Sanitarium Health and Wellbeing Company
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This article relies on references to primary sources or sources affiliated with the subject, rather than references from independent authors and third-party publications. Please add citations from reliable sources. (June 2010) |
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| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Food |
| Founded | Melbourne, Victoria 1898 |
| Headquarters | Berkeley Vale, New South Wales, Australia Auckland, New Zealand |
| Key people | Kevin Jackson, CEO |
| Products | Weet-bix Peanut butter So Good Marmite |
| Revenue | A$300 million |
| Employees | 1700 |
| Website | Sanitarium Australia Sanitarium New Zealand |
The Sanitarium Health & Wellbeing Company is the trading name of two sister food companies (Australian Health and Nutrition Association Ltd[1] and New Zealand Health Association Ltd).[2] Both are wholly owned by the Seventh-day Adventist Church.[3]
Sanitarium produces a large range of breakfast cereals as well as a range of vegetarian products. Founded in 1898, its flagship product Weet-Bix is a top seller in the Australian and New Zealand breakfast cereal market.
The company also operated health food shops in a number of cities, closing them in the 1980s.
Sanitarium has factories in a number of locations across Australia and New Zealand; some of these include Berkeley Vale, Cooranbong, Carmel, Perth, Brisbane, Christchurch and Auckland. Weet-Bix was originally manufactured, from 1928, at 659 Parramatta Road, Leichhardt where until recently Sanitarium signage could still be seen. This factory predates the purchase of Weet-Bix by Sanitarium in 1930. A factory was operating in Palmerston North in New Zealand, but closed in the late 1990s. The Adelaide factory in Hackney was closed down in October 2010.
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[edit] History
During her time in Australia, pioneer Adventist Ellen G. White's son Willie convinced Seventh-day Adventist Edward Halsey, a baker at Dr Kellogg's Battle Creek Sanitarium to immigrate to Australia.[4][5]
He arrived in Sydney on 8 November 1897.[6] He rented a small bakery in Melbourne, and produced Granola (made of wheats, oats, maize and rye) and Granose (the unsweetened forerunner to Weet-Bix). He and his team sold it from door to door as an alternative to fat-laden or poor nutritious foods popular at the time.
The business relocated to larger premises in Cooranbong, New South Wales.[3][6]
In 1900, Halsey transferred to New Zealand - where he began making the first batches of Granola, New Zealand's first breakfast cereal, Caramel Cereals (a coffee substitute) and wholemeal bread in a humble wooden shed[7] in the Christchurch suburb of Papanui.[8][9]
Sanitarium New Zealand and Sanitarium Australia are now separate companies, but work together.[8]
[edit] Tax exemption
Due to being owned by a religious organisation, in both Australia and New Zealand the Sanitarium companies do not pay company tax on their profits, something which has been questioned and is considered unfair for other competitors in the same market industry.[10][11][12]
[edit] Products
[edit] Breakfast cereals
- Weet-Bix, and its family of products:
- Weet-Bix Crunch Honey Bites
- Weet-Bix Crunch Cocoa Bites
- Weet-Bix Multi-Grain (formerly Good Start)
- Weet Bix With Hi-Bran
- Weet Bix with Oat Bran & Honey toasted Oats
- Weet-Bix Fruity Bites Apricot, Wildberry (formerly Fruity-Bix)
- Weetabix (UK & North America)
- MultiGrain Bites
- Oat & Barley Bites
- Up & Go Liquid Breakfast
- Granola
- Granola Clusters
- Puffed wheat
- Honey Weets
- Skippy Corn flakes
- Skippy Ricies
- Light'n'tasty
- Muesli range (toasted, natural)
- Cluster Crisp Range (Toasted Oat Cereal)
- Weeties (relaunched 2008, previously kornies)
- Double Crunch Apple and Cinnamon (NZ)
- Double Crunch Apricot (NZ)
- Coles Smart Buy
- Aldi Wheat Biscuits
- IGA Wheat Biscuits
- GHF Vita Brits (NZ only)
- GHF Toasted Muesli (NZ)
- Fibre life Range
- Bran Bix
Some older names, no longer produced:
- Gravy Quick
- NrG Cereal (NZ)
- Good Morning (NZ)
- Stamina (NZ)
- Maximize
- Lite Bix (NZ)
- Banana Ricies
- Favoured Water
[edit] Meals
- Deli Luncheon
- Breakfast&Lunch Today
[edit] Spreads
- Sanitarium Peanut Butter
- Peanuts Peanut Butter (USA)
- Natural Peanut Butter
- Marmite (NZ & Aus)
- Vitamite (Aust)
[edit] Dairy alternatives
- So Good and its family of products:
- So Good Ice Cream
- So Good Lite
- Flavoured So-Good
- Organics Simply Soy
- Rice Milk
[edit] Meat alternatives
- Vegie Delights range, which includes four kinds of vegan sausages
- Savoury Lentils
- Tender Pieces
- Casserole Mince
- Country Hotpot
- Vegetarian Sausages
- Nutmeat
- Nutolene
- Rediburger
- Sanitarium brand nuts and confectionery
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "Australian Health and Nutrition Association Ltd", Bloomberg
- ^ "...New Zealand Health Association Limited trading as Sanitarium Health and Wellbeing Company...", sanitarium.co.nz
- ^ a b "Sanitarium Health Food Company", Seventh-day Adventist website
- ^ "Peddling Health", Aventist Review, 6 June 2002
- ^ "Vegetarianism in Australia, A History, Edgar Crook, www.ivu.org
- ^ a b History, Australia
- ^ "Edward Halsey's Sanitarium Red Shed"
- ^ a b History, NZ
- ^ "Spreads and breakfast cereals", Te Ara
- ^ Wallace, Max (8 August, 2008). "Render unto Caesar". The Australian. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/render-unto-caesar/story-e6frg6zo-1111117136357. Retrieved 16 August 2011.
- ^ Blundell, Sally (2 February, 2008). "The God dividend". listener.co.nz. http://www.listener.co.nz/commentary/the-god-dividend/. Retrieved 16 August 2011.
- ^ Gomez, Frank (18 April, 2011). "Rich men in the tax-free kingdom of God". thepunch.com.au. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/rich-men-in-the-tax-free-kingdom-of-god/. Retrieved 16 August 2011.
- Parr, R., & Litster, G. (c1996). "What Hath God Wrought!": The Sanitarium Health Food Company Story. Berkeley Vale: Sanitarium Health Food Company
