The History of Ice Cream in New Zealand

By Chris Newey


Eskimo Pie

Invented by Danish immigrant Christian K Nelson in the United States in 1920, and originally known as the "I-Scream Bar", the Eskimo Pie was the world's very first ice cream novelty, a chocolate-covered vanilla ice cream bar wrapped in distinctive silver foil with dark blue graphics. It was a raging success and the invention was patented by the Eskimo Pie Corporation in 1922 and franchised to other ice cream manufacturers around the world.

Mr W. Arthur Fisher, an American engineer, came to New Zealand in 1923 with fellow American Capt. Charles Bertram Colby, as the Australasian controllers of the Eskimo Pie franchise.

Manufacturing Licenses were issued and advertised in several newspapers. Successful applicants were listed as Polar Ice Cream Coy. Ltd, Auckland district, and Boston Ice Cream Co., Wanganui:

Manufacturing Licenses issued for the manufacture of Eskimo Pie,
notice in the Otago Daily Times, 17 May 1924

Unfortunately Boston Ice Cream Co. had to relinquish their license. Company founder Alick Revell's brother-in-law was killed in a car accident, so he had to return to Glenfield to help his sister on the farm with her young family, and the Boston Ice Cream Company closed.

Polar Ice Cream appears to have been the first to market - the company advertised that Eskimo Pie manufacture could be viewed during the official opening of its new factory at Station Road, Newmarket, on Thursday 18 September 1924. Eskimo Pies sold for 3d each.

Notice of Polar Ice Cream factory opening, NZ Herald, 17 September 1924

Meanwhile, Colby continued to sell licenses around the country, region by region:

For sale: manufacturing rights for the manufacture of Eskimo Pie in Christchurch,
advertisement in the Press, 20 September 1924

In July 1924 a group of Wellington investors had recognised the opportunity and formed a company specifically for the purpose of taking up a license:

"to manufacture, sell, and distribute as wholesalers and retailers the confection known as "Eskimo Pie", ice cream, and any other similar class of goods, and general incidental."

The company was named Frozen Products Ltd and it acquired the license for the Wellington region. The business also cannily secured the services of franchise controller W. Arthur Fisher who became General Manager. A factory was built at 210 Vivian Street in central Wellington.

Eskimo Pies were on the Wellington market by December 1924.

Eskimo Pie advertisement, Evening Post, 16 December 1924

Robinson Ice Cream Company began manufacturing Eskimo Pies in Auckland in 1925.

Frozen Products new Vivian St factory was officially opened on 30 September 1925. By 1927, the company claimed to be selling 420,000 Eskimo Pies a year.

Freesia Milk and Ice Cream Company, based in Gisborne, manufactured Eskimo Pies between 1926 and 1928 and Crystal Ice Cream Company of Dunedin was manufacturing and selling Eskimo Pies by 1928.

Robinson Ice Cream Company of Auckland obtained sole rights to manufacture and distribute Eskimo Pies in the Auckland province in 1929. Priced threepence and "coated in Nestles' best chocolate".

In November 1929, Frozen Products opened a new factory at 25-29 Tennyson St, Te Aro.

"One of the most interesting bits at machinery in this up-to-date factory is that which, with almost supernatural uncanniness, takes blocks of the frozen mixture, dips them into liquid chocolate, and neatly wraps them, to be subsequently consumed as Eskimo Pie."

Anderson Bros. Mfg. Co. had designed and built the first automatic Eskimo Pie packaging machine in 1924. “The special Anderson Eskimo Pie Machine, which cuts, dips and wraps eighty dozen per hour, makes this delicacy a most hygienic product as it is not touched by hand during the process of manufacture.”

Eskimo Pie production at the Frozen Products Ltd, Tennyson St factory, ca. 1930. Anderson Eskimo Pie Machine at right. Photographer KE Niven.
- Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, C.003076.

Frozen Products' Eskimo Pie, 1931. Price 3d.

Frozen Products continued to sell the popular bars around the Wellington region throughout the 1930s and '40s, along with their own Frosty Jack brand ice cream.

The Eskimo Pie proved just as popular in New Zealand as it had been in America, and naturally resulted in imitations. However the patent proved to be difficult to protect.

On the 14th of August 1930 in the Dunedin Supreme Court, Mr. Justice Kennedy delivered his judgment in the action brought by Charles Bertram Colby, of Los Angeles, United States, against the Dunedin Ice Cream Manufacturing Co. (Ltd.).

Colby was seeking an injunction against the company, restraining it from the manufacture of "Royalettes", claimed to be similar to "Eskimo Pies," for which Mr Colby held the patent rights in New Zealand. Justice Kennedy ruled that the patent "could confer no monopoly rights" to either the concept of ice cream coated with chocolate, nor the manufacturing process involved. "The injunction was therefore refused, and judgment was given for the defendant against the plaintiff for £36 6s costs, and disbursements to be fixed by the Registrar."

Tip Top Ice Cream Company Auckland picked up the license to manufacture the product and use the famous name, probably when they took over Robinson's in 1953.

Eskimo Pie became a mainstay of Tip Top's novelty range.

In June 1968 General Foods Corporation, Ltd (Tip Top) shipped 350,000 Eskimo Pies from Wellington to Hong Kong. The order, which was distributed through Hong Kong’s leading icecream maker, was the first large shipment of ice-cream from New Zealand to Hong Kong.

By 1984, a 6-pack of Eskimo Pies sold for $1.79.

Tip Top Eskimo Pie advertisement ca. 1980.
- Tip Top archives

By 2014, 90 years after it was first introduced to New Zealand, the Eskimo Pie was still the country's top-selling multipack ice cream.

In 2020, the famous brand came to an end in New Zealand when Tip Top announced a change of name to Polar Pie, a move reflecting similar rebranding of the product in the US, the term 'Eskimo' being accepted as derogatory towards Inuit or Native Alaskan people.

Memories: Help us tell the stories

If you can fill in any gaps in our history of Eskimo Pie or if you have personal memories of the product that you would like to share, please email us at: info@nzicecream.org.nz Tip Top Eskimo Pie wrapper, 2011. - Steve Williams.

Robinson's Eskimo Pies. 1925. Reference Number: Eph-B-CONFECTIONERY-1925-01. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. http://mp.natlib.govt.nz/ detail/?id=19051&l=en