiti Ice Cream,
Memphis Meltdown, Paradiso, Slushy and Popsicle.
Tip Top favourites - Rocky Road, Jelly Tip, FruJu, Choc
Bar.
- Tip Top
- Chris Newey.
Special thanks to Steve Flynn for his
assistance and encouragement in preparing this history.
Thanks to Steve and others at Tip Top for
giving access to the company's archives and permission
to publish images - Minna Reinikkala, Susanna Mayer, Stephanie
Hague, Nick Annear and Mel McKenzie.
Thanks also to Steve Williams, Ed Rinsma, Michael Yalland,
Darian Zam, jessiesmum and kiwigame for permission to reproduce
images
from
their personal
collections.
Other references and related sites:
Christchurch Star Archive, Christchurch City Libraries
https://discoverywall.nz/
Dictionary of New Zealand
Biography - Leonard Aloysius Patrick Malaghan
Tip Top New Zealand - Tip Top archives.
www.tiptop.co.nz
Longwhitekid - history of Peter Pan, Tip Top, Meadow Gold, Wall's, Hokey Pokey,
and
much
more:
http://longwhitekid.wordpress.com
Nga Taonga Sound & Vision
www.ngataonga.org.nz
Papers Past (National Library of New Zealand digitised newspapers database):
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/
"The Early Tip Top Story" - Tip Top archives.
"The Frostee Digest" archives, NZICA.
"Who's Who in the New Zealand Ice Cream
Industry" - "The Frostee Digest" archives, NZICA.
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Ice Cream Brands from the Past. |
