All Gold tomato sauce, one of South Africa’s best known food brands, began with a Scottish chemist and a secret recipe, according to the brand’s official history.
The history says John Semble brought the recipe to South Africa in 1908. It was made by H. Jones & Co., a jam maker in Paarl in the Western Cape.
The first sauce was made in a simple way. Muslin bags filled with herbs and spices were lowered into pots of fresh, crushed tomatoes.
The company’s records do not fully agree on dates. Tiger Brands, which now owns All Gold, also dates the opening of the Paarl jam and canning factory to 1910, IOL reported.
IOL said there is little independent evidence about who Semble was or what role he played. His story is kept mainly in the company’s own history.
The brand’s timeline claims King George VI, Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret were served All Gold on the Royal Train during their 1947 tour of South Africa. The royal visit is well recorded, but the sauce’s part in it is a brand story that has not been confirmed.
Demand grew, and mass production started in Paarl and Langlaagte in 1959, according to the company.
In 1993 the brand added Light and Hot & Spicy tomato sauces. In 2000 it launched Pasta Pronto, a range of four tomato pasta sauces.
The upside down squeeze bottle arrived in 2004. All Gold says it also received TGI/Finance Week food brand recognition in 2004 and 2005.
In December 2014, Simba launched All Gold Tomato Sauce flavoured potato chips.
In 2021, Simba asked South Africans to vote in its Choose Me or Lose Me campaign. The All Gold flavour lost to Cheese & Onion and Salt & Vinegar, and it was taken off the shelves.
In July 2026, Tiger Brands announced it had invested more than R200 million to upgrade its old Paarl factory into a modern food plant.
The upgrade includes a vinegar plant that can make three million litres a year. It also brings Mrs Ball’s Chutney production in house and adds new recyclable plastic packaging lines for jam.
Vinegar is an ingredient in All Gold tomato sauce. But IOL reported that the announcement does not say the sauce is currently made in Paarl.
Tiger Brands names its Boksburg plant as a site that makes All Gold, along with KOO and Crosse & Blackwell. The Paarl site makes All Gold jam, Mrs Ball’s Chutney and other brands.
Tiger Brands said the Paarl upgrade is part of a wider plan to modernise its factories, secure supply and rely less on outside suppliers.
Source: this article is based on reporting by IOL. Image: IOL. Written with the help of AI and published by the Tzaneen Voice News desk. See our Editorial Standards.
Kgomotso Maake covers news and politics for Tzaneen Voice. Kgomotso reports on government, Parliament, municipalities, courts, crime and service delivery across South Africa, with a close eye on how national decisions reach towns like Tzaneen and the wider Limpopo province. Stories are written in plain English and focus on the facts: who made the decision, what it means, and what happens next.