The first bottle off the production line is still in the hands of the Dixon family, as is the original recipe for Chilli Cordial, one of the first flavours launched, alongside orange and lemon.
It was widely available in cinemas, ready-to-drink in cartons, paired with an advertisement spoofing the Columbia Pictures logo.
In 1982, Kia-Ora launched a colourful, animated advertising campaign, directed by Oscar Grillo of Klacto Animations, which used the jingle "We all adore a Kia-Ora", and featured a child in a straw hat, a dog called Fedora who served the drink, and several crows which pursued the boy for a drink, with the boy responding with "it's too orangey for crows".
The brand was refreshed in 1987, with a series of advertisements directed by Geoff Dunbar, featuring redesigned characters, the introduction of the boy's chubby father, and new variations on the jingle.
The success of the Kia-Ora brand subsequently declined, overtaken by rival juice producers such as Robinsons.