Chocolates fit for a queen

Sarah Adams will be looking at exporting her chocolates after successfully relaunching the brand. Picture / Simon Baker

Although Sarah Adams would like to say it was the legacy of her grandfather - Ernest Adams - that inspired her to resurrect his brand of chocolates from the 1920s, having a sweet tooth is probably closer to the truth.

Still, she's pleased the home business venture continues a colourful piece of the Adams' baking heritage that was set to vanish when the Queen Anne Chocolates factory closed in 1976.

With avid detective work during the past eight years, Adams has slowly been piecing the business back together and the Queen Anne brand - once a chain of confectionary stores throughout the country - and its popular marshmallow Easter eggs have returned to supermarket shelves.

An advertisement in the Grey Power magazine put her in touch with several former staff who helped her to find the original recipes and packaging.

One man who particularly helped to bring the brand back to life was Vic Kent who, as a boy, trained as a chocolatier under Queen Anne's original Canadian confectioners in 1925 and became factory manager.

His 30 years with the company included the war years, when people queued for Queen Anne chocolates, and when the company was fined for putting too much cream in its ice cream during rationing.

Time hadn't dimmed his recall of the chocolates and, before he died, he "taste tested" Adams' recipes to make sure they were up to the remembered standard.

Adams' own memories take her back to visiting her grandfather at the Christchurch baking factory as a girl, where she was treated to testers of the cakes.

After leaving school, her tastebuds led her back to the factory, where she took a job in what was traditionally the women's area of cake icing and decorating.

Soon after, the company agreed - reluctantly - to her unusual request for a baking apprenticeship and she became the second woman in the country to train as a baker.

After gaining a Bachelor of Commerce, she moved off the factory floor into marketing and international sales.

When Ernest Adams was swallowed up by the now publicly listed Goodman Fielder in 2002, Adams decided to leave the family business after 18 years with a view to pursuing a venture of her own.

Research for an article on her grandfather for the New Zealand Dictionary of Biography in 1997 triggered her interest in the Queen Anne brand.

Finding that Kiwis still had a strong affinity with the brand, she thought she had a gem of an idea for a business in relaunching the products.

In using the original recipes and packaging, many of the building blocks were already in place for her to start the business in 1998.

The bigger challenge lay in getting the product as close to the original as possible. This has been difficult because of the high level of hand decoration on the originals.

Adams has opted to contract out the manufacturing to an Auckland firm, which means she does not need a big set-up. She still runs the business from home, employing one part-time accountant.

In getting out to sell the chocolates, Adams is sure the family name has helped, and they are stocked in supermarkets, specialty gift and chocolate shops and department stores.

The Queen Anne assortment with caramels and fondant cremes made "the old-fashioned way" with cream and butter are the biggest sellers. The flavours were more "kiwi", she said, as opposed to the European taste in chocolate today.

With a niche as a high-quality heritage brand, Adams says volumes cannot be compared with those of mainstream chocolate labels.

Although the immediate market has been those who grew up with Queen Anne, Adams has been surprised to find the target market is growing younger as people want to buy something from their grandparents' era.

And she continues to be surprised how many people regard the brand like an old friend, associated with special occasions such as Easter and Christmas.

Until now, Adams' focus has simply been on establishing the chocolate business. However, now it is well established in the boxed chocolate market, she is looking at what related products could be launched beyond the present range.

Although Queen Anne has not been exported, it is something Adams will consider. She frequently receives emails from Kiwis in Australia and the United Kingdom asking about them.

A priority for this year is to hunt down more history on the brand while it is still available.

Adams sees herself more as caretaker of the brand. "Queen Anne is part of the country's heritage and I don't want that history to be lost twice."

And because of the way she feels about the brand, Adams has no retirement plans.

However, she hopes as she gets older she will be able to pass on the nuts and bolts of the business to someone younger so she can focus on the part she loves the most: getting out and sharing the chocolate with customers.

"I see myself grey-haired, in the supermarkets doing the testings for years to come," she says.


Heritage brand

1920: Ernest Adams and Hugh Bruce set up bakery partnership Adams Bruce in Christchurch.

1925: Launches Queen Anne brand of chocolates and ice cream and establishes bakeries and retail stores throughout country.

1929: Trading difficulties leading up to the Great Depression cause the business to be split and Ernest Adams was formed to take over the South Island trading.

Morton Patterson buys Adams Bruce to service North Island and takes over the Queen Anne Chocolates brand.

1930s: More than 60 varieties of Queen Anne chocolates were sold nationally from Adams Bruce and Queen Anne shops.

1950s: Chocolates become machine enrobed instead of hand-dipped.

Queen Anne cake, icecream and confectionary shops are opened throughout North Island and in several centres in the south.

1960s: Queen Anne confectionery is expanded, but Queen Anne shops face tough competition with the development of supermarkets.

1974: Ernest Adams buys Adams Bruce. Queen Anne continues to make chocolates and confectionery in Wellington.

1976: Facing extensive costs to upgrade the facility, the Queen Anne factory shuts.

1998: Sarah Adams relaunches Queen Anne chocolates as a home business.

2002: Goodman Fielder buys Ernest Adams brand and its range of sponge cakes, slices, fruit cake and Christmas puddings.