DOMESTIC GROWTH
A.C.M Ltd
QFS New Zealand’s origins lie with a dynamic lady in the early 1900’s. Annie C. Millar started her own bakery and café in Invercargill over a century ago. For the next decade Annie worked hard to expand her business, acquiring a second shop during that time. Surviving World War I by expanding into bread production, Annie then brought the original building she leased for her first shop and registered as a company to form A.C. M. Ltd.
A.C. Millars Ltd
During the 1920’s A.C.M. Ltd became A.C. Millars and Annie purchased a further series of shops, and her first outside of Invercargill in the nearby town of Gore. At age 84, Annie passed away leaving her company to her sons.
During World War II the company struggled but survived under the management of Annie’s sons, who went on to purchase the first large oven for the company and purchased a 10 acre site on the outskirts of Invercargill which remains the site of QFS New Zealand today.
The Millar family merged the bakery a decade later in 1968 with a competing family business to form the Millar-Lange Bakery.
INTERNATIONAL GROWTH
Millar-Lange Ltd
In mid 1981 Millar-Lange exported its first shipment of frozen pastry to Japan, forging a business relationship that continues today. Millar-Lange was later purchased by the Goodman-Fielder group and became part of Quality Bakers NZ Ltd business units. This began a series of expansions to meet demand for our products, including increasing the plant size and the purchase of further equipment.
In the 1990’s we diversified into sauces, on gaining interest from our Japanese clients. The sauce plant was later expanded to cope with export demand. By 1998 we ceased fresh domestic production to focus on the manufacture of croissants, finished Danish and pastries, biscuit mixes, pastry, and sauces predominantly for the export market. The site was
certified to ISO 9002 standards in 1994 and HACCP approved in 1999.
Quality Foods Southland Ltd
A private group (instrumental to the company’s development during the past 20 years) purchased the company in 2002, renaming it Quality Foods Southland.
Since this time we expanded our domestic market and entered the Australian market, opening an office in Melbourne. We have invested in state-of-the-art equipment and technology, easing capacity constraints and increasing pastry quality and production efficiency.
Today we are known as QFS New Zealand, the country’s leading manufacturer of butter based bakery products and sauces and the largest exporter of butter pastry in New Zealand.