Noel Henry Yarrow, CBE. Baker and philanthropist. Died aged 83.

New Zealand Herald
On several counts the story of Noel Yarrow and the tiny rural town of Manaia in south Taranaki is certain to become part of folklore. It concerns a tiny country bakery, started in 1923, which in recent times has been described as the biggest family-owned bakery business in the country.

It was named in November as New Zealand's Food and Beverage Exporter of the Year. Its frozen dough exports now go round the world for someone else to finish the baking.

But there are two other remarkable facets to the story. The first is that despite the flight of many New Zealand businesses to the larger cities - and most recently overseas - Yarrows has stayed in Manaia.

Manaia was once a farming community service town. But these days farming has changed. Small dairy factories are gone from most areas. Were it not for Yarrows (which also took over the deserted bank building) Manaia would scarcely exist. The factory employs 250 people (a quarter of the population) plus 150 more further afield.

Another significant side of the story is that in a quiet, often unobtrusive way, Noel Yarrow has employed his wealth to help a very wide range of sports, education and charitable interests both in Taranaki and nationally.

Many people have heard of the Yarrow Stadium, but he also helped national charities such as the Starship hospital, the Fred Hollows Foundation, IHC and countless community and recreational events.

People say Yarrow was, at the core of his big heart, a simple baker. But he was also obviously an astute businessman with an eye for opportunities.

As a boy, Noel learned from his father not only the ancient craft of making and baking bread but also the habit of small-town humility and courtesies, and the never-ending requirement to return something to the community of one's customers. The lessons lasted him a lifetime.

The tiny bakery his parents founded was initially too small to accommodate its own oven plus the humble home of Alf and Grace Yarrow and their four children.

In his business career, especially in recent times, Noel Yarrow seemed surprised at the size of the operation that bore the family name.

He fondly remembered a childhood revolving around a household fowl-run for the bakery's eggs, home-grown potatoes for the yeast, baking lessons before he was old enough for school, and dawn chores of horse-and-cart deliveries of hot loaves to local hotels.


When he and his brother, Hec, took over their late father's business in 1952, their ambition was to develop a customer base extending 5km from the shop. Now it extends 10,000km from the same, vastly extended site.

He was recently observed stopping and staring at his own huge factory operation covering a hectare as if for the first time, and remarking incredulously on how far it had come.

If there was a key to success, it might have been Noel Yarrow's readiness to adopt new technology and companion changes to production. Just as his father, in the late 1930s, had broken ranks with other New Zealand bakers and radically acquired a mechanical mixer, Noel was forever investigating new machinery, techniques and raw materials that not only made the bakery more efficient but made a wider and better-quality range of goods for his multiplying customers. It was this habit that led to the development of frozen dough, a concept acquired from a small Seattle bakery during one of Noel's frequent investigative trips overseas.

He immediately recognised the advantage of making a superior New Zealand product, with tastier butter among other ingredients, and consistent flavour.

It saved large-scale users of Yarrow products having the necessary skills and the many hours of preparation required for bread and pastries, and avoided wastage.

So by the mid-1990s Yarrows was poised to win the contract to supply dough to the popular Subway fast-food chain in Australia and New Zealand (the latter alone with 200 outlets). Then came Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and Taiwan production now involving a million mini-loaves a month.

This expertise with making and safely delivering frozen dough for French-style bread, croissants and other bakery goods has extended Yarrows' market to Canada, the United States and the United Arab Emirates.

Noel Yarrow, who died of a heart attack, is survived by his wife of 60 years, Melva, sons Paul (now the third generation running the business) and John, and daughter Rosemary (married to New Plymouth Mayor Peter Tennent).

By Arnold Pickmere & Chris Lonsdale