Moo Chews kids' snack pulled after link with Gloriavale revealed

Friday, 19 March 2021

A screenshot of the Moo Chews website which does not disclose that the product is made at the Gloriavale Christian Community on the West Coast. The flavoured milk bites are promoted as a healthy alternative to sugary snacks.

Moo Chews kids snacks made by the Gloriavale Christian Community have been dropped by two distributors because of “reputational” issues.

The Moo Chews website listed more than 100 stockists nationally for the milk bites which are marketed as a health treat for children, but two distributors who this week learned Moo Chews’ were made at Gloriavale have refused to handle the product, and one offered all its retailers a full refund as an incentive to get them to withdraw Moo Chews from sale.

Following enquires from Stuff about manufacturing of the milk bites, an email from the Moo Chews NZ website said Gloriavale’s contract would be suspended until the company was satisfied with employment practices at the factory.

The isolated West Coast Christian community of Gloriavale has set itself apart from the rest of society for more than 50 years.

* Gloriavale trust's assets and profits up on last year

* No action to be taken against Gloriavale by Labour Inspectorate as workers deemed volunteers

* Gloriavale leaver launches High Court civil proceedings against leaders

An in-store Moo Chews stand. Merchandise for the milk bites features a soft toy singing cow.

Gloriavale has come in for attention from authorities over allegations about excessive work hours, workplace injuries, and the employment status of workers treated as “volunteers” which is the subject of an on-going investigation by the Labour Inspectorate.

Three individuals from Gloriavale have also been charged as a result of a continuing police investigation into child abuse at the community, several other community members have previously been convicted of sexual offences including founder the late Hopeful Christian, and next month the Royal Commission into abuse and faith-based care is sending lawyers to Canterbury in April to talk to those who had left Gloriavale.

When approached on Tuesday, a spokesman for Moo Chews Christchurch-based distributor BML Group, said he had “no visibility” of the manufacturing operation, but he later provided a statement saying BML would no longer distribute Moo Chews because “too many questions remain around the treatment of Gloriavale members”.

John Crombie, managing director of distributor Crombie & Price, was also unaware Moo Chews were manufactured at Gloriavale until approached by Stuff and he has immediately ceased distribution.

The Gloriavale Christian Community at Haupiri Rd on the West Coast is financed by the Christian Church Community Trust. The tax-free registered charity last year reported assets worth $41 million in its annual return to Charities Services.

Crombie said Gloriavale did not meet the values of his company, which aimed to source well-being products from “ethical supply partners,” and he had asked all the retailers who purchased Moo Chews to withdraw the product from sale.

His letter to retailers said the product was completely safe, and the voluntary recall was “based on a social responsibility to protect retailers from any potential backlash from consumers”.

Christchurch pharmacist Annabel Turley discovered one of her three stores stocked Moo Chews after a staff member was attracted by the cute branding, but she sent them back on learning of their association with Gloriavale.

“We don't support the way they treat the people there.”

Gloriavale did not respond to emailed questions by deadline.

Gloriavale’s business interests include Forest Gold honey, and dairy and deer farming operations. When Stuff asked Westland Dairy Company about its relationship with the community’s Canaan Dairy Farm, the dairy company said that under its regular review process it asked milk suppliers for assurances they understood their legal obligations regarding staff employment contracts. (File photo)

An email response from the Moo Chews NZ Limited sales website confirmed it had a contract with a Gloriavale company to make its product.

“For now, we will suspend further manufacturing with the Gloriavale-based company until we can be totally satisfied with their employment practices.”

According to the Companies Office, Moo Chews NZ Ltd is half owned by M & H Trustee Ten Ltd whose directors Suzanne Merriman and Fergal O’Gara are principals of West Coast accounting firm, Marshall & Heaphy. They declined to comment.

The remaining shares are owned by holding company Donoratica Services whose sole director is Christchurch lawyer Oliver Roberts, and he said he had no instructions to answer Stuff’s questions.

The Pure Vitality website promoting the brand's deer velvet and bee venom health supplements and skincare products does not say the factory where they are made is part of the Gloriavale community on the West Coast. (Website screenshot)

Grey District mayor Tania Gibson posted on Facebook in 2019 about products made at Gloriavale, including the milk bites, which she said were the idea of a Gloriavale mother who had worked on the design and branding.

Gibson has visited Gloriavale’s Moo Chews factory and on the issue of disclosure she said, “we’d like it to be a bit more transparent, that’s for sure.”

The Moo Chews website says its “dairy heritage” goes back to a great-grandfather who milked the family’s small jersey cow as a small boy, and dairy farmed in Canterbury after returning from a stint as a pilot in World War II, but there is no mention of where the milk bites are made, or by whom.

Another Gloriavale business Pure Vitality, which makes deer velvet and bee venom products, also fails to disclose its connection to the Christian community on its website.

The Pure Vitality site says two brothers’ fascination with a pet fawn led to the establishment of the deer park at Haupiri, they built their pictured factory in a “quiet village nestled against the snow-capped Southern Alps,” and the Pure Vitality family was “driven by the belief that caring for people is our highest calling, especially for our children as they are our future.”

Former Gloriavale members like Isaac Pilgrim have publicly aired concerns about the way the community treats its workers.

But he is not in favour of boycotting Gloriavale products because he said general community members would suffer over something that was not their fault.

Instead, companies doing business with Gloriavale should put pressure on its leaders over staff working conditions.

“It would be awesome if they held the leadership to be accountable, if they can prove they’re paying their workforce, if they can prove [workers] are given normal employees’ rights like four weeks holiday a year … and working a 40-hour week.”

New Zealand has no supply chain transparency legislation, and this week the Government released an action plan to combat forced labour, people trafficking and slavery here and internationally.

Associate Professor of marketing at the Auckland University business school, Mike Lee, said consumers had a right to supply chain details, so they could make informed decisions about purchases.

“It should apply across the board, all consumers and customers should be privy to a transparent supply chain, whether this is something that is made in a Chinese Uyghur concentration camp, or something made by free labour on the West Coast of New Zealand.”