Inside the factory making 100,000 litres of Oros every week
Tiger Brands’s beverage manufacturing facility in Roodekop produces between 75,000 and 100,000 litres of Oros every single week.
This is only the brand’s famous orange flavour, which is by far its most popular and is over 100 years old.
With such high demand for oranges, Tiger Brands has been able to develop its own supply chain in South Africa to insulate it from global shocks.
For the second year running, the company has managed to secure 100% of the oranges it needs for Oros production from South African growers.
This has been a challenging process, with citrus prices in South Africa typically being highly volatile as local production is used to offset global shortages.
The company explained that historically, it has had to supplement local supply with imported oranges as South African production went offshore in search of better prices.
“Most notable, global citrus supply shortages, driven by citrus greening disease in major producers, increased international demand for South African citrus,” it said.
“This strengthened export parity pricing, reducing local availability and driving up costs. South Africa is a leading citrus exporter, benefitting from returns offered in international markets.”
On the other side of this is Tiger Brands, which is looking to ensure stability of supply and limit price fluctuations by securing local production.
Managing director of Snacks, Treats, and Beverages at Tiger Brands, Shamiel Randeree, explained that its advantage is the size of its demand and the stability of demand.
This makes Tiger Brands an attractive customer for citrus growers who look to avoid the cyclical nature of international prices and production.
The company is the largest producer of orange concentrate in South Africa, procuring around 45,000 tonnes of oranges every year. This is equivalent to 275 million individual oranges.
This it tunred into 3.5 million litres of orange concentrate for Oros, equivalent to 1.75 million 2L bottles.
Tiger Brands only uses the Valencia and Navel varieties of oranges, which are sourced from growers in Mpumalanga, Limpopo, and the Western Cape.
The fruit is processed into concentrate and supplied to Tiger Brands’ beverage manufacturing facility in Roodekop, Gauteng.
This facility produces between 75,000 and 100,000 litres of Oros concentrate every week, aiming for a monthly production rate of 400,000 litres.
From lemons to Tiger Brands
While the orange flavour is the most iconic and most popular variant of Oros, the brand’s first product in 1899 was actually lemon juice.
The lemon beverage was called “Lemos” and was invented by Charles Brookes to supply the burgeoning Johannesburg mining sector.
However, Brookes’ Lemos proved unpopular, with customers demanding a more pleasant orange flavour.
Brookes obliged and created the iconic Oros Original Orange Squash, which catapulted the brand into a household name.
Oros, as a name, has strange origins, with it being an abbreviation of the Egyptian god of light, Horus. This is the ancient Egyptian equivalent of Apollo.
In the latter half of the 20th century, Oros would grow in popularity through its famous television adverts with the Oros Man.
These adverts feature the mascot being accompanied by the famous jingle, “Oh-Oh-Oh-Oh-Oros”. This cemented the brand as a staple in any house in South Africa.
The company also experimented with new flavours, with it now offering mango, naartjie, guava, and fruit cocktail alongside the original orange.
Oros’ growth was turbocharged in 2007 when it was bought by Tiger Brands, which was steadily becoming the largest food producer in South Africa.
This created a formidable beverage division, which includes Rose’s cordials and Energage. Tiger Brands owns other iconic brands, such as Jungle, Black Cat, and All Gold.
More recently, Tiger Brands has invested heavily in modernising Oros to keep pace with changing consumer demand and make its operations more efficient.
In particular, it has focused on creating ready-to-drink variants of its concentrate in 350ml and 500ml bottles.
The Oros juice box was launched in December 2023 to capitalise on this trend and specifically targeted parents with schoolchildren.
Images of Oros production
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