The biscuit-makers of Adelaide’s past

THESE days, it means big bickies to big companies. But those biscuits and chocolates you find in every SA supermarket started out life in a little grocery shop in 1850.

The W. Menz & Company stand at the Royal Adelaide Show, circa 1940.

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REMEMBER when you could go to the local corner shop and buy a shilling’s (1/-) worth of broken biscuits?

For a “bob”, you could get a big brown paper bag of the broken bits at the bottom of the biscuit tin and gorge yourself with morsels of Menz’s delicious Yo-Yos, yummy Malt or some of their other favourites. Those were the days.

W. Menz & Co was one of the earliest biscuit makers in Adelaide. Several of the products they introduced are still being manufactured and sold today, albeit by different companies, including Yo-Yo biscuits and those other South Aussie icons, Crown Mints and FruChocs.

The Menz story started in Wakefield St in 1850 when German immigrant John Menz and his wife Magdalena started a small grocery shop, which eventually became a family business.

When John died in 1856, Magdalena ran the store until she felt their two sons, William and August, were old enough to take it over. August eventually moved on to greener pastures, so in 1867, William finally took control of the small company to begin trading for the first time as W. Menz & Co.

A double-decker bus with Menz advertising crosses King William St in about 1950.

William was ambitious, and buoyed by youthful enthusiasm, in 1885 he decided to expand and added a biscuit factory to the little shop. By 1893, he expanded again, this time with a confectionery production arm.

From those very humble beginnings, with extreme hard work and dedication, the small company began to grow and prosper. The confectionery side of the business was further developed with a new chocolate-making plant in 1910 and adopted a new brand name “Menzona”.

Business was brisk and success continued for W. Menz & Co.

Over the next 30 years, it increased production and introduced new products into the South Australian market, including Yo-Yo biscuits, which first appeared in grocery shops in 1932.

Legend has it that there was a real yoyo craze in Adelaide at the time.

To capitalise on the fad, W. Menz & Co launched its new honey-flavoured delicacy and marketed it with the brand name of Yo-Yo.

Staff outside W. Menz & Co’s, Wakefield St premises in 1890.

The biscuit was an instant hit and remains a local favourite to this day. Menz became a public company in 1951, and with greater markets and bigger orders to fill, within a few years further expansion was necessary.

New production premises were found in Galway Ave, Marleston, and with the larger factory, the company became a major employer of labour as its trademarked products grew into South Australian icons.

By the mid-1960s, with the rapid rationalisation of the national marketplace, and after a series of takeovers and mergers, W. Menz & Co was amalgamated with two other well-known biscuit makers to form Arnott-Motteram-Menz.

At about that time, Arnott’s assumed total biscuit production and confectionery production was eventually sold to Robern Dried Fruits in 1992. Robern restructured operations to become Robern Menz of Glynde. The former Menz products still being produced today include ever-popular Crown Mints, created in 1892, and choc-coated fruit treats FruChocs, which were introduced in 1948.

Same place, this time in 1885.

Arnott’s still make Yo-Yo biscuits and they apparently remain an all-time favourite in this state. According to Arnott’s website, South Aussies munch their way through more than one million-plus packets of the delicious honey treat every year.

Many South Australians were upset when it was announced by Arnotts that Yo-Yos would be removed from their family assorted packets in 1997, when the decision was made that the selection of biscuits would be the same throughout Australia.

The Yo-Yo was apparently just not popular enough countrywide to survive in the mix of the variety pack.

In a recent post on the Adelaide Remember When Facebook blog, many former South Australians lamented the fact that Yo-Yos and FruChocs were not available in any other state.

Joii Harris comments: “We love our Yo-Yo biscuits but since moving to NSW, we have to rely on family bringing them over to us.” Veronica Manders wrote: “I have to take Yo-Yos across the border to Bendigo every year for my family”, and Heather Mullen said: “When I lived in Queensland, any family member who travelled to South Australia was obliged to return with Yo-Yos and FruChocs.”

Yo-Yo advertising on a bus heading down Currie St in 1972.

There was some discussion on the blog also as to whether W. Menz & Co was the original maker of Bush Biscuits, another South Australian favourite. Des Carman, who used to buy his buttered Bush Biscuits at the City Baths for threepence, believes they were made by Menz, though nobody else seemed certain.

In my research, I have found reference to Bush Biscuits being introduced into South Australia during the 1920s and Arnotts reintroducing them again in the ’90s. However, according to those who remember the original, the biscuits were just not the same and failed to gain enough regular sales to continue with production.

Finally, Pamela Addison reminded me that: “Menz were the only people who really knew how to make Malt biscuits. I have never found anything to compare!”

She’s right about that. I remember those little packets of Menz Malt Biscuits from my childhood years. They were one of my all-time favourites.

Bob Byrne is the author of Adelaide Remember When and posts memories of Adelaide every day on Facebook.com/AdelaideRememberWhen