Posted in General Level 1 Business Visit Chelsea Sugar Works

Date: 10 March 2020

Level 1 Business students were fortunate enough to visit the Chelsea Sugar Factory on Friday. This will provide a fantastic case study for students to use for their classwork and assessments.

The Chelsea Sugar Factory, first opened in 1884! The site was chosen for its deep water and flat land. Much of the original 82 hectares has been sold, including 37 hectares of land that includes lakes, regenerating forest and wetlands, sold to the Heritage Park Trust, so that it will be kept safe for people to enjoy for generations.

Students learnt how over 100 years, the Chelsea Sugar Factory has had to adapt to change. The building of the Harbour bridge meant workers could get to the factory easily and Chelsea no longer needed their fleet of boats to get their sugar to their customers. The arrival of supermarkets meant that they could get their products out more quickly and cost effectively.

Today a ship arrives at their wharf every 6 weeks with the raw sugar, sourced from a number of tropical countries, that Chelsea processes. Students were intrigued to see the enormous 40,000 tonne raw sugar mountain and follow the manufacturing process from raw sugar to the many different, finished products.

The Interactive Zone, which is free to all, is set up so that you can make a virtual cake which students enjoyed doing. However they enjoyed the onsite Edmonds Baking School even more, because they were able to eat the delicious custard cream yoyo biscuits they made.

The trip ended with a talk on some of the marketing strategies used by Chelsea to ensure that when you are shopping, brand recognition and placement will have you reaching for the Chelsea product.

We would like to thank Chelsea for hosting us for this very enjoyable and informative trip.