From Australia to the British interval
In 1961, Kia Ora was sold to the Campbell Soup Company of the United States. The brand then became popular in the UK during the 1970s, when it was widely available in cinemas as a ready-to-drink carton drink. In 1982, Kia Ora launched an animated advertising campaign directed by Oscar Grillo of Klacto Animations, using the jingle βWe all adore a Kia Oraβ. That run of facts explains why a drink that began nowhere near Britain ended up lodged so firmly in British heads. For a certain generation, Kia Ora was not just squash. It was what you drank in the dark while waiting for the main feature, usually while trying not to drop popcorn down your jumper.
A name from elsewhere, a memory from home
The Kia Ora name comes from βkia oraβ, a MΔori language greeting that has entered New Zealand English. The brand itself began in 1903 as a lemon squash sold by Arthur Gasquoine in Sydney, Australia. In the same year, the Dixon family bought the brand and Roland Dixon established an early factory in Prahran, Melbourne. The original factory chimney in Prahran is said to survive as a heritage-listed building, which is a pleasingly odd survival for a squash brand. There is something very British about becoming sentimental over a drink whose name, first sale and first factory all point somewhere else. Empire, cinema concessions and orange concentrate have made stranger combinations, but not many.
The orange part of the range
The Dixon family expanded Kia Ora beyond its first lemon squash into flavours including orange, mixed fruit, raspberry and pear, along with no-added-sugar versions. That is the honest product-level story available here: Kia Ora Orange belongs to that broader expansion of the brand, rather than being tied to a separately documented launch moment. Orange made sense, of course. British squash cupboards have long had room for orange, blackcurrant, lemon and whatever suspiciously bright thing was on offer. Orange squash is practical, familiar and difficult to get too poetic about until you have not had the right one for years. Then suddenly the exact shade matters, because apparently adulthood has not cured anyone of this.
The advert everyone remembers, with a caveat
The 1982 Kia Ora advertising campaign is part of why the brand remained so memorable. Its jingle was catchy in the dangerous way, the sort that can reappear decades later while you are trying to remember where you put your keys. It should also be noted that those adverts later attracted criticism for racial stereotyping in the depiction of some characters. Grocery nostalgia can be fond without pretending everything in the past was fine. The campaign was refreshed in 1987 with redesigned characters and new variations on the jingle, but the original phrase had already done its work. Ask the right British person about Kia Ora and there is a fair chance they will sing at you. Whether you asked or not.
Why it still follows people abroad
Kia Oraβs UK success later declined, with other juice and squash brands taking more of the shelf space. UK production was discontinued in spring 2019, while the brand has continued through licensed manufacturing in Ireland under Atlantic Industries, a Coca-Cola Company subsidiary. That modern lineage explains why todayβs packet or bottle may not tell the whole story at a glance. For British expats in Canada, Kia Ora Orange is less about studying ownership charts and more about finding a flavour that reminds you of home in a very specific way: school holidays, cinema trips, grandparentsβ cupboards, and the slightly heroic act of making squash strong enough. The Great British Shop is happy to leave the corporate tidying to someone else and remember the orange drink properly.
