HERITAGE

What’s afternoon tea without Aulsebrook’s?

WORDS Wendy Riley

In an unpretentious shop on Colombo Street in 1863, John Aulsebrook began what would become, a century later, a multimillion-pound iconic Kiwi brand. He’d ended his five-month-long business partnership with William Cole in September and gone solo. He, his wife, and his child had arrived in Lyttelton from England as government immigrants in late 1859. They lived in a house attached to the premises where Aulsebrook baked biscuits in a hand-fired brick oven. In 1866 he took John Meadows on as a business partner and imported a steam biscuit machine and flour mill to make their flour. By 1868, the City Steam Flour Mill and Biscuit Manufactory was bankrupt and sold, only to be purchased again by Aulsebrook in 1877. During this time, Aulsebrook remained manager. William McDougall joined the business in 1878, and even though the partnership only lasted a year, it would bring about a change in fortune for the brand. For the first 25 years, Aulsebrook & Co produced only biscuits. In 1888 confectionery was added, followed by chocolates in 1895. The turning point for the business was when Robert McDougal, son of William, came in as a junior partner. Eventually, Aulsebrook sold his shares to McDougall and focused his attention elsewhere. He died in Auckland in 1905. The ‘thrifty Scot’ McDougall had a knack for making his products “a little bit better than most of his competition,” so the business grew. Although thrifty, he was also generous and is publicly best known for gifting £30,000 to the Art Gallery that bears his name. He remained governing director of Aulsebrooks up until his death in 1942. Formed into a private company in 1928, Aulsebrook’s went public in 1952, amalgamated in 1961, and a new holding company, AB Consolidated, was formed. By its 100th anniversary in 1963, Aulsebrook’s annual turnover was more than £2,000,000, generated from factories in Christchurch and Auckland making products for the domestic and export markets. Biscuits, plus all the chocolates and confectionery, were made in Christchurch. The top-selling biscuit at that time, with up to 24,000 packets produced in an eight-hour day, was the humble Malt.

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