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Blenheim-based Annies, known for its fruit snacks, is to shut down.
A Marlborough brand famous for its fruit leather snacks will close next year.
Blenheim-based Annies, owned by food and beverage business Kono NZ, will be shutting its doors for good in February next year as part of a wider strategic reset of the business, Kono NZ has announced.
Kono NZ chief operating officer Andy Wotton said the closure of Annies was a difficult decision, but the brand had not met performance requirements over a number of years, and was not sustainable long-term.
“Kono NZ purchased Annies in 2014 after it had gone into voluntary receivership. Despite our very best efforts to rebuild the business over the last seven or eight years, Annies has, with the exception of a couple of outlier results, operated at a loss,” Wotton said.
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“As a business we need to be able to adapt and, though hard, the decision to close Annies is right, rather than continuing to operate unsustainably into the future.”
Annies went into voluntary receivership in 2013, resulting in the loss of 30 jobs, before being bought by Kono NZ the year after.
The brand currently employed 39 people in Marlborough, and Wotton said Kono NZ hoped to offer staff redeployment options within the business as an alternative to redundancy, and were actively exploring opportunities.
“Manaakitanga is central to how we operate, and this process will be managed as carefully and thoughtfully as possible. We will work closely with our affected people over the coming weeks to explore every opportunity available,” he said.
Marlborough Chamber of Commerce chief executive Pete Coldwell said it was a “massive shame anytime a business closes in the region, but particularly when it’s one which has been around for a lot of years and been so well known”.
“We just hope that the people working there can get redeployed by Kono and knowing Kono as a business, I feel sure that they will do their utmost to do that,” he said.
February 24 is set to be Annies last day of production. It was expected that normal business operations would continue until then, and all open sales orders would be fulfilled.
Kono NZ is associated business of Wakatū Incorporation, a Māori-owned organisation based in Nelson that operated a range of food, beverage and property businesses, as well as charitable activities.
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