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Snowflake
The Norton family, dairy farmers near Greymouth,
established The
Riversdale Dairy in 1922, servicing Greymouth and surrounding
districts with their milk and dairy products, delivered by
horse and cart.
It was very much a family business. Laurence
Norton, his wife Irene, his brother Wallace, his father Frederick
and Mother Edith, and Irene's brother Arthur Carson, were
all involved in the early years.
The business was run from a small
factory/shop in front of the Norton house in Ward Street,
Cobden:
Photo:
Riversdale Dairy depot, Ward
St., ca. 1922.
-
Owen Norton collection, via Shona McCahon.
Photo:
Mrs & Mr Billy McNaughton with Model T Ford delivery van
in front of the Riversdale
Dairy
depot, Ward St., Cobden, ca. 1922. Note milk
can in the back.
-
Owen Norton collection.
Around the middle of the decade, they began producing ice
cream under the Snowflake brand.
Demand
was so great that in 1928 a new, larger factory was built
on Taylorville Road, Coal Creek:
Photo: New Riversdale Dairy - Snowflake factory, Taylorville
Rd., with staff and delivery vehicles, 1928.
People, left to right: Arthur Carson (standing near Guy Snow
Flake truck), Frederick Norton; Laurence Norton; Irene Norton;
Miss [..?] Horan;
Jack Horan; Billy McNaughton.
- Owen Norton collection.
Photo:
Frederick Norton with horse-drawn Riversdale Dairy - Snowflake
delivery van, ca.
1928.
-
Owen Norton collection.
Photo:
The Snowflake
Riverdale Dairy Supplies Guy truck
at the 1930 Greymouth A&P
Show.
Still
from newsreel film, "The Greymouth Gazette",
by L. Inkster, 1930.
-
Nga
Taonga Sound & Vision.
The refrigeration system was ammonia, and two of the original
storage freezers used pumice as insulation, 8 - 10 inches
thick in the walls. Before the advent of refrigerated trucks,
ice cream was distributed in 2 1/2 gallon bulk cans (for
scooping) as far as Westport and Hokitika, packed in insulated
canvas bags.
Apart from cans, Snowflake produced Sixpenny Blocks, Choc Bombs,and Sixpenny
Tubs.
Later, as home refrigerators became more common,
Snowflake produced take-home Pints
(round
cardboard packs, then
later
rectangular).
After the deaths of Laurence Norton and his brother Wallace (both within 12
months), Laurence's father Frederick Norton, a baker, and brother-in-law Arthur
Carson took over the dairy farm,
milk and
ice
cream operations.
Frederick's wife Edith was also involved in running the dairy farm, along with
Warren Barlow.
Laurence's son (Frederick's grandson) Owen
Norton
joined
the
business
in 1946, at
age
15,
starting
as he says "at the bottom", cleaning milk cans, cleaning stables and
looking
after
the
roundsmens' horses.
Snowflake
cinema advertising (glass slide),
1940s
- West
Coast New Zealand
History.
In 1947 the Riversdale milk treatment business was split off and the operation
was
moved
to
Greymouth,
leaving
the Coal Creek factory manufacturing Snowflake ice cream only.
Snowflake bought their first refrigerated trucks second-hand from the Perfection
Ice Cream Co., Christchurch, in the early 1950s.
Photo:
Snowflake
ice cream
factory interior, ca. 1950. Right to left: homogeniser, holding
vat
with
cooler above, churn (beyond vat.) At left: hand pump used for filling Sixpenny
Bricks (packaging
loaded
on trolley). Pumice-lined storage freezer at rear left.
-
Owen Norton collection.
Photo:
Snowflake Ice Cream Factory, 1953. Left to right: Frederick Norton, Percy East,
Daphne
Skeets, Ken Horton, unknown, Owen
Norton
-
Owen Norton collection, via Shona McCahon.
Photo:
Snowflake Ice Cream truck dressed for the Royal Visit, 1953.
-
Owen Norton collection, via Shona McCahon.
Owen took over the business in 1955, after his grandfather died.
Not long after, Tip Top began distributing on the West Coast, opening up the
market, which had until then
been shared between Snowflake and Apex (Christchurch).
Snowflake liked to have a bit of fun with their marketing, and in 1955, following
news of a discovery on the West Coast,
it
advertised Uranium Ice Cream:
 Snowflake
Uranium Ice Cream advertisement, Grey River Argus,
23
November 1955
- Te
Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand.
Listen to Owen explain the story
on Radio
NZ National programme.
Other cheeky marketing moves included
thumbing their noses at market leader Tip Top with the launch
of stick novelties called the "PP2", and "Poppa".
Ice blocks and other stick novelties were made in moulds
frozen in a brine tank. Snowflake manufactured Joy Bars for
a while, six inch bars of chocolate-coated
ice cream
with
a
raspberry strip through
the centre, very popular, but the cost of production was
quite high so they didn't last.
Snowflake
truck, 1954 Bedford, late 1950s?
-
Owen Norton collection.
From the late '50s, Snowflake became West Coast distributor for Birdseye Frozen
Foods (Unilever), and later Supreme Frozen Products (Timaru).
Snowflake
Ice Cream display, Industries Fair, Greymouth, 1964.
-
L. Inkster.
Snowflake
Chippy Pot advertising, early 1960s?
-
Owen Norton collection, via Shona McCahon.
Snowflake
Raspberry Sundae advertisement, early 1960s.
-
Owen Norton collection.
Snowflake
Raspberry Sundae lid, undated.
-
Steve Williams.
Snowflake
Christmas deliveries, 1970s
-
Owen Norton collection, via Shona McCahon.
When Unilever launched its own Wall's brand of ice cream in the 60s, Snowflake
distributed Wall's ice cream and frozen novelties as well as their own brand.
At its peak, Snowflake was sold over the whole of the South Island,
and into parts of the North Island.
Snowflake had long been a member of the Canterbury-West Coast branch of the NZ
Ice Cream Manufacturers'
Association (NZICA). Owen Norton had been attending conferences since 1950.
and held the office of
President from 1972-1977.
Together
with Bob Fyfe of Tip Top, he played
an important
role
in helping the NZICA survive at a time when membership was down and industry
unity was weakened.
Through
his
long-time
involvement
with
the
NZICA,
and
other
business
activities,
Owen maintained good personal and business relationships with most of the other
ice
cream
manufacturers
around
the country. These were strengthened when Westland Snowflake hosted the annual
NZICA Conference in Greymouth in 1987.
Snowflake
original artwork, 1990s.
-
Owen Norton collection.
Snowflake
Vanilla 2 litre label, 1990s.
-
Owen Norton collection, via Shona McCahon.
Other ice cream brands manufactured by Snowflake
over the years included Bluebell
(a
budget
brand), Quality Inn, and premium brand, Queen Anne. They also produced house
brand ice cream for supermarket chain Countdown.
Snowflake purchased the rights to the iconic Queen
Anne Ice Cream brand some time after Queen
Anne closed down their ice cream business
in
1976. Snowflake continued selling Queen Anne "Natural Premium Ice Cream" for
several
years:
Header
from Queen Anne Ice Cream flavour list, ca., 1995?.
-
Owen Norton collection.
On the night of the 5th/6th of January 1994, the Snowflake factory caught fire
and
was
seriously
damaged
after
being struck
by
lightning. Much of the factory and equipment had to be re-built, and months of
production was lost.
Snowflake
factory, ca. 1995
-
Owen Norton collection.
Owen Norton sold the ice cream business
assets
of Westland Snowflake
Limited to Development West Coast (DWC) in
2008 - the new company was called West Coast Snowflake.
The business continued under the new management for two more years, in an effort
to keep this important regional brand alive, but
the
competitive
retail environment proved too much, and Snowflake
finally
closed
its
doors
in
2010.
- Special thanks to Owen Norton for permission
to reproduce the photos in this article from his collection.
Other references and related sites:
Kete West Coast
http://ketewestcoast.peoplesnetworknz.info/en/site/audio/show/4-owen-norton-talking-about-uranium-flavoured-snowflake-ice-cream-in-the-1950s
Nga Taonga Sound & Vision
Papers Past (National Library of New Zealand digitised newspapers database):
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/
New Zealand Ice Cream Manufacturers' Association (NZICA) Oral History Project; held at NZICA archives and Alexander Turnbull Library.
- Shona McCahon, Oral historian.
West Coast New Zealand History
www.westcoast.recollect.co.nz
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Ice Cream Brands from the Past. |
