Over the years, Cookie time has steadily built up a reputation for entrepreneurial spirit and great tasting products leading to being selected by an independent panel of experts as one of New Zealand's most loved brands in the book 'New Zealand's Favourite Brands - an Insight in to some of New Zealand's Most Iconic Brands'.

Cookie Time today is a proudly Kiwi company, still privately owned by Michael and his brother Guy. When you look at what's on the shelves these days, it's good to know there are still family owned Kiwi companies producing good old fashioned homestyle products.

At the factory and head office in Templeton, just south of Christchurch, Cookie Time employs over 80 full time staff, with an extra 30 staff and 69 tertiary students added to the team in the weeks leading up to Christmas. On top of that, there are 42 independent franchisees who service outlets throughout New Zealand.

Cookie Time is the leader of its category and has been now for over 20 years. Recent independent consumer research by the The Nielsen Company found Cookie Time to be New Zealand's favourite cookie brand. The brand has been built on the basics - great tasting products, great distribution, strong imagery and the creation of dynamic public relations opportunities.

Surprisingly, things haven't changed that much since the company's early days. New Zealand's best selling cookie - the Original Chocolate Chunk is made today to the same recipe that Michael began with all those years ago and all cookies are still individually hand crafted. That's why they all look slightly different - the uniformity of biscuits lack personality in our opinion!

Entrepreneurial spirit is at the heart of the company culture. Cookie Time created product based school fundraising way back in 1989 with a programme called the '9-Day Fundraising Programme' (a system soon copied by companies selling chocolate and other products), and also created the High Schools Business Challenge to encourage youth to turn entrepreneurial thinking into real business success.

The company is still closely connected with education through the work of the Cookie Time Charitable Trust. The CTCT was set up to help ‘New Zealand kids discover their gifts’ and, championed by Cookie Time co-owner Guy, who dedicates pretty much all of his time nowadays to the running of the Trust, the CTCT works closely with the cause of dyslexia.

So next time you bite into a Cookie Time cookie, remember you’re tasting a little piece of a classic Kiwi success story!