Peters Ice Cream Peters Ice Cream

Peters Ice Cream was founded in 1907 by American Fred Peters in Manly.

In 1927 his Peters American Delicacy Company opened a Melbourne factory in Meyers Place, Melbourne followed by a factory in Richmond before the national headquarters moved to Mulgrave in 1964, and it has been there since.

Peters Ice Cream Turns 100

Ice-cream will definitely be on the menu when Peters, an Australian brand as recognisable as Vegemite and Four'n'Twenty, celebrates its centenary with a lunch for its 500 staff on Tuesday (2007).

Its longevity has been fuelled by canny marketing. In 1923, it hitched on to the postwar economic boom by launching the slogan "Health food of a nation". The slogan lasted into the 1970s.

In 1938, cricket legend Don Bradman appeared in Peters posters eating the product.

By 1947, the company had started a radio show called Peters Pals, broadcast from 5pm to 6pm in four Australian cities, including Melbourne's 3XY, and which at one stage boasted 250,000 members. The show featured quizzes, talent quests and junior variety shows, and started the career of Bert Newton.

In the next decade, Peters switched to television, launching its Peters Fun Fair variety show - featuring clowns Zig and Zag - in the first week of commercial television. The show was a hit for Channel Seven. Around the same time, the brand became synonymous with Moomba after Peters donated '25,000 in the festival's inaugural year in 1955, joining fellow sponsors Myer, Coles and Crawford Productions.

Peters' floats and Zig and Zag, with their ice-cream cone hats, were fixtures of the Moomba parade for more than 30 years.

Peters was bought by the multinational Nestle in 1996, but its ice-creams, including Drumstick, Choc Wedge and Eskimo Pie, are still locally made.

The Mulgrave plant produces nearly 100 million litres of ice-cream a year, including 160 million sticks, 55 million tubs, and 50 million cones. The Drumstick, founded in 1963, is the most popular line: 26 million, in 11 flavours, were sold in the past year. At Tuesday's lunch, employees will be presented with a glossy, new history of Peters, Of A Nation, and a T-shirt and cap.

Mr Millar said the company's longevity proved that Australians cherished life's little indulgences, even in times of depression and war.

"A company normally lasts because it makes something that people want,"he says. "To most people, ice-cream is a treat, it reminds them of a good time and a happy time, and I think as a company, why we've been successful is we've continued to provide a product that does that for people."

Source: The Age - 100-year-old Peters are cats who got the cream.
Carolyn Webb
August 25, 2007

NEW ICE-CREAM FACTORY

Opened at Richmond Industry Helps Farmers

The new factory of Peters American Delicacy Co (Vic ) Ltd in Burnley street Richmond, was officially opened by the Minister for Agriculture (Mr. Hogan) yesterday.

It is claimed that the factory is one of the most modern of its kind in Australia. It is equipped with a laboratory, where ingredients are analysed. The factory will have a maximum output of 1,200 gallons an hour.

Mr Hogan said that ice-cream manufacturers deserved the gratitude of primary producers because they bought a considerable amount of milk and cream. He hoped that the factory would be successful and profitable

Mr Cotter, M.L .A congratulated the company on the manner in which it treated its employees. He said that they worked in most congenial conditions.

Mr J A B Peters (chairman of directors) said that with the exception of sugar all the primary products used in the manufacture of the ice-cream were produced in Victoria.

Source: nla.gov.au

Iconic Peters Ice Cream

American migrant Frederick Peters could not possibly have imagined the impact he would have on Australia when he started making ice cream from his mother's recipe in his backyard shed in Sydney in 1907

From the first business venture selling the homemade delicacy from a horse-and-cart - to the opening of his Peters American Delicacy Company in Meyers Place in Melbourne in 1927 - the humble Peters Ice Cream 'brick' has become woven into the fabric of Australian culture.

Nestle purchased the Peters ice cream business in 1995 to expand and diversify, and all Peters-branded ice cream is made on site at its Mulgrave manufacturing facility.

PETERS Choc Wedge
PETERS Dixie Cup
PETERS Drumstick
PETERS Eskimo Pie
All now made by NESTL'

Zig and Zag

Zig and Zag (Jack Perry & Doug McKenzie) were a clown duo and stars of one of Channel 7's longest-running television shows, Peters Fun Fair, with Cousin Roy (Roy Lyons).

Zig and Zag dressed in costumes advertising Peters Ice Cream "the health food of a nation", and with the catchphrase "No trouble", Zig and Zag always included their theme song, You and Me.

Mr. Whippy Ice Cream Van

Iconic Commercial - Mr Whippy ice cream van from Queensland appearing in a Nestle Peters national TV ad.

Peters offloaded to French giant
May 2014

While Peters may be foreign owned, it continues to employ over 500 Victorians in its Mulgrave plant, so support Australia, and local workers by buying Peters.

Peters Ice Cream has been sold to a French company for more than $400 million.

Peters' owner, Pacific Equities Partners, sealed the deal with R&R, Europe's second-biggest ice-cream producer, on Monday night. It marks the second time Peters, founded 107 years ago, has left Australia . Sydney-based PEP bought the brand for what was believed to be less than $300 million off Swiss food giant Nestle in 2012.

Peters remains a proudly Australian company employing around 500 people across Australia.

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❊ Web Links ❊

➼ Peters Ice Cream 

➼ Peters Ice Cream - wikipedia.org

➼ Source: 100-year-old Peters are cats who got the cream - theage.com.au

➼ MCG Peters Ice Cream School Wall

➼ Zig and Zag (Australian performers) - From Wikipedia

➼ PETITION - Bring Back MONACO BARS ice-cream sandwiches

➼ www.nestle.com.au

➼ www.whippy.com.au

➼ Radio Adverts | Peters Icecream x 2

❊ Also See... ❊

➼ Carolyn Webb

➼ Swallows Ice Cream






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