Like the radiant sun of its logo, Edmonds Baking Powder seemed sure to rise. The company, founded by Eastender Thomas John Edmonds, who arrived in this country with his new wife, Jane, in 1879 aged just 21, appeared destined to succeed.
But it was far from smooth sailing. Edmonds first ran a corner grocery store in a working-class suburb in Christchurch, and made baking powder in his spare time. This side-hustle was first sold in bags, then tins, then produced in a temporary factory. Finally, Edmonds built the art deco building in Ferry Rd with its SURE TO RISE sign, sun symbol and elaborate gardens, which would become a national landmark thanks to gracing the cover of the Edmonds Cookery Book for many years.
But Edmonds, who had worked for a confectionery firm in London, experimented for three years to get the recipe right. He travelled throughout Canterbury, leaving free samples with customers and offering a return if they weren’t satisfied. Soon, there were a dozen baking powders in the market, such as Sharland’s Moa brand, as well as people trading on Edmonds’ good name. And Thomas Edmonds, always with an eye for business, also sold a toothache cure, a temperance fruit drink and borax “for sanitary purposes”. Luckily, Edmonds was a canny and indefatigable businessman, and this was a time when customers were rapidly increasing. By 1891, the population of Pākehā had grown to 600,000, thanks to assisted immigration, more than doubling in 20 years.
Edmonds, who died in 1932, was also a philanthropist, funding a number of buildings in Christchurch, including the Theosophical Society, the Radiant Hall, the clock tower in Oxford Terrace and the band rotunda on the Avon. His baking powder brand, which was bought by Goodman Fielder, remains one of the country’s most popular. The famous factory was demolished, amid controversy, in 1990, though the cookbook, which started life as a promotional pamphlet and now sits in countless kitchens across the country greasy and dough-smudged, will ensure Edmonds’ gleaming logo lives on for some time yet.
Sure to Rise: The Edmonds Story, by Peter Alsop, Kate Parsonson and Richard Wolfe (Canterbury University Press, $59.99 hb)
