It’s hard to think of Oxo as anything other than British but it’s liquid form was invented by a German organic chemist around 1840 by the name of Baron Justus Von Liebig.
It took 30 kg’s of beef to make 1 kg of his liquid, so he travelled to Uruguay in South America, There ranchers would raise cattle for their hides but due to a lack of refrigeration they would allow most of the carcasses to rot in the sun.
Liebig acquired the carcasses at 1/3 the price he paid in Europe and set up a factory there.
The Oxo name came into being around 1899.
People often think about Coca-Cola being the original food endorsement associated with the Olympics but Oxo gave athletes their liquid during the games of 1908. The first cube came into being during 1910 and was included in emergency rations during the First World War.
The beef extract company was taken over the Lord Vestey, beef empire in 1924.
In 1968 the company was again taken over by Brooke Bond Tea company.
With the sale of the company, came over 2-3 million hectares of farm land and herds of cattle in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Rhodesia, Kenya and South Africa.
Unilever took over the company in 1984, followed by Campbells Soup, who sold the UK operation to Premier Food in 2006.
The Oxo brand is still produced in South Africa today by the Mars Group.
The name Oxo has been used for children’s games ( similar to naught’s and crosses) and even a racehorse that won the English Grand National.
Their advertising over the years has become pretty iconic, from great posters, tins and signage, but also on TV.
Pretty interesting for a small red box full of dried beef cubes.
The history of things is important, and should be passed on as much as possible.
This blog will usually have an accompanying item for sale in the SHOP, but some will just be about curios, antiques, items and dates that fascinate me.
Checkout the SHOP page. There might be a few of these in stock.