That was the message on the company’s website this week and it was understood that the factory in Kaikorai Valley Rd — which has operated since about 2014 — closed on Monday.
Havoc has been a high-profile brand since Linda McCallum-Jackson, previously a human resources consultant in Auckland whose only contact with pigs was when she bought pork chops at the supermarket, met her future husband Ian, a South Canterbury pig farmer.
The couple were known as Lord and Lady Havoc and they started more than 20 years ago at the Otago Farmers Market, later selling to restaurants, cafes and supermarkets around the country.
Mr Jackson — who had worked with pigs around the world — had a policy of minimal intervention. His pigs’ diet included mozzarella cheese, grains and cereals, cider vinegar and garlic and the animals were processed in the Dunedin factory.
In 2011, Havoc was named supreme winner at the South Canterbury Chamber of Commerce hospitality and tourism awards and supreme winner of Cuisine magazine’s Artisan Awards with its Havoc Yorkshire Black Bacon. At one stage, Havoc operated a store in High St, opposite the Southern Cross Hotel, in Dunedin.
Mr Jackson and Mrs McCallum-Jackson were listed as the directors and shareholders of Havoc Farm Pork (2003) Ltd. The website gave an email address for inquiries but no response was received to a list of questions from the ODT as to the reasons behind the closure and whether the pig farm would continue to operate.
