Proof of the pudding ...

Press, 29 May 1985, Page 3

Proof of the pudding ...

PA Wellington Wattie Industries has dared to go to the United States, where many New Zealand exporters fear to tread because of the A.N.Z.U.S. row, and penetrated the very heart, or stomach, of the United States military. Creme caramel and creme chocolate puddings, made by a Wattie subsidiary, W. F. Tucker, are being consumed at the rate of up to 400 a day in the Pentagon, according to Tucker’s Washington agents.

The company, purveyor of the Edmonds brand, says

it is working towards a $9 million a year trade in selling the dessert mixes to supermarkets, hotels and restaurants in the United States.

The general manager of Tucker, Mr Bill Richardson, said the puddings’ success had taken the company by surprise. Sales of the mixes in New Zealand had levelled out and were unspectacular. “Never in 100 years would we have thought this would be the one to succeed. We have DYC mint sauces and some pikelet and pancake mixes, but that’s going to be small pickings compared with this,” he said. The idin?

ae company was sent ig two to three containers a month of the dessert mixes, and bad the capacity to send up to eight. Within 18 months he believed it would be sending about six containers a month, which would give it annual sales of $9 million. Mr Richardson attributes much of the success to America’s sweet tooth — “it’s the busiest dessert market in the world” — and to a perception of the product as having been made of good, wholesome products from clean, green New Zealand pastures.

The proof of the pudding, however, will come in the form of competition. If the dessert mixes really catch on, heavyweight American food groups may fight back with their own instant puddings.