20 iconic Australian brands and who owns them now
Many Aussies wouldn’t know their favourite companies were now foreign-owned. See the list of which companies are still in local hands and which have been sold.
From spread to aviation, Australia is home to a number of iconic brands that people from all walks of life know and love.
But have you ever wondered who really owns them?
David Richardson from the Australian Institute said it was “sad” to see the number of iconic brands and household names that were no longer owned locally.
“We don’t have a lot of manufacturing left,” he told this masthead.
“It’s gone down from something like 12 per cent of GDP 30 years ago, to about five and a bit per cent now, and what’s left tends to be things like processing – turning hops into beer, stuff like that.
“It is also just sad to see from, these sorts of cultural icons, the idea that sort of stuff can be owned overseas.”
Mr Richardson said the reason behind a lot of the sales was simply a “good deal”.
“Somebody comes along … and the shareholders think you’re getting a 20, 30 per cent premium on the shares you own – so let’s sell out,” he said.
He said it was important for brands to stay local as Australians have a sense of national pride.
“I think it’s important … in the same way as we would barrack for people in green and gold in the Olympics,” Mr Richardson said.
“What does it mean when almost everything you buy in the supermarket is owned by some foreign conglomerate? Those are sort of important national identities, sort of defining things in a way, aren’t they?”
Many Aussies wouldn’t know their favourite companies were now foreign-owned, he added.
A note of caution: Determining whether a once-Australian company is now foreign-owned can be a tricky assessment as some Aussie icons, like BHP, operate under complicated ownership structures that are part-Australian, part-overseas.
It is also clear that ownership shifts quickly and that there are cashed-up Aussie companies hungry to buy an iconic local brand and bring it back into Australian ownership.
This list tries to stick to companies which are clearly – or clearly not – Aussie.
Let’s find out:
YES AUSSIE OWNED
Vegemite
Vegemite was founded in 1922 by Australian chemist and food technologist Cyril Callister for the Fred Walker Company Vegemite – who had tasked him to create a yeast-based spread similar to the imported British Marmite using brewers’ yeast.
Quickly becoming a popular staple and national treasure, the strong and salty spread gained traction during WWII for its nutritional value.
After the death of Fred Walker in 1935, Vegemite was sold to the Kraft Walker Cheese Company, a subsidiary of the American company Kraft Foods.
In 2012, its ownership was transferred to Mondelez International, a division of Kraft, before it returned to local hands five years later when bought by Bega Cheese.
Qantas
The flying kangaroo and the Spirit of Australia was created in 1920 in Winton, Queensland, by Australian Flying Corps veterans Hudson Fysh and Paul McGinness who teamed up with grazier Fergus McMaster.
Qantas is an acronym of the airline’s original name, Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services.
Australian laws and the company’s own constitution limit foreign ownership to a maximum of 49 per cent.
This ensures that at least 51 per cent of the company is Australian-owned, and it is monitored by the Australian government.
Qantas is publicly traded on the ASX.
Akubra
Hat manufacturer Akubra was founded by English-born hatter Benjamin Dunkerley in Tasmania in 1876.
Famous for its rabbit-fur felt hats, including the Slouch hat for Australian troops, the company was owned by the Keir family for five generations.
In 2023, it was bought by mining magnates Andrew and Nicola Forrest’s private investment group, Tattarang.
RM Williams
The classic leather boot company was created by Reginald Murray Williams in Adelaide in 1932.
It was then owned by RM’s friend Ken Cowley under a familial stewardship from 1993, before being bought outright in 2014 by L Catterton – a Louis Vuitton-backed private equity firm.
In 2020, RM Williams was returned to Australian ownership,purchased by Tattarang.
Driza-Bone
Renowned for its oilskin waterproof riding coats, Driza-Bone was founded by New Zealand Volunteer Officer Emilius Le Roy in 1898.
The business was acquired by British clothing company Belstaff in the 1980s before returning to Australian hands in the form of the Propel Group in 2008.
In 2023, S.Kidman & Co – a company associated with Gina Rinehart – acquired Driza-Bone.
Bunnings
Grab your Saturday morning snag here! Bunnings is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Australian conglomerate Wesfarmers Limited, which is one of Australia’s largest listed companies.
Bunnings was founded in Perth in 1886 by brothers Arthur and Robert Bunning, focused on sawmilling before expanding into the retail sector in the 1950s.
Bunnings began to expand into other states in the 1990s and opened its first warehouse-style store in Melbourne in 1994.
The chain has 511 stores across Australia and New Zealand and employs more than 53,000 team members.
Cochlear Implants
Listen up: Cochlear Limited is an Australian-owned company, headquartered in Sydney, and is a publicly listed company on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).
It is the world’s leading provider of implantable hearing solutions and has a global footprint with most of its research and development and a large portion of its workforce based in Australia.
Cotton On
Cotton On is an Australian owned company, founded by Nigel Austin in 1991 in Geelong, Australia, where its global headquarters remain today.
Austin is still the majority owner of the Cotton On Group, which includes other brands such as Supre and Factorie.
Cotton On Kids has launched a new concept store in Melbourne inspired by the nostalgia of the classic Australian neighbourhood milkbars.
Mambo
The ownership of this great Aussie clothing brand has bounced around.
Mambo was launched in 1984 by Australian entrepreneur and founder of Phantom Records, Dare Jennings, along with his business partner, Andrew Rich.
After many years of amusing and successful designs and strong success, Mambo was acquired by the American company Saban Brands in 2015.
Four years later, Mambo returned to Australian ownership when it was acquired by Caprice Australia in July 2019.
Victa Mowers
Another great Aussie ownership boomerang story, with the iconic lawnmower returning to Australian hands this year after being acquired by Queensland-based Roy Gripske & Sons (RGS), a proudly Australian-owned family business with more than four decades of industry expertise.
The grass-cutting legend was previously sold to the US giant Briggs & Stratton in 2008. Welcome home!
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NO LONGER AUSSIE OWNED
Four’n’Twenty Pies
Hard to believe something so Australian (and delicious) is now owned by a private equity firm, Pacific Alliance Group, in Hong Kong, which acquired the Australian company that makes them, Patties Foods, in 2022.
Four’n’Twenty pies were created in Bendigo, Victoria, by Leslie Thompson McClure in 1947.
He initially called it the Dad and Dave pie after the name of his cafe, but later changed the name in line with the words of the nursery rhyme Sing a Song of Sixpence, which includes the lyric “Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie”.
Rip Curl
Doug Warbrick and Brian Singer began making surfboards together in a small tin garage in Torquay, Victoria, in 1969 and birthed the iconic brand Rip Curl. From its roots in surfboards, it grew into a major international surfwear company.
After 50 years, Rip Curl went across the Ditch when it was sold to New Zealand-based company Kathmandu in 2019.
Arnott’s
A household Aussie name, Arnott’s was founded by Scottish immigrant William Arnott in 1847.
Originally a bakery in Morpeth, NSW, William later moved to Newcastle to establish the William Arnott’s Steam Biscuit Factory in 1875.
It quickly grew from supplying ships’ biscuits to the port, to introducing new products like sweet biscuits and cakes, and in the 1960s, the Australian Biscuit Company Pty Ltd was born.
In 1997, The Campbell Soup Company acquired a majority stake in the company before selling it to US-based global investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts.
Holden
Before its extinction in 2021, Holden had not been Australian-owned since it was taken over by US giant GM in 1931.
Adelaide was the birthplace of Holden, which started off as a saddlery businesses run by James Alexander Holden in 1856.
GM officially discontinued the Holden brand entirely at the end of 2020.
Bundaberg Rum
This legendary Aussie brand is now in Pommy hands – it’s enough to drive a man to drink!
The rum is still distilled in Bundaberg, Queensland, and is a well-known Australian icon, but the parent company, Diageo Australia, is not Australian-owned, it is headquartered in London.
Bundy Rum originated because the local sugar mills needed to find something to do with the waste molasses after the sugar was extracted.
The Bundaberg Distilling Company began its operations in 1888, and Bundaberg rum was first produced in 1889.
Bonds
When Aussie Robert Irwin showed off his natural assets in a Bonds undies shoot, the world swooned. But Bonds is owned by the Canadian company Gildan Activewear Inc., which recently acquired its previous parent company, the American firm HanesBrands.
Bonds was acquired by HanesBrands in 2016.
Gildan has been reported as saying it would review HanesBrands’ Australian business, including Bonds, which could end in “a sale or other transaction”.
Another Aussie ownership boomerang story in the offing? Maybe Baby Bob Irwin will make a bid. Stay tuned.
Speedos
Founded in Sydney, Australia in 1914 by Alexander MacRae, Speedo is now a subsidiary of the British Pentland Group.
Known affectionately as budgie smugglers for their iconic men’s swimming briefs (don’t mention Tony Abbott, please), Speedo has sponsored the Australian swim team since the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.
Foster’s Beer
While not many Australians admit to drinking the beer in the blue can, people overseas regularly associate Foster’s with Aussie beer consumption. “Foster’s – it’s Aussie for beer” is what the marketers would have the world believe, although funnily enough, the brew was first made by two Americans.
The Foster’s brand is owned by the Japanese company Asahi Group Holdings, and the lager sold internationally is often brewed under license in other countries, such as the UK, Canada and the United States.
Uncle Toby’s Oats
During the gold rush in Victoria, brothers Leonard and George Parsons left England and began manufacturing under the name John Bull Oats in Melbourne.
In 1861 they established Parsons Bros. which later became Uncle Toby’s.
On May 23, 2006, Swiss-based Nestlé announced its acquisition of Uncle Toby’s Australia for $890 million.
Smith’s Chips
Surely the snack food of Australia is locally owned? Sadly, no. In fact, technically Smith’s was founded in the UK in 1920, but Frank Smith took his business to Australia in 1931 and that’s where it flourished, with the Smith’s brand later dying out in the UK. US giant PepsiCo bought Smith’s in 1998.
This article is part of the Back Australia series, which was supported by Australian Made Campaign, Harvey Norman, Westpac, Bunnings, Coles, TechnologyOne, REA Group, Cadbury, R.M.Williams, Qantas, Vodafone and BHP.
Originally published as 20 iconic Australian brands and who owns them now
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