There are few things more South African than a bottle of All Gold tomato sauce on the table. It belongs alongside the braai, the boerewors roll, the slap chips and the family argument about how much sauce is too much.
But the story of the country's famous red condiment begins not with a South African, but with a Scottish chemist and a recipe that has survived more than a century.
According to All Gold's official history, John Semble brought the secret of its tomato sauce recipe to South Africa in 1908, where it was produced by H. Jones & Co., a jam manufacturer in Paarl in the Western Cape.
The original production process was rather less sophisticated than today's industrial food manufacturing. Muslin bags filled with herbs and spices were lowered into pots of ripe, freshly crushed tomatoes.
The company traces the commercial launch of All Gold tomato sauce to 1908, although its historical records are not entirely consistent. Tiger Brands, which now owns the brand, also dates the establishment of H. Jones & Co.'s Paarl jam and canning factory to 1910.
Semble's identity and role are preserved in the company's history, but independent archival evidence remains limited.
A royal serving
By 1947, All Gold had apparently acquired some rather distinguished admirers.
The brand's official timeline claims King George VI, Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret were served All Gold aboard the Royal Train during their South African tour that year.
The royal visit is well documented, although the tomato sauce's appearance on the train remains a story told by the brand rather than one independently confirmed by contemporary records.
Whether royalty actually tucked into it or not, ordinary South Africans certainly did.
Demand grew sufficiently for mass production to begin in Paarl and Langlaagte in 1959, according to the company's history.
By 1985, All Gold says it had sold 250 million bottles since its launch. That's an extraordinary amount of tomato sauce, and it was achieved before the brand's most memorable advertising campaign arrived.
The famous 36 tomatoes
All Gold made its television advertising debut in 1975 with a commercial featuring tomatoes jumping into a sauce bottle and strawberries leaping into a jam can.
But it was the 1990 commercial featuring children cramming 36 tomatoes into a giant All Gold bottle that became part of South African advertising folklore.
The 36-tomato message endured for decades, becoming almost inseparable from the brand itself.
It is worth distinguishing the famous advertising image from a manufacturing specification. The campaign does not establish that every bottle sold today, regardless of size, contains the equivalent of exactly 36 whole tomatoes.
The brand continued expanding. In 1993, it introduced Light and Hot & Spicy tomato sauces, followed in 2000 by Pasta Pronto, a range of four tomato-based pasta sauces.
In 2004, the company introduced its upside-down squeeze bottle, bringing a new level of convenience to anyone who had ever spent an unreasonable amount of time thumping the bottom of a glass bottle.
All Gold also records receiving TGI/Finance Week food-brand recognition in 2004 and 2005, although the original survey documentation would be needed to establish the precise award wording.
I wanna be a Chippie!
All Gold's cultural reach eventually extended beyond the bottle and into another South African institution: Simba chips. In December 2014, Simba introduced All Gold Tomato Sauce-flavoured potato chips, bringing together two familiar names from the country's grocery shelves.
For generations raised on Simba's lion mascot and the unforgettable “I wanna be a Chippie” advertising jingle, it was a fitting combination. The partnership did not escape the occasionally brutal world of consumer voting, however.
In 2021, Simba asked South Africans to choose which flavours should survive its Choose Me or Lose Me campaign. All Gold Tomato Sauce lost out to Cheese & Onion and Salt & Vinegar and was discontinued.
Back to Paarl
More than a century after All Gold's beginnings, Paarl remains part of the brand's manufacturing story, although not quite in the way one might expect.
In July 2026, Tiger Brands announced that it had invested more than R200 million in transforming its historic Paarl facility into a modern culinary manufacturing site.
The investment includes a vinegar plant capable of producing three million litres annually, the introduction of in-house Mrs Ball's Chutney production and new recyclable plastic packaging lines for jam.
Vinegar is an important ingredient in All Gold tomato sauce, making the Paarl investment relevant to the brand's supply chain.
However, the announcement does not say All Gold tomato sauce is currently manufactured at the Paarl facility. Tiger Brands identifies its Boksburg culinary plant as a manufacturing site for All Gold, alongside KOO and Crosse & Blackwell.
More than sauce
The redeveloped Paarl site produces products including All Gold jam, Mrs Ball's Chutney and other culinary brands. The R200 million-plus investment is not a new All Gold tomato sauce production line, despite the town's historic association with the condiment.
The company says the Paarl redevelopment forms part of a broader programme to modernise its factories, improve supply security and reduce dependence on external suppliers.
And so the story comes back to where it began: Paarl, tomatoes, a closely guarded recipe and the sauce that became a fixture on South African tables.
From muslin bags of spices to industrial manufacturing, royal-train folklore and tomato-flavoured Chippies, All Gold has managed to become something rather more enduring than an ordinary bottle of sauce.
IOL BUSINESS