Woodroofe (often shortened to Woodies) is a brand of

soft drinks A soft drink (see § Terminology for other names) is a drink that usually contains water (often carbonated), a sweetener, and a natural and/or artificial flavoring. The sweetener may be a sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, fruit juice, a s ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

History

William Woodroofe and to a lesser extent, Bruce Randall, founded the business in 1878 in

Norwood, South Australia Norwood is a suburb of Adelaide, about east of the Adelaide city centre. The suburb is in the City of Norwood Payneham & St Peters, whose predecessor was the oldest South Australian local government municipality. History Before British colonis ...

. The factory was sited at a natural spring, which was the source of water for the firm's products. Woodroofe's innovative products and aggressive marketing saw them operate successfully as a regional independent soft drink producer for over a century. The most popular flavour was, and continues to be,

lemonade Lemonade is a sweetened lemon-flavored beverage. There are varieties of lemonade found throughout the world. In North America and South Asia, cloudy still lemonade is the most common variety. There it is traditionally a homemade drink using le ...

. In the 1970s, the growth of national producers and increasing popularity of international brands (particularly

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta ...

) resulted in Woodroofe facing increasing challenges to its market position. The business was family owned until it was acquired by

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

businessmen

Michael Harbison Michael John Henry Harbison was the Lord Mayor of Adelaide, South Australia from 2003 to 2010. He was succeeded by Stephen Yarwood in 2010. He is also Adelaide's longest serving mayor. Before becoming Lord Mayor, he was a successful businessm ...

and Tim Hartley. They reinvigorated the business, including introducing new flavours, such as fruit flavoured mineral water. Briefly, they bottled

RC Cola RC Cola (short for Royal Crown Cola) is an American brand of cola invented by Claud A. Hatcher in 1905. Royal Crown Ginger Ale was the first product of the RC Cola line, and it referred to the original ingredient: ginger. More ingredients we ...

under licence. Kathy and

(later Lord Mayor of Adelaide) co-purchased Woodroofe in the 1980s, along with the Hartley family, and Kathy Harbison was involved in the day-to-day running of the operations. In 1983, they floated the business as a public company on the

Adelaide Stock Exchange The Royal Institution of Australia (RiAus) is a national scientific not-for-profit organisation with a mission to "bring science to people and people to science". It opened in October 2009. Concept The concept of a Royal Institution of Austra ...

. Subsequently, the

South Australian Brewing Company The South Australian Brewing Company, Limited is a brewery located in Thebarton, South Australia, Thebarton, an inner-west suburb of Adelaide, South Australia. It is a subsidiary of Lion (Australasian company), Lion, which in turn is owned by ...

purchased the soft drink manufacturing activities and they onsold the business to

Cadbury Schweppes Cadbury, formerly Cadbury's and Cadbury Schweppes, is a British multinational confectionery company fully owned by Mondelez International (originally Kraft Foods) since 2010. It is the second largest confectionery brand in the world after Mars ...

, who closed the historic Norwood factory and relocated production to their facility at nearby Payneham. In 2009, Schweppes was acquired by

Asahi Asahi (朝日, 旭, or あさひ) means "morning sun" in Japanese and may refer to: Cities * Asahi, Chiba (旭市; ''Asahi-shi'') Wards * Asahi-ku, Osaka (旭区; ''Asahi-ku'') * Asahi-ku, Yokohama (旭; ''Asahi-ku'') Towns * Asahi, Aichi (旭� ...

. Today, Woodroofe soft drinks continue to be marketed as a regional brand in

. Asahi/Schweppes closed the Payneham operations in 2016 and shifted their production to Melbourne (Tullamarine) and Perth.

Flavours

Woodroofe's best known and most popular flavour is

, advertised for many years with the slogan and jingle "Still the best lemonade made". Generations of South Australian mothers gave their sick children boiled Woodroofe's lemonade under medical advice. Other distinctive proprietary flavours included "Big Sars"

sarsaparilla Sarsaparilla often refers to the sarsaparilla soft drink, made from Smilax plants. Sarsaparilla may also refer to: Biology *Several species of plants, of the genus ''Smilax'', including: **''Smilax ornata'', also known as Honduran or Jamaican sar ...

and "Sno-Top" (a brown vanilla-flavoured cream soda). In addition, Woodroofe's produces a range of fruit flavours. A former flavour that is no longer manufactured is Kola Beer. However, a similar product is now produced by Bickford's. Woodroofe's also made a chocolate flavoured carbonated soft drink (Woc) in the 1960s.

References

{{Reflist *Woodroofe Limited Prospectus. 1983 *Woodroofe Limited 1983 Annual Report Soft drinks Lemonade Economy of South Australia Companies based in Adelaide Drink companies of Australia Food and drink companies established in 1878 1878 establishments in Australia

History

Flavours

See also

References