The Rise and Fall of New Zealand's Most Loved Ice Cream Empire: Tip Top

The Rise and Fall of New Zealand's Most Loved Ice Cream Empire: Tip Top 10 October 1935: a Wellington milk bar started selling ice cream by the glass. Tip Top wasn't just an ice cream — it was a New Zealand childhood, where a Trumpet cost a shilling. 340 serves a minute. But on 13 May 2019, Fonterra sold it to Froneri for $380 million. Miles Hurrell called it bittersweet. In 2022 the two-litre Goody Goody Gum Drops left supermarket shelves. Today, twenty million Trumpets a year still leave Mt Wellington, and one year's $15 million dividend went to Australia. In March 2026 even Kāpiti, the brand Fonterra kept, went to Lactalis. This is the story of how a country kept the factory but sold the name — and who owns a childhood. This is not just the story of Tip Top. It's the story of the biggest ice-cream eaters on earth, eating someone else's. #TipTopIceCream #TrumpetIceCream #ForgottenNewZealand #NZHistory #RiseAndFall #NewZealand