history

The essence of our business has always been about our people and our brands, and how they have responded to opportunities and the changing needs of generations in Australia and New Zealand.

These stories are told elsewhere on this site, and within the website of each brand.

Here, we share some of the history around our structure. It's a story of successful companies coming together to offer people tasty, nutritious and convenient food products, and a selection of great tasting coffees.

Today's organisation, Cerebos Australia and New Zealand, is the integration of Cerebos (Australia) Ltd and New Zealand-based Cerebos Gregg's Limited. Since 2000, the two companies have operated as a true Australia/New Zealand entity. We have a business leadership team that is made up of people from both companies and chaired by CEO, George Crocker.

Cerebos (Australia) Ltd and Cerebos Gregg's Limited are part of Singapore-based Cerebos Pacific Limited. Suntory, a Japanese global food and beverage group, became a majority shareholder of Cerebos Pacific Limited in 1990.

Cerebos Australia

In 1925, Cerebos Limited of England set up an Australian branch to directly market Cerebos salts and Bisto gravy powder in Australia. The company Cerebos (Australia) Ltd was established in 1953, and acquired the Gravox brand in the same year. A factory at Clayton Victoria was opened in 1958 and four years later a joint venture was formed with Cheetham Pty Ltd to produce Saxa and Cerebos salt. In 1963, the Tandaco cooking aids brand was purchased from Harold Holt. Fountain was acquired in 1964 and Foster Clark's the following year. The current manufacturing site at Seven Hills, Sydney was opened in March 1971; and in 2005, to create room for an expanded research and development facility, our head office functions were relocated to a new building nearby. A move into coffee began in 1995 with the purchase of Mocopan, and was extended by the recent growth in RIVA coffee sales.

Cerebos Gregg's

The New Zealand side of our operations began in 1861, when William Gregg established a company which found success in spices, coffee roasting and food production. Gregg's Foods set-up a citrus and pineapple canning factory in the Cook Islands in 1961, creating the Raro brand. The current head office and manufacturing site at East Tamaki, Auckland was opened in 1972. In 1984, Cerebos (New Zealand) and Gregg's joined forces to form Cerebos Gregg's. Robert Harris pioneered fresh coffee in New Zealand and the popular brand, which he established in 1972, was purchased by Cerebos Gregg's in 1990. The already successful Atomic Coffee Roasters and Caffe L'affare were later additions to our family of New Zealand coffee brands.