Smyth Confectionery to close factory after 100 years in business

ACM Commercial

Interview with Peter Smyth of Smyth Confectionery in South Australia. Video via Business SA, 2019.

Transcript

00:00 [Music plays]

00:08 The business name started in the Central Market in 1910,

00:11 but prior to that the family actually migrated to South Australia in 1855

00:17 and they were actually confectioners when they came out,

00:20 or one of them was, and sort of that line has continued on now to today.

00:25 [Music plays]

00:28 Fourth generation, my father's still involved.

00:31 He's just turned 80 last year, but he still comes here, you know, whenever he can.

00:35 He's been here for 64 years. I've only managed 34 years so far.

00:41 [Music plays]

00:45 When I was at school I sort of didn't come straight into the business

00:49 and I did an apprenticeship as an electrician to start with,

00:51 which was sort of the needs we needed in the business at that stage.

00:54 So for the sort of the first 10 years of my life here

00:57 I was doing maintenance and I'm still doing maintenance 34 years later.

01:02 [Music plays]

01:05 The most notable product we have in our brand is the Smythe Christmas Mix.

01:10 So it's, at the moment it's, you know, it's very popular.

01:14 We sell nationally through Metcash and Woolworths,

01:17 you know, great volumes in sell-throughs and sales and this sort of stuff.

01:21 But we're also known for the Apricot Delight,

01:24 Apricot Coconut Slice type fruit limes.

01:27 We've been manufacturing those in various brands for,

01:30 one of the brands, the Golden Days brand for 45 years now.

01:34 [Music plays]

01:37 So our main customers are, in the retail, are Woolworths and Metcash.

01:42 They've been great supporters of us over the years,

01:44 so they've been our biggest customers.

01:46 But we also do a lot of unbranded product to, in anyone's name.

01:51 So we've got distributors all over Australia that we pack for them in their brand,

01:56 plain packaging, they label it, you know, repack it.

01:58 So, yes, we've got pretty good coverage.

02:00 We're pretty much in every supermarket in Australia really in some way.

02:04 [Music plays]

02:07 One of the newer lines, oh actually it's an old line, regenerated.

02:11 The business was built probably making high boiled sweets like black and white peppermints

02:16 and humbugs and things like that, you know, in, oh, 30 years ago.

02:19 Well that sort of faded out of popularity a bit, so we sort of moved away from that a bit.

02:24 But we've actually moved back into it now doing, like, specialist lozenges

02:29 with Manuka honey and honey eucalyptus.

02:31 So just recently, it's with another brand, but we've been exporting to UK and US and to China.

02:38 [Music plays]

02:42 Apricot Delight, Apricot Coconut Slice, I mean, we have a lot of customers that buy those all over Australia.

02:47 And it's amazing, they always want different flavours.

02:50 They want cranberry, they want strawberry, they want mango, pineapple.

02:53 And they all come, they all go, and Apricot Delight and Apricot Coconut Slice

02:57 are the two that just live on, seem to live on forever.

03:00 They're the most popular lines we do and have done for, you know,

03:04 different sizes, shapes, packs, you know, for 40, 50 years.

03:08 [Music plays]

03:12 Yeah, I still eat them, yeah.

03:13 Well, we do a lot of, you know, obviously testing with product trials and things like that.

03:18 So you're still, I think people would be horrified if they knew how much sugar we consume.

03:22 [Music plays]

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