"Legendary Lollies" celebrates 75 years of crafting some of the country’s "finest lollies" in Oamaru.
First known as Regina and now as Rainbow Confectionery, the business has undergone many changes since the factory first opened in 1949.
Many will have fond memories of the unique offerings such as chocolate fish, milk bottles and toastie bars.
Waitaki Museum and Archive director Chloe Searle said the "nostalgic" show was about supporting businesses that reached these "milestones" and acknowledging how they had "contributed to the town and the people who have worked there or enjoyed their products".
Opening this week, the "impressive collection" will showcase an array of the confectionery products from the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s, including boxes of bubble gum and other "dairy" staples.
Ms Searle said a display of "amazing old television ads" from the ’90s for Regina products would be "pretty nostalgic" for some and encouraged people to "share their memories" with the well-loved sweets.
In 1995, Regina was sold to Nestle NZ Ltd. Nestle closed the factory in 2001, and moved production to Australia.
Innovex Holdings purchased the buildings from Nestle, and in June 2001 established Rainbow Confectionery Ltd.
The company’s three directors are all New Zealand-based.
Rainbow Confectionery general manager Brent Baillie said in 2001 the business started with "six staff and no sales". Today it has 106 staff and produces 3500 tonnes of product a year.
"In essence, we are the last bastion of New Zealand-made confectionery of scale. There are other manufacturers in New Zealand, but we’re of scale, because everyone else has exited New Zealand."
Rainbow was the only producer of marshmallow products and they "fight a good fight" despite being in a "saturated market".
The cost of raw materials was part of a "challenging environment" for the industry.
"Freight lines, shipping companies . . . Sugar prices have gone up 17% in the last week and cocoa has gone up 175% since this time last year."
Being in the role for 11 years, Mr Baillie said he had seen "massive" changes in his time, as had many of the company’s long-serving staff.
The success of Rainbow, Mr Baillie said, was providing a "quality product" with support from major markets in New Zealand including supermarkets, for their most popular products.
"It’s good that New Zealand still has a New Zealand-made option available to it. I mean, we have custom superstars in the marketplace, like baby fish ... and marshmallow."
