Otaki Historical Society » June 2014

The speaker for the meeting held on 3 June was Fiona Walker, talking about Golden Coast Poultry in Te Horo Beach Road. 

This was started by her father Graham and was very much a family business.  Her father had started young with bantams and by 17 was into poultry rearing and selling eggs.  The growing demand for chickens saw a move out of eggs and into meat.  Production almost doubled every year until 12,000 chickens were processed every day.  This had an big impact in the community as local farmers raised chickens for them.  Staff numbers rose from an initial 5 or 6 to over 100 in the mid 1970s and later to over 200.  It was very labour intensive at first but got more automated over time.  The business was eventually sold to General Foods.  Fiona had many amusing anecdotes which were very much enjoyed by an appreciative audience.