The Blue Moon Dairy was sold to Bruce Hastie in 1957, and he immediately increased the opening hours and added new products, such as sundaes and milk drinks.
Bruce later added a coffee bar, which was one of the first in the area.
In addition to increasing the product offering, Bruce's attributes his successful business to "cleanliness, customer service and well-trained staff".
In 1962 Bruce had a visit from Harold Carr, who wanted to know if he would like to buy into the manufacturing ice cream business of Blue Moon.
"Yes" said Bruce "but only if I buy the whole company."
A meeting of shareholders occurred, and they agreed to sell the whole business to Bruce.
The manufacturing side of the business soon expanded, so Bruce bought a section in a newly developed industrial area in Havelock North, with street frontage to Karenema Drive.
He opened Blue Moon's ice cream factory there in 1966.
Agents were appointed in Gisborne, Manawatu and Taranaki for his products.
Bruce himself created new ice cream flavours (of which there were 30 in total), such as Turkish coffee, damson (plum flavoured), and coconut ice and cherry.
Other products included soft-serve ice cream. Chocolate bombs were made, and ice blocks under the brand Star Pops. Two of his trucks serviced Napier and Hastings.
Bruce recalled that the ice cream market was extremely competitive, especially from Tip Top and Peter Pan, so he ensured he had a top-quality product.
Ice cream was sold in 1, 2, 4, 5, 10 and 16-litre packs.
Another wing to the building was added to provide more refrigerated space (the area is now occupied by Acme Supplies.
In June 1976, Hawke's Bay hosted its first and only ice cream conference at the DB Te Mata in Havelock North (now Mary Doyle Lifecare).
All the big players were there, including Tip Top Ice Cream and Wattie's.
Havelock North Mayor Jeff Whittaker opened the conference, which had three Hawke's Bay representatives: Rush Munro, Denne's (Peter Pan Ice Cream) and Blue Moon. (Rush Munro's is the only one remaining.)
One of the topical issues at the conference was the decline in sales of bulk ice cream.
The secretary of the New Zealand Ice Cream Manufacturers Association, Mr P J Moore of Wellington, stated: "Shop owners are finding it more convenient to sell something on a stick than put ice cream in a cone."
Strategies the conference came up with was to promote ice cream parlours to enable growth of cone sales.
Bruce Hastie of Blue Moon Ice cream was interested in the New Zealand Ice Cream industry beyond his company, and was in 1984 president of the New Zealand Independent Ice Cream Manufacturers and vice-president of the New Zealand Ice Cream Manufacturers.
It was also in 1984 that he received and accepted an approach from Devon Dairy Products in Tauranga to buy the business.
The Havelock North factory would service the lower North Island and Devon's Tauranga base the upper North Island.
It was thought to be a wise move for the business by Bruce, and he sold - however Devon's new venture was tragically over within a year and the Blue Moon brand consequently disappeared.
I have fond memories of the ice cream. I was a newspaper delivery boy for the Herald Tribune (now Hawke's Bay Today), and the factory entrance was on Cooper St, Havelock North - opposite our newspaper loading bay.
It was a ritual for the boys (and one girl) to request free ice cream from them - and on a couple of occasions we got some!
Today the ice cream parlour concept is still alive, with a number in Hawke's Bay.
I'd like to thank Bruce Hastie, the past owner of Blue Moon, and Steve Manning, from Lick This Ice Cream Parlour, in Marine Parade, Napier, for the information in this story.
Long live ice cream!
* Michael Fowler (mfhistory@gmail.com) is a Chartered Accountant and heritage officer at the Art Deco Trust.
