Top 10 Aussie brands owned by Australian vs. overseas companies
Some of Australia’s most iconic brands are now owned by foreign companies but there are some remain Aussie-owned. Here are some leading local labels and why it matters
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From Four’N Twenty pies to Vegemite, Australia’s most famous brands have become a part of our national identity.
But peel back the label and you might be shocked to discover that many aren’t even Australian owned.
See the top 10 list of which beloved Aussie icons* are still true-blue, and which ones have been sold off to foreign owners.
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.
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.
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. As of 2022, the chain had 381 stores and over 53,000 employees.
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 milk bars.
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”.
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 business run by James Alexander Holden in 1856. GM officially discontinued the Holden brand entirely at the end of 2020.
BONDS
While several Aussie celebrities have modelled its iconic undies, 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”. Will Bonds boomerang back into Aussie ownership? Stay tuned.
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 23 May 2006, Swiss-based Nestlé announced its acquisition of Uncle Toby’s Australia for $890 million.
WHY BUYING AUSSIE MATTERS
Knowing which companies are Australian and which are foreign-owned isn’t about exposing different brands as being better than others. It’s about knowing where your money is going when you buy a product.
Whenever you buy something Australian-owned, the profits are being kept in Australia. Buying Aussie produce means supporting our farmers. If a product is Australian-made, then you’re helping to keep Aussies in jobs, whether they are factory workers, truck drivers, warehouse supervisors or product developers. The more we buy Australian-owned and made, the better it is for our country and its economy.
The Back Australia series is supported by Harvey Norman, Ampol, Bunnings, Qantas, AAMI, Journey Beyond, Gippsland Critical Minerals and News24.
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GLOSSARY
- icons: things that are symbolic of a culture or country
- food technologist: a scientist who researches, improves and develops new food products
- subsidiary: a company owned or partially owned by another company, called a parent company
- conglomerate: a large parent company made up of several smaller and often unrelated subsidiaries
- majority stake: an ownership portion that is larger than anyone else’s ownership
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QUICK QUIZ
1. Why is it important to buy from Australian-owned and made companies?
2. What are two companies that seem Australian but really aren’t?
3. What is one company that started out as Australian but sold to an overseas company?
4. Which Aussie company was American-owned for awhile before going back to being Australian-owned again?
5. Which year was Holden acquired by US company GM?
LISTEN TO THIS STORY
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. True blue Aussie
Why would brands such as Four’N Twenty and Arnott’s not want this information publicised about their now foreign ownership?
How might it affect their sales and profit margin?
What might they do to assure Australians that they are still an Aussie-made company?
How might brands such as Vegemite and Bunnings use the Australian owned title to increase their sales and popularity in Australia?
What’s the best way to ensure you are buying Australian owned and made products when purchasing goods and services?
Which is more important? Australian owned and made or a cheaper product? Justify your answer.
Time: allow 15 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking
2. Extension
Do you believe a foreign-owned company can make products in Australia and support Australian workers? How so?
How might they market this to Australians?
Time: allow 10 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking
VCOP ACTIVITY
To sum it up
After reading the article, use your comprehension skills to summarise in a maximum of three sentences what the article is about.
Think about:
- What is the main topic or idea?
- What is an important or interesting fact?
- Who was involved (people or places)?
Use your VCOP skills to re-read your summary to make sure it is clear, specific and well punctuated.