Cookie Time Ltd is a
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
company based in
Christchurch
Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon Rive ...
, New Zealand which has been manufacturing
snack foods since 1983.
It is fronted by a mascot known as the
Cookie Muncher. The company's factory, with a shop for members of the public to buy cookies and other products, is at 789 Main South Road, in the settlement of
Templeton, on the outskirts of Christchurch.
History
Cookie Time was founded in Christchurch by 21-year-old Michael Mayell. Mayell was inspired by
Mrs Field's Cookies in the United States.
He baked cookies in a rented bakery and then starting on 7 February 1983, he and his mother delivered them to
dairies
A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting or processing (or both) of animal milk – mostly from cows or buffaloes, but also from goats, sheep, horses, or camels – for human consumption. A dairy is typically located on ...
across Christchurch, where they were sold individually from large glass jars.
Mayell sold 5000 cookies in the first week, and in the first year of operation sold $240,000 worth of cookies.
Mayell's brother Guy Pope-Mayell joined the company shortly after its formation.
In 1987 the company started packaging the cookies individually to prolong their shelf life and enable them to be sold in petrol stations.
On 2 April 1996 the company broke the
Guinness World Record for the world's largest cookie by baking a 487m² (5241.5 sq. ft) cookie in a field behind their factory. The cookie had a diameter of 24.9 m (81 ft 8 in).
In May 2010 Cookie Time opened its first Cookie Bar in
Queenstown. This is a retail store where customers can order various cookie-related food and drinks and buy souvenir merchandise. Following the success of the Queenstown operation, the company opened a Cookie Bar in
Harajuku
is a district in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Harajuku is the common name given to a geographic area spreading from Harajuku Station to Omotesando, corresponding on official maps of Shibuya ward as Jingūmae 1 chōme to 4 chōme. In popular refere ...
, Tokyo in December 2013, in partnership with a Japanese food distribution business. Cookie dough for the shop in Japan was supplied from New Zealand.
Cookie Time began supplying Air New Zealand with snacks for passengers on domestic flights in 2012. In 2021 a passenger on an Air New Zealand flight jokingly complained to police that the airline had shifted from handing out Cookie Time chocolate chunk cookies to a shortbread variety. Air New Zealand advised that it periodically swaps to different cookie varieties.
In 2018
McDonald's Cookie Time McFlurry became available through
Uber Eats
Uber Eats is an online food ordering and delivery platform launched by Uber in 2014. Meals are delivered by couriers using cars, scooters, bikes, or on foot. It is operational in over 6,000 cities across 45 countries as of 2021. The process of ...
.
Products
The company's first and most recognisable product is the Original Chocolate Chunk Cookie, a large, individually wrapped cookie with oversized chocolate pieces. The recipe for this cookie has remained unchanged since 1983, a sign of its success in the New Zealand market. Other versions of individually wrapped cookies have been released, such as Triple Chocolate, Apricot Chocolate, and Chocolate Chunk Afghan. Other products include Christmas Cookies, Bumper Bars, Bumper Slice, One Square Meal and Smart Cookies. In 2020 there was a collaboration with
Tip Top ice cream to create 'cookie caramel crush' flavoured ice cream. In July 2021, Cookie Time introduced a
lolly cake
A lolly cake or lolly log is a New Zealand cake or confectionery that features "lollies" (candy) as a key ingredient.
The exact origins of this cake are unknown. Lolly cakes are known to have been consumed in the 1940s, but were not commonly ava ...
biscuit in supermarkets and other retailers.
Night 'n Day
Night 'n Day is a chain of New Zealand grocery stores. The stores operate long hours, and sell a range of ready-to-eat products.
Night 'n Day is the third largest grocery retailer in New Zealand. Since 2011, it has rapidly expanded its network ...
appeared to sell it before its official release date.
At seasonal times of the year the company takes on temporary staff on evening and night shifts to meet demand. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, university students sell buckets of small cookies door-to-door in city shops and offices and street stalls.
Some of the profits from the Christmas cookies go to the Cookie Time Charitable Trust, which was set up in 2003 (as Cookie Munchers Charitable Trust) to support New Zealand children.
Controversies
* 2000: Cookie Time alleged that Griffins was breaching the Fair Trading Act by selling cookies in a plastic bucket very similar to Cookie Time's Christmas bucket. Cookie Time pointed out that the Griffins product only held 375g of biscuits whereas Cookie Time buckets of the same size held 650g of cookies.
Griffins was forced to withdraw 10,000 buckets of cookies from sale.
* 2007: The company was fined $40,000 for breaching industrial safety regulations after a worker got trapped in a machine and broke her arm.
* 2011: Cookie Time filed a case against Qingdao Chengze Trade, who applied to use the Cookie Time logo in China. Qingdao Chengze's application to the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) used artwork that is identical to the Cookie Time logo.
* 2015: Cookie Time asked Auckland café Moustache Milk and Cookie Bar to change its name, stating that 'Cookie Bar' was a potential trademark infringement of Cookie Time's Cookie Bar shop in Queenstown. As of 2021 Moustache has not changed its name, though it advertises as just 'Moustache'.
References
External links
{{Portal, Companies, Food, New Zealand
Cookie TimeMunchtime Snacks by Cookie Time – Tasty, Easy, SpeedyCookie Time's Web Design and Development Company
Food manufacturers of New Zealand
Companies based in Christchurch
New Zealand brands
1983 establishments in New Zealand
Companies established in 1983