Geo. Hall & Sons facts for kids

This "Stonie" ginger beer was non-alcoholic. It got its name from the ceramic bottles it came in.

This is a later bottle from around 1940.

Geo. Hall & Sons, also known as Halls, was a company that made soft drinks. It was started in 1849 by George Hall, who came from England. The company began in Marryatville, a suburb of Adelaide. Later, it moved to Norwood and used water from natural springs.

Halls was famous for its ginger beer, which many people called "Stonie's." After George Hall passed away, his family continued to own the company. However, in 1972, another company took over. The Halls brand stopped being used in 2000. But in 2023, the brand was brought back by new owners!

History of Halls Soft Drinks

How Halls Began

George Hall was born in England in 1818. When he was a teenager, he enjoyed making non-alcoholic drinks as a hobby. He worked as a laundryman for about 14 years in England and France. In 1849, George and his family moved to South Australia. They settled in a new village called Marryatville.

By 1851, George Hall started making soda water. He became very good at making "Stonie" ginger beer. This ginger beer was sold in special ceramic bottles.

This plaque on the Jubilee 150 Walkway remembers George Hall.

Geo. Hall & Sons was one of the oldest companies making fizzy drinks in South Australia. In 1869, George's sons, Henry, Thomas, and Edward, joined the business. The company then became known as Geo. Hall & Sons. In 1872, they moved to a bigger factory in Norwood. Their main competitor there was W Woodroofe & Son.

By 1970, Hall & Sons was making 30,000 bottles of soft drink every hour!

Awards and Changes

In 1880, Geo. Hall & Sons won six first-place prizes at an international exhibition in London. This was for their fizzy water and soft drinks. A newspaper called The South Australian Register reported on their success. It said that Hall & Sons' drinks were amazing. They beat all the other drinks from Europe, America, and Australia. The judges were very surprised. They thought the great results were because of the excellent water from Adelaide.

George Hall passed away in 1881. His sons, Henry and Edward, took over the company. The Hall family continued to run the business for two more generations.

Halls in the 20th Century

During the 1900s, the company made many different soft drinks and cordials. They even bottled Passiona, which was a product from another company called Cottee's.

In 1972, a company called C-C Bottlers bought Geo. Hall & Sons. C-C Bottlers made Coca-Cola for South Australia. They kept making soft drinks under the Hall's brand name. Then, in 1990, Coca-Cola Amatil bought C-C Bottlers. In October 2000, Coca-Cola Amatil stopped using the Halls name. They combined several local brands under one name, Kirks.

Halls Soft Drinks Relaunch

On November 7, 2020, it was announced that Halls soft drinks would be coming back! Cameron Ballard, who owns Coffee World in South Australia, got the rights to the Halls soft drink name. He planned to bring the brand back to life.

The drinks became available in South Australian stores by the middle of summer 2021/2022.

For the relaunch, Halls brought back four original flavors. These were Halls Lemon Twist, Halls Fruita, Halls Lemonade, and Halls Stonie Ginger Beer. The company hoped to bring back even more original flavors later.

Cameron Ballard worked with the Hall family to get the recipes right. He wanted to make sure the new drinks tasted just like the old ones.

Halls soft drinks started production again on October 23, 2023. This happened in Willunga, South Australia.