Hundreds of people have pledged to invest more than $1.7 million to ensure the manufacture of Jaffas, Pineapple Lumps and Buzz Bars stays in Dunedin.

Photo: Cadbury / Pascall

Dunedin's Cadbury factory closes next March but a campaign to keep making several classic products in the city started yesterday.

Local councillor Jim O'Malley has joined with a group of volunteers to create Dunedin Manufacturing Holdings, and wants to create a publicly-listed company made up of Kiwi shareholders to take over production.

His business case requires raising $20m to buy the factory's logistics building, and equipment to produce the confectionary, he said.

Mr O'Malley said the factory's owner, Mondelēz, had given him two weeks to gather pledges and get as close as possible to the fund-raising half-way mark of $10m.

"We need to make [$20m] at some point, but... we never really thought going into this that we would have the [$20m] in this part of the event.

"So we're just seeing how far towards the [$20m] we can get, and I would say [$10m] would be a great number.

Mr O'Malley said momentum was growing quickly, with around $100,000 worth of pledges coming in every hour.

"I think the people are responding strongly, they're saying yes they do want to be involved in this."