He worked around the clock to engineer new machinery
In the mid-1970s, a Rotorua baker teetering on the edge of financial ruin found himself unexpectedly positioned at the threshold of a new era in New Zealand commerce. When McDonald's sought local suppliers for its first New Zealand restaurant, Sykes of Richmond Foods answered — not from a place of abundance, but from the hard-won clarity that follows near-collapse. His willingness to engineer solutions where none existed, producing over a thousand pies for a single opening day, speaks to the quiet way ordinary craftspeople shape the foundations of institutions we later take for granted.
- Richmond Foods was drowning in debt, with collapsed clients and no cash flow, leaving Sykes working nights and days just to keep the business breathing.
- McDonald's arrival in New Zealand created an urgent, high-stakes opportunity — but the opening day order of 1,152 apple pies far exceeded anything Sykes had ever attempted.
- Rather than walk away, Sykes engineered custom machinery from scratch, transforming a one-at-a-time process into a production run capable of meeting a global brand's exacting demands.
- The opening drew crowds of over a hundred people before 10am, and though early production limits were exposed, Sykes kept refining his methods as orders climbed exponentially.
- Decades later, his resilience was recognised at Rotorua's inaugural business awards, and his story now anchors McDonald's New Zealand 50th anniversary as a testament to local ingenuity.
In the mid-1970s, Rotorua baker Sykes was watching Richmond Foods — the pastry business he'd built with his wife — slide toward ruin. Clients had vanished, debts were mounting, and he was running on little more than stubbornness. A period of deliberate retrenchment, collecting what was owed and scaling back ambitions, steadied things just enough. And it was in that fragile window of clarity that McDonald's came looking for suppliers.
The American chain was preparing to open its first New Zealand restaurant and needed someone who could produce apple pies to precise specifications and at serious volume. Sykes agreed, developed frozen-then-fried samples, and waited. The opening day order arrived: 1,152 pies. He had never come close to producing that number. So he built the machinery to make it possible — a custom press capable of turning out dozens of pies per run — and worked around the clock until it was done.
The Porirua opening drew crowds and fanfare, and though the pressure exposed the limits of his early methods, Sykes kept adapting as demand kept rising. What began as a financial lifeline became a demonstration that a local supplier could hold its own against the expectations of a global brand.
By 1991, Richmond Foods had grown enough that Rotorua's mayor personally visited the factory and persuaded a reluctant Sykes to enter the city's inaugural business awards. He won both Business Personality of the Year and Big Business of the Year. Fifty years on, as McDonald's marks its New Zealand anniversary with fifty stories, Sykes' place among them is a reminder that behind every familiar institution are the local hands — and the improvised machinery — that quietly made it possible.
In the mid-1970s, a Rotorua baker named Sykes was running Richmond Foods straight into the ground. His pastry business, which he'd started with his wife, was drowning in debt. Clients had collapsed. Cash wasn't flowing. He was working nights making pastry, days delivering it across the North Island, and the whole operation was on the edge of failure.
Then something shifted. He took advice to collect what people owed him and pull back on his ambitions. It wasn't glamorous, but it steadied the ship. And it was precisely at that moment—when he'd stopped bleeding money and could actually think straight—that McDonald's came calling.
The American chain was preparing to open its first restaurant in New Zealand and needed suppliers who could work to exacting specifications and produce at volume. They wanted someone to make apple pies. Sykes said yes, even though his operation wasn't really built for it. He started developing samples: pies that had to be frozen before frying, prepared with precision, nothing left to chance.
When the opening day order arrived, it was for 1,152 pies. Not a few dozen. Not a hundred. Twelve hundred and fifty-two. For a single day. Sykes had never made anything close to that number. So he did what a desperate man with some ingenuity does—he built new machinery. He engineered a press that could turn out dozens of pies in a single run instead of making them one at a time. He worked around the clock. He adapted. He refined. He kept going.
The opening day itself drew more than a hundred people lined up before 10 in the morning, with entertainment marking the occasion. McDonald's later noted that the pressure of that first day exposed the limits of his early production methods, but Sykes kept adjusting as orders kept climbing. What had started as a lifeline became something more: proof that a local supplier could meet the demands of a global brand.
By 1991, Sykes and Richmond Foods were named Business Personality of the Year and Big Business of the Year at Rotorua's inaugural business awards. He hadn't even planned to enter. The mayor, Grahame Hall, had visited the factory and talked him into it. "They really twisted my arm," Sykes said later, "so I entered and filled in the forms."
Fifty years after that first McDonald's opened in Porirua, the company is marking the milestone by telling fifty stories. Sykes' is one of them. His innovation—the machinery, the process, the willingness to scale—helped shape how McDonald's established itself in New Zealand. From that single outlet to more than 170 restaurants today, the company says its growth was built on local franchisees, workers, and suppliers. Sykes was one of the ones who made it possible.
Notable Quotes
They really twisted my arm, so I entered and filled in the forms— Sykes, on being convinced to enter the 1991 business awards
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does a pie supplier matter enough to remember fifty years later?
Because he solved a problem nobody else could. McDonald's needed someone to produce hundreds of pies on opening day. Sykes had to invent the machinery to do it. That's not just supply—that's innovation under pressure.
Was he already successful when they approached him?
No. He was failing. That's what makes it interesting. He was about to lose the business entirely. The McDonald's contract didn't just save Richmond Foods—it gave him a reason to build something bigger than he'd imagined.
Did he know what he was getting into?
Probably not. He took the job despite having limited production capability. He had to learn as he went, which meant building new machinery on the fly while meeting impossible deadlines.
What changed after that first day?
He kept adapting. The opening day showed him where his processes broke down, so he kept refining them. As orders increased, he had to keep innovating. It wasn't a one-time fix—it was continuous improvement under real demand.
Did he ever talk about how hard it was?
Not much in the record. What we know is he worked around the clock and engineered solutions. The mayor had to convince him to even enter the business awards. He wasn't the type to make a fuss about what he'd done.
So this is really a story about a local supplier making a global brand possible?
Exactly. McDonald's tells it that way now—as part of how New Zealand shaped the company, not the other way around. Sykes was one of the people who made that possible.