Kia-Ora is a concentrated fruit soft drink brand, made by Atlantic Industries (a subsidiary of the Coca-Cola Company) and licensed for manufacturing in Ireland and up to 2019 in the UK by Coca-Cola Enterprises Ltd. The juice drink is sold in a concentrated state.
History
The brand-name is taken from kia ora, a Māori language greeting which has entered New Zealand English. The first Kia-Ora was a lemon squash sold by Arthur Gasquoine in Sydney, Australia, in 1903. The brand was bought by the Dixon family in the same year; the first factory was established by Roland Dixon in Prahran in Melbourne. The original factory chimney still exists and is now a heritage-listed building. The first bottle off the production line is still in the hands of the Dixon family, as is the original recipe for Chilli Cordial, one of the first flavours launched, alongside orange and lemon. Kia-Ora was launched in Great Britain in 1917 in orange and lemon flavours.
The success of Kia-Ora caused the Dixon family to expand the range of its drinks with other flavours: orange mixed fruit, raspberry, and pear are examples of the expanding range. No-added-sugar variants were also created. Kia-Ora prospered throughout the 20th century. The World affected the brand only slightly in terms of production. The brand remained popular amongst children aged 3-10 in Australia and in the United Kingdom. From 1953, Kia-Ora was advertising with full-colour posters. In 1961, Kia-Ora was sold to the Campbell Soup Company of the US.[2]