Bluebird Foods Ltd is a New Zealand division of the U.S.-based

PepsiCo PepsiCo, Inc. is an American multinational corporation, multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation headquartered in Harrison, New York, in the hamlet of Purchase, New York, Purchase. PepsiCo's business encompasses all aspects of the f ...

corporation, that manufactures

snack food A snack is a small portion of Human food, food generally Eating, eaten between meals. Snacks come in a variety of forms including Food packaging, packaged snack foods and other processed foods, as well as items made from fresh ingredients at ho ...

s. All snacks are manufactured at the Bluebird Foods factory in Wiri, Auckland.

History

Originally part of Goodman Fielder, and then bought by Graeme Hart's Burns Philp, Bluebird Foods was purchased by

in 2006. Prior to that, Burns Philp tried to sell Bluebird Foods to

Nestlé Nestlé S.A. ( ) is a Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland. It has been the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other metrics, since 20 ...

with the Uncle Tobys sale. Nestlé was not interested and bought only Uncle Tobys business. In October 2005, Bluebird Foods acquired Krispa and Aztec from Hansells NZ. This made Bluebird Foods one of the largest snack food manufacturers in New Zealand. May 2006 saw Nestlé purchase the Uncle Tobys brand for NZ$1.1 billion. Bluebird Foods was able to use the Uncle Tobys brand until May 2007. Later in 2008, the company started using foil to wrap most of their chips instead of the soft plastic material previously used. However, the soft plastic material is still used for corn snacks, such as Twisties, Burger Rings and Rashuns. In November 2023, Bluebird partnered with Hellers to create Rashuns and Burger Rings flavoured sausages as a limited edition. They have also partnered with Wattie's to make Tomato Sauce and Mince Pie flavoured chips.

Marketing

In 2009, Bluebird Foods teamed up with The Rock radio station and rebranded "The People's Chip" campaign from Australia's radio presenter duo Hamish & Andy. In Australia, the chip flavour as voted for by listeners was gravy, while in New Zealand the flavour selected was marmite and cheese – a flavour already produced by Walkers in the UK, who have the same parent company as Bluebird Foods.

Brands

Current brands

* Bluebird Original Cut Chips – ready salted/chicken/salt & vinegar/sour cream & chives/green onion * Burger Rings – corn snacks * Cheezels – cheese corn snacks *Copper Kettle – potato chips
Delisio
– sweet chilli relish/prawn cocktail/sea salt/red curry/caramelised onion & balsamic vinegar *

Doritos Doritos () is an American brand of flavored tortilla chips produced by Frito-Lay, a wholly owned subsidiary of PepsiCo. The concept for Doritos originated at Disneyland at a restaurant managed by Frito-Lay. In 1966, Doritos became the first ...

* Cheetos * Grain Waves (multigrain chips) *

Lay's Lay's (, ) is a brand of potato chips with different flavors, as well as the name of the company that founded the chip brand in the United States. The brand is also referred to as Frito-Lay, as both Lay's and Fritos are brands sold by the ...

– made in New Zealand (under license). Sold at Costco * Nobby's – peanuts and cashews, imported from fellow PepsiCo company, Smith's Chips in Australia *Poppa Jacks * Red Rock Deli – imported from fellow PepsiCo company, Smith's Chips in Australia * Ruffles – made in New Zealand (under license). Sold at Costco * Smith Staxs – imported from fellow PepsiCo company, Smith's Chips in Australia * Twisties – corn flavoured snacks * Rashuns * Popcorners – Popcorn snack

Discontinued brands

* Aztec Corn Chips – replaced with Doritos * Biguns * CC's corn chips – replaced with Doritos * Party Corn Chips * Sensations * Uncle Toby Chewy * Krispa Chips * Smiths Stax (In NZ) * Roll Ups * Le Snak

References

External links

* {{Brands of New Zealand Food manufacturers of New Zealand Food and drink companies based in Auckland Manufacturing companies based in Auckland PepsiCo subsidiaries Food brands of New Zealand