Yarrows the Bakers: Vital Two Words

Two words saved the Yarrows bread empire from turning to toast. In the early 1970s, the Manaia business became part of a co-operative public company. In an attempt to beat their rivals, a group of like-minded bakers banded together and began a television campaign. The group decided it needed a single brand name to unify the co-operative.

Noel Yarrow put forward the name Homestyle, the brand his own company had been using since 1968. The band of bakers thought that best described their products, so they grabbed it, a move the Yarrow's managing director was happy with.

He was also fine about following the public company's rules, which allowed the separate bakeries to only sell their products in defined areas of New Zealand. But things turned nasty when Noel came up with a plan to sell frozen dough to other areas of the country.

In 1982, he wrote a letter to the co-operative company asking permission to begin dealing in dough, covering places beyond his baked bread-selling zone. Apparently, the company wrote back giving a definite “No!” to this plan. "We never got that letter, so we went merrily on our way" Noel says.

The result was a full-blown bread battle that ended up in court. "We were told we had to give up our [Homestyle] brand name within two weeks." And Yarrows was cut out of the co-operative.

The dough dispute raged from 1982 to 1985. "We took them to the High Court and got an injunction against them" he says. "Our QC finally won the case for us. It came down to the understanding of the English language - two words." Those vital weapons were: Yeast-raised. Noel explains: "Our agreement with this public company was we could only produce yeast-raised products within a defined area."

In stepped the experts, especially food technicians. Their mission was to answer the yeast-raised question. "In the end, the other company sent a recognised New Zealand authority into the bake room.”

Originally, that same authority had given a statement saying the Yarrow-made frozen products were yeast raised. But when faced with the product, the specialist made a U-turn. "He came into the bakery and saw it being produced and he said 'Well, that's not yeast raised, Noel'." The Yarrows were relieved. "It took us three years of legal argument, which was pretty traumatic. We could've lost our entire business."

The result saw the Manaia bakery once again become stand-alone and also facing a name change. "In two years we had to disassociate ourselves entirely" Noel says.

During the early years of the bakery, from 1923 to 1968, the company had traded under Noel's father's name, A. H. Yarrow. That label changed when Noel and Melva Yarrow took over the helm, purposely trying not to show off the family name.

When the Homestyle co-operative clash occurred, Noel changed his mind. "Up until then, I was very conscious of the tall poppy syndrome" he says. But when he came up with Yarrows, The Bakers Ltd, it hit the spot. "Everyone liked it; it flowed."

And as Noel has learned, words - even two of them - make all the difference in the world.