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Post by ngatimozart on Feb 6, 2013 17:39:06 GMT 12
Titiwhai's most likely Bi Polar, just needs some meds to sort her out ... DDT ;D
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Post by saratoga on Feb 6, 2013 17:49:07 GMT 12
Titiwhai's most likely Bi Polar, just needs some meds to sort her out ... DDT ;D No , thats why Hone's the way he is.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 14, 2013 9:34:57 GMT 12
Dick Smith admits beetroot battle rooted
Australian entrepreneur Dick Smith has stood by claims that New Zealand-grown beetroot sold by rival firm Heinz is "poor quality", but concedes he will probably lose if the spat goes to court.
Heinz is threatening to sue Smith's company over claims made on tins of its "Smith's Magnificent Sliced Beetroot".
The label reads: "When American-owned Heinz decided to move its beetroot processing facility from Australia to New Zealand causing hundreds of lost jobs, we decided enough is enough.
"So we are fighting back against poor quality imported product."
Smith admitted to Radio New Zealand this morning that there was "a bit of marketing in what I'm saying" but insisted the New Zealand product was different.
"I presume its the different soil, or the different style of beetroot you have there," he said.
"It's nothing like our beautiful sweet Golden Circle beetroot of old."
Smith told Radio New Zealand the issue would probably end up in court, and "they'll win".
He had earlier said the company would "go broke" if it had to recall and re-label all the offending cans.
A well-known champion of locally produced goods, Smith claimed his company was fighting back against low quality imports in general, which usually came from China.
He also had a warning for New Zealand beetroot growers about the perils of dealing with large multinationals.
"It might be New Zealand today, but I can tell you that just as the Aussie farmers got dumped, and everyone got thrown out of their jobs ... that will happen to you next," Smith said
"You'll never be able to compete with China, or Swaziland, or South America."
In a legal letter from Heinz that Smith made public, the company said job losses were minimal and that its products were of a high quality.
In 2011 Heinz announced it would move production of beetroot, some other canned food and some sauces - including the classic Wattie's Tomato Sauce - to Hawke's Bay.
That year, the company said the move was expected to create just a handful of new jobs in Hastings but cost more than 340 jobs in Australia.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 14, 2013 9:47:14 GMT 12
So Heinz announced it would move Watties' Tomato Sauce to Hawkes Bay?? WTF? It has always been made there, hasn't it? Isn't that where it's from? Were they making it under licence in Australia?
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Feb 14, 2013 14:44:01 GMT 12
So Heinz announced it would move Watties' Tomato Sauce to Hawkes Bay?? WTF? It has always been made there, hasn't it? Isn't that where it's from? Were they making it under licence in Australia? When Heinz bought-out Watties from Goodman-Fielder, they shifted a lot of product lines across the Ditch to Victoria where they had huge food factories. Then, a few years later, Heinz purchased the old Tomoana Freezing Works (they mostly wanted the freezers) but then built a food processing plant on the site (after knocking down the burnt-out remains of the old freezing works, excepting the freezers which were still in good condition). Over the years, the Tomoana site has got bigger and bigger and Heinz have now closed most of their Aussie plants and shifted production to Hastings and expanded the Tomoana site even more. However, they still operate their HUGE Watties factory right in Hastings itself in addition to the Tomoana plant. And although we mostly see Watties-branded products, a huge proportion of the production output from Heinz-Watties Hastings plants is branded Heinz and exported.
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Post by delticman on Feb 14, 2013 14:50:17 GMT 12
Didn't the tamato plant at Gisborne get closed down as the Victorian Government offered a huge subsidy to set up in Victoria.
Once, while in Australia (1992?) the Queenslanders were whinging about chocolate being imported. Turned out it was being imported from NSW!
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Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 14, 2013 15:03:30 GMT 12
Good to see overseas production moving back to NZ. Sorry Dick, but it is.
As for Watties beetroot, I haven't bought it for some years because I grow and bottle my own. I'm surprised to hear people outside of NZ eat canned beetroot, most of my foreign mates reckon it's only a kiwi thing, especially in burgers.
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Post by TS on Feb 14, 2013 15:12:42 GMT 12
MMMMM !! You have to have Rootbeets in ya Burgers out of a tin at least but home grown is MAGIC. Yum Yum !! It's definitely a Kiwi thing I reckon, sure beats the mass producted burgers thats for sure....
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Feb 14, 2013 15:19:44 GMT 12
Didn't the tamato plant at Gisborne get closed down as the Victorian Government offered a huge subsidy to set up in Victoria. Watties only ever did limited tomato production at Gisborne, predominently baked beans. We used to literally cart entire trainloads of baked beans from the Watties Gisborne factory to Watties' warehouses in Hastings.
In the late-1908s/early1990s (I cannot recall exactly when), Watties signed a contract with the Whitters brothers in Poverty Bay to supply tomatos to their Hastings factory and we ran several trainloads of tomatos every day from Gisborne to Hastings for one season only. Then, the Whitters created Cedenco in Gisborne and the contract was changed for them to supply tomato paste and tomato pulp to Watties at Hastings for further processing. By then, Watties (now owned by Goodman-Fielder) had closed down their baked beans line at Gisborne and in fact most lines apart from frozen products were being downsized at Gizzy, eventually leading to the total closure of Watties there. When Heinz purchased Watties, they shifted all tomato lines production across the Ditch to Victoria, including Watties Tomato Sauce. Now however, all tomato products are back at Hastings and mostly using Hawke's Bay and Poverty Bay grown tomatos.
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Post by Andy Wright on Feb 14, 2013 16:52:36 GMT 12
A burger is not a burger unless it has beetroot in it.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 14, 2013 17:10:01 GMT 12
So the Aussies do that too? Another kiwi idea gone abroad?
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Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 14, 2013 17:31:49 GMT 12
Dick Smith's beetroot story was just on the news, and they showed the labels on his cans. The picture of him on the cans looks like him 30 odd years ago and looks nothing like he does now. Talk about misrepresentation!
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Post by corsair5517 on Feb 14, 2013 21:08:15 GMT 12
A burger is not a burger unless it has beetroot in it. This . I've found a shop here where they do put beetroot in your burger and yes.... the proprietors are ex-pats! Burgers in the UK are uniformly shite, at least the ones I had in London, Manchester, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Jersey were! I didn't have a hamburger in France; why would you?! I discovered croque-monsieurs instead....
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Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 14, 2013 21:29:06 GMT 12
Aren't they horseburgers over there?
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Post by JDK on Feb 14, 2013 21:57:38 GMT 12
Good to see overseas production moving back to NZ. Sorry Dick, but it is. Think you've missed Dick's point - which is that he's offering a home grown alternative to a foreign import, after offshoring; and not to get complacent because the multi-national finds your country flavour of the week at the moment - they'll be off with overseas employment and your factory shutdown when it suits them. Whatever you think of Dick, international corporations simply aren't interested in local (i.e. 'your') environment. Eat local - it screws up the multi-nationals. Regards,
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Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 14, 2013 22:08:57 GMT 12
I didn't miss the point at all, I understand what he's saying. He should come and shop here, everything on our shelves is made in either Australia or China as most of our manufacturing has been taken offshore. How does he feel about Aussie exports on other country's markets taking honest kiwi jobs away? Fine no doubt.
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Post by JDK on Feb 14, 2013 23:03:49 GMT 12
IMHO, focussing one one or another nation or one (or another) personalities *is* fundamentally missing the point.
Dick isn't just bemoaning the loss of his country's business overseas, he's doing something about it, as many are around the world in their own countries. Were there a Kiwi version of Dick, I wouldn't be knocking his effort from here.
But it's not about Dick, or NZ or Aus, or pointless trans-Tasman mud slinging or point scoring (newsflash: the rest of the world can't tell the difference between Kiwis and Aussies, and they care even less).
It's about realising that if you don't make a major effort to support your own community or environment, it *will* be shafted by the faceless multi-nationals (Don't worry about bitching about or praising Dick - note instead there's no Mr Watties or Mr Heinz to have a pointless debate about whether we like their style or not - and they like that anonymity). Dave's quite right in mentioning growing his own, and shopping locally, where possible and appropriate. That's what we do here. Not everyone can, but the only way business stays at home is if it's fought for and made to work. That goes for behemoths like China and the US as well as bantams like Australia and NZ.
Just a few thoughts.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 14, 2013 23:39:21 GMT 12
If you read back through the thread I was fully supportive of him doing something against globalisation that was taking away his local economy. I am all for buying local - particularly with food products, but I'm even more for growing my own, really local and actually fresh, and you know just what went into it - no sprays, no preservatives, lots of care, And as well as better tasting food you also enjoy satisfaction of knowing you did it yourself. It carryies on when you're able to supply surplus crop to friends and family too.
The only one who has thrown mud across the Tasman is Dick Smith.
I am confused as to where you reckon I missed the point because this is precisely the point I got all the way along here.
There is also no Mr Smith at Dick Smith Electronics either. That is owned by the Anchorage Capital Partners, a fincial group based in Austrlaia, London, New York.... At least Sir James Wattie and Henry J. Heinz have the benefit of the doubt in having died whilst still owning their empires, whereas Dick Smith simply sold out. Hmmm.
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Post by phil82 on Feb 15, 2013 13:26:41 GMT 12
Aren't they horseburgers over there? Is it being suggested here that there are legions of unsophisticated peasants still out there who DON'T have beetroot in their Burgers?
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Post by phil82 on Feb 15, 2013 13:32:04 GMT 12
Aren't they horseburgers over there? As the horsemeat scandal spreads even futher, it would appear that that the lasgane and hamburger consumers of the UK have been unwittingly eating horse for decades, in which case it is highly likely that at some stage down the track we will see a few Poms entered in the 3:30 at Aintree. Mind you, they will be well-positioned for tips on the inside runners! ;D
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