Wattie's
Wattie's is a New Zealand packaged food brand, owned by Kraft Heinz, that produces canned, frozen, and other grocery food products sold under the Wattie's name.www.watties.co.nz
23
MENTIONS
15
EPISODES
12
PODCASTS
Search complete. 23 mentions across 15 episodes found for "Wattie's".
Oct 7, 2026
Morgan PennHOST
[laughs] So unhealthy.
Hayley SproullHOST
It's all like everything's Watties and Maggie's.
Morgan PennHOST
Yeah.
Morgan PennHOST
[laughs]
Hayley SproullHOST
And you gotta get the Watties this and the Maggie's packet this.
Morgan PennHOST
Yes.
Hayley SproullHOST
And everything, like, we were like this at the start of our relationship too.
Brooke GibsonHOST
I'm like, hell yeah.
Brooke GibsonHOST
For anyone who's just joined, that is a can of spaghetti and sausages from the brand Watties in New Zealand and three packets of Shapes, which is an Aussie brand that us Kiwis love.
Sin HowardHOST
And a package that was $70 to our listener who is in...
Sin HowardHOST
You fucking sent it to him,
Alison GoftonGUEST
And it wasn't long after that we put pom-poms on top of a cottage pie, and New Zealand went nuts for such an easy idea.
Alison GoftonGUEST
And then it just kept on rolling and rolling, and it really worked for Wattie's.
AliHOST
Mm-hmm.
Alison GoftonGUEST
And of course, Wattie's was part and parcel of New Zealand at that stage.
Alison GoftonGUEST
11 or 13 cents in every dollar spent in a supermarket was sent to Wattie's.
Alison GoftonGUEST
A significant amount of money.
Alison GoftonGUEST
Shows you how much Wattie's meant back then.
Alison GoftonGUEST
And the public loved it, and I think I fronted it for 13 years-
Sin HowardHOST
Neck growth in other places first We've got a few comments A couple that excite me particularly We've had one from Mike's brother And it just simply reads The package has been secured
Brooke GibsonHOST
Yes, for anyone who is not playing along at home, we chatted ages ago about how there's a brand over here, Watties, and they do like spaghetti in a can, but you get spaghetti with sausages, like little cut up pieces of sausages.
Sin HowardHOST
And for people, I know our international listeners hear spaghetti in a can, they're like, what the fuck are you talking about? It's like thick...
Sin HowardHOST
It's like thick spaghetti noodles.
Rebecca GreavesGUEST
Um, I have always had an interest in the region, and I used to cover regional council actually when I was at my first job at the paper there in Hawke's Bay.
Rebecca GreavesGUEST
So I sort of jumped at the chance to have a look at this, and I guess it really came from a feeling that there was quite a lot of big things at play with the primary sectors there in terms of McCain's exiting Watties.
Rebecca GreavesGUEST
They're still there, but not on a large scale as I understand.
Rebecca GreavesGUEST
Obviously, then there were some quite high-profile things happening in the hort world with Rocket, the Kiwi Crunch collapse, and I wondered if that was symptomatic of other deeper things that were happening in that industry.
11 MINS LATER
Bryan GibsonHOST
You know, further up the coast and on the east coast, you know, Indevin just was kind of like, "Nope, we're out of here.
Bryan GibsonHOST
No more Chardonnay from Gisborne." That's had big impact up there.
Bryan GibsonHOST
And then on the hort side of things, of course, McCain's and Watties, they're multinationals in certain respects.
Bryan GibsonHOST
You're sort of going with the global winds as well as the local winds.
Rebecca GreavesGUEST
They, you know, Hawke's Bay, Fruit Bowl of New Zealand, Wine Country, you know, we have all these tags and it is an amazing place, great climate, you know, all of those things really great for growing.
Rebecca GreavesGUEST
And, you know, we've got Rocket, we've got Kiwi Crunch, we've got McCain's and Wattie's pulling back or exiting.
Rebecca GreavesGUEST
These vines are being pulled out with the global downturn with wine.
Rebecca GreavesGUEST
What's going to happen to all of this land? And I was, then the more I, got into it, the more I found that actually the water uncertainty that is hanging over the region is really the crux of it all.
Rebecca GreavesGUEST
It just sort of felt like it was a bit of a train wreck because it was like one thing after another.
Rebecca GreavesGUEST
There was the Kiwi Crunch Collette and Rocket wasn't going so great or isn't.
Rebecca GreavesGUEST
Then McCain's, Wattie's is still there but not in a great capacity.
Rebecca GreavesGUEST
The wine situation, the lamb finishing, like it just all feels like it's a little hard but then There's still really good things happening as well.
Jesse MulliganHOST
Sticking with the rural theme, several big announcements this year have left vegetable growers around the country wondering what comes next.
Jesse MulliganHOST
Heinz Watties is closing four sites, including its frozen packing operation in Hastings, while McCain is shutting its Hastings vegetable processing plant too.
Jesse MulliganHOST
That means finding new buyers, rethinking what they plant and asking whether New Zealand can support local frozen vegetable industry at all.
Jesse MulliganHOST
One of the growers caught up in it is Hugh Delrimple, who runs the cropping side of Waitatapia Station near Bulls and has been involved in efforts to keep vegetable processing going.
Rebecca GreavesGUEST
You know, we have all these, uh, tags, and it is an amazing place, great climate, you know, all of those things really great for growing.
Rebecca GreavesGUEST
And, um, you know, we've got Rocket, we've got Kiwi Crunch, we've got, um, um, McCain's and Watties pulling back or exiting.
Rebecca GreavesGUEST
These vines are being pulled out with the global downturn with wine.
Rebecca GreavesGUEST
Um, what's gonna happen to all of this land? And I was ...
Rebecca GreavesGUEST
Then the more I got into it, the more I found that actually the water uncertainty that is hanging over the region is really at the crux of it all.
Rebecca GreavesGUEST
And yeah, so I mean, you've got wine, orchards, arable, but then whether that continues because of, you know, the, the McCain's and Watties situation, a lot of lamb finishing on the plains.
Rebecca GreavesGUEST
So we're talking, I mean, it's, it's the flat area.
Rebecca GreavesGUEST
It includes Hastings and Napier cities.
Allyson GoftonGUEST
It was about making something with the brand.
Allyson GoftonGUEST
And we were turned down by a number of companies, but Watties were the people that saw the potential and they underwrote it for six months.
Allyson GoftonGUEST
And by the end of that six months, they put pom-poms on top of a cottage pie and the rest is kind of history.
Allyson GoftonGUEST
And that's how that all happened.
Alan McDonaldGUEST
So that's the kind of factor that you have in there.
Alan McDonaldGUEST
The Watties one, the food production down in the Hawke's Bay, they talked about the cheap imports, canned peaches and things that come in from overseas.
Alan McDonaldGUEST
So partly that's the price we pay for free trade agreements.
Alan McDonaldGUEST
And we're an enthusiastic adopter of free trade agreements and it's been great.
5 more episodes mention Wattie's.
Create an account to see the whole feed, search across every transcript, and follow the entities you care about.