Kiwi (shoe polish)

Kiwi is the brand name of a shoe polish, first made in Australia in 1906 and as of 2005 sold in almost 180 countries. Owned by the Sara Lee Corporation since 1984, it is the dominant shoe polish in a number of countries, including the United States, where it has about two-thirds of the market share.

The polish was developed by Australia-based Scottish-born inventor William Ramsay, who named it Kiwi in honor of his wife, Annie Elizabeth Meek Ramsay, a native of Oamaru, New Zealand. Kiwi is the nickname for residents of New Zealand. Its success in Australia expanded overseas when it was adopted by both the British and American armies in World War I.

Corporate history

Over the years, Kiwi has been owned by a variety of corporations. For the first six decades of its existence, it was part of iterations of an Australian corporation with Kiwi in its name, all based in the state of Victoria, including Kiwi Boot Polish Co. (1913–1916) and Kiwi Polish Co. (1916–1971). The company then joined with G.R. Nichols & Co., an Australian industrial-chemistry firm, and went through a number of other corporate names before being acquired by American-based Sara Lee (at the time known as Consolidated Foods Corporation) in 1984.