Kiwi Icons: John Griffin biscuit man

​Flour and cocoa miller John Griffin had a vision. He wanted more than the daily grind.
So he struck out for New Zealand - and created a legacy that we all still see every day.
Because who among us hasn’t had a Griffin's biscuit? Toffee Pops, Shrewsbury, Squiggles or that coffee dunking favourite - gingernuts?
He was born on November 20, 1812, to John Griffin and Hannah Hollis in the village of God’s Hill on the Isle of Wight.
He married Charlotte Reynolds in 1840 and they went on to have seven children.
John ran his own flour mill - using a windmill - before deciding he wanted more opportunity.
He packed them up on to the barque Ashmore and they sailed for New Zealand in 1854 arriving in Nelson.
He immediately set up a bakery in Trafalgar S,t but almost as quickly lost it in an earthquake. Despite learning and rebuilding in wood, business was slow and he relocated his family to Christchurch a few years later.
John worked as a grocer and a draper before the whole family returned to Nelson where he bought land and sold fuel, flour and biscuits, including candied peel and drinking cocoa.
It was here he died in 1893.
It was two of his sons who decided to expand the business but it wasn’t easy. Twice their factory burned to the ground. The second time, in 1903, a new modern factory was built.
In 1938, the whole biscuit making side of the business was moved to Lower Hutt - at the bottom of the hill to Wainuiomata. The factory in Nelson was turned over to confectionery.
During World War Two the factory began making huge quantities of army biscuits to be shipped to the Middle East.
It was considered a cutting edge production facility - including the first full automated wrapping machine.
The factory closed in Lower Hutt in 2009 putting 228 people out of work while the Auckland factory took over production.
John is buried in Fairfield Cemetery.