J.H. Whittaker & Sons, Ltd (Whittaker's) is a New Zealand

confectionery Confectionery is the Art (skill), art of making confections, or sweet foods. Confections are items that are rich in sugar and carbohydrates, although exact definitions are difficult. In general, however, confections are divided into two bro ...

manufacturer Manufacturing is the creation or Production (economics), production of goods with the help of equipment, Work (human activity), labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of the secondary se ...

specialising in

palm oil Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil derived from the mesocarp (reddish pulp) of the fruit of oil palms. The oil is used in food manufacturing, in beauty products, and as biofuel. Palm oil accounted for about 36% of global oils produced from o ...

-free

chocolate Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cocoa beans that can be a liquid, solid, or paste, either by itself or to flavoring, flavor other foods. Cocoa beans are the processed seeds of the cacao tree (''Theobroma cacao''); unprocesse ...

, based in

Porirua Porirua, () a list of cities in New Zealand, city in the Wellington Region of the North Island of New Zealand, is one of the four cities that constitute the Wellington#Wellington metropolitan area, Wellington metropolitan area. The name 'Poriru ...

. Whittaker's is the largest chocolate brand in New Zealand. Approximately 30% of their production is now exported. The company controls its entire manufacturing process in its facility in Porirua, identifying itself as a "bean-to-bar" manufacturer. James Henry Whittaker (1868–1947) started the business in

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

in 1896 and it was later moved to Wellington.

History

James Henry Whittaker (1868–1947) worked in the British confectionery industry from the age of 14 and moved to New Zealand with his wife Leah Alice in 1890. He was a salesman for Cadbury's chocolate before and after his move to New Zealand. In 1896 he started manufacturing chocolate confectionery, selling it directly to customers using a horse and van.History
. J. H. Whittaker & Sons, Ltd. In 1913, he established a partnership with his two sons, Ronald and James, based in Wellington. The business became a limited liability company in 1937, with third-generation Whittakers still the sole shareholders in the company. In 1969 the company moved from Wellington to Porirua, because they needed more space and their premises at 167 Vivian Street were under threat from motorway development. The Peanut Slab was invented in the 1950s and Whittaker's began exporting it in 1985. In the 1970s and 80s they also produced Santé Bars, Toffee Milk Bars and K-Bars. The company began producing large blocks of chocolate in the 1990s. In 1992 the company formed J. H. Whittaker New Zealand Ltd. In June 2014, Whittaker's expanded its market to

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

. In 2014 Whittaker's set up a programme to support and improve cocoa bean production in Samoa, and in 2017 expanded the programme to involve New Zealand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. In 2019 Whittaker's admitted that while some bars have ethically-sourced cocoa beans, the sugar is primarily sourced from Thailand. Thailand is known to have child labour in the sugar cane industry. In 2020 Whittaker's announced that its 116 products made with Ghanaian cocoa beans would now be '

Rainforest Alliance The Rainforest Alliance is an international non-governmental organization (NGO) with staff in more than 20 countries and operations in more than 70 countries. It was founded in 1987 by Daniel Katz, an American environmental activist, who serve ...

Certified'. The company also uses small amounts of beans from Samoa and Nicaragua.

Promotion

The company's marketing phrases include "A passion for chocolate since 1896", "good honest chocolate" and "from bean to bar". The company has provided commercial sponsorship for motor sports in New Zealand and for the

All Blacks The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks, is the representative men's national team in the sport of rugby union for the nation of New Zealand, which is considered the country's national sport. Famed for th ...

. In May 2014, celebrity chef

Nigella Lawson Nigella Lucy Lawson (born 6 January 1960) is an English food writer and television cook. After graduating from Oxford, Lawson worked as a book reviewer and restaurant critic, later becoming the deputy literary editor of ''The Sunday Times'' in ...

filmed an advert for Whittaker's in the 1930s

Wellington railway station Wellington railway station, Wellington Central station, or simply Wellington station, is the main railway station serving Wellington, New Zealand, and is the southern terminus of the North Island Main Trunk, Wairarapa Line and Johnsonville Br ...

. Later, in 2022, Karl Urban appeared in an advert as a fictionalised time-travelling James Whittaker, appearing in Wellington's Civic Square.

Awards

In 2011 Whittaker's was listed as New Zealand's third most trusted brand by a Bradley Colman survey. From 2012 to 2023 Whittaker's was voted New Zealand's most trusted brand, benefitting from

Cadbury Cadbury, formerly Cadbury's and Cadbury Schweppes, is a British multinational confectionery company owned by Mondelez International (spun off from Kraft Foods) since 2010. It is the second-largest confectionery brand in the world, after Mars. ...

's 2009 bad publicity surrounding palm oil and changes in product size, and further fallout from Cadbury's closure of its Dunedin factory in 2017. In 2023, Whittaker's also won 'Most Trusted Confectionery' and 'Most Trusted New Zealand Iconic Brand'. Organisers of the 2023 survey stated that Whittaker's success stemmed from its engagement with its customers, integrating their ideas into the business. Whittaker's was also transparent about aspects of their products, including price changes, which helped build trust with consumers. Apart from being named as New Zealand's most trusted brand, the company has won other awards including 'Exporter of the Year' at the 2021 ExportNZ ASB Wellington Export Awards and Supreme Award in the 2022 Wellington Gold Awards, which are awarded to recognise businesses in the Wellington region.

Special products

In 2016, Whittaker's launched a hollow chocolate

kiwi Kiwi most commonly refers to: * Kiwi (bird), a flightless bird native to New Zealand * Kiwi (nickname), an informal name for New Zealanders * Kiwifruit, an edible hairy fruit with many seeds * Kiwi dollar or New Zealand dollar, a unit of curren ...

clutching an egg as an Easter egg product. Twenty cents from each purchase was donated to a charity supporting kiwi conservation. The kiwi eggs were not not produced in 2024 or 2025 due to production capacity issues and a global cocoa shortage. In 2020, Whittaker's produced a limited-release Māori language label for its 'Creamy Milk' chocolate block for social media engagement purposes. In August 2022 the company distributed chocolate with a Māori label nationwide for Māori Language Week. The label had the chocolate variety 'Creamy Milk' written in Māori as 'Miraka Kirīmi'. The initiative was met with both praise and hostility from the public. In 2024 Whittaker's announced that it would no longer produce the Māori label, but would be supporting Māori Language Week in other ways. Singer

Ed Sheeran Edward Christopher Sheeran ( ; born 17 February 1991) is an English singer-songwriter. Born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, and raised in Framlingham, Suffolk, he began writing songs around the age of eleven. In early 2011, Sheeran independently r ...

visited New Zealand in February 2023 and said via Instagram that he liked New Zealand chocolate. Whittaker's responded by sending Sheeran a block of Creamy Milk with Sheeran's face on the label, calling it the 'Ed Block'. Whittaker's then teamed up with Sheeran to auction signed T-shirts and a supply of chocolate to raise funds for victims of the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Weekend floods. In March 2024 Whittaker's announced the discontinuation of Toffee Milks.

References

External links