In 2001 Aidan Greeff recognised the need to be politically correct in South Africa – so he founded a brand and named it after his wife, Michelle. Smart move! Chele was established in a 40m² flatlet with 3 staff members. Officially, Chele is a brand of premium mixers made with natural flavourants and premium ingredients giving consumers a quality value proposition. Unofficially, it’s a great beverage the guys love making for their families and friends .

In 2005, Aidan was joined by like minded family orientated friends – brothers Grant & Ross Hobbs and Stephen Roberts. The friends shared a vision to produce beverages that would excite consumers with their variety and innovativeness yet be made with such integrity that their children could enjoy them too, all 10 of them. Productive guys!

Grant and Aidan ran the newly formed CHILL BEVERAGES INTERNATIONAL and increased the staff complement by 25% to 4. Production was outsourced while the team kept strict control over recipes and distribution. True to their vision, CHILL introduced the first range of sugar-free mixers to consumers prompting Food Review magazine in their April 2006 edition to comment that the brands low kilojoule count and suitability for diabetics should be “shouted about”!

Like all families, Chill grew. Spring water bottled at source in the pristine world renowned Franschoek Valley was added to the range under the Richeneau brand. In 2007 the first factory was built and production line installed.

Today Chill Beverages is run by Aidan, Ross and Grant and two co-directors, John and Joe. They are ably supported by 220 permanent fairly CHILLed “family” members - somebody has to help with the 2 factories, 6 production lines, 5 warehouses, 10 trucks, national and international sales, merchandising and distribution infrastructure and 9 brands. Unfortunately some of the other 20 brands CHILL co-packs are too famous for them to mention but let’s say you would be astonished.

State of the art filling technology and expert knowledge in all areas of blending, quality control, procurement, packaging and transport have made Chill Beverages the contract producer of choice for some of South Africa’s most esteemed brands and companies. Chill’s most recent endorsement came in the form of being awarded the sole Southern African agency for Orangina International, one of the world’s truly global beverage brands.

After all this, is the family still growing straight and true? Woolworths recently accredited CHILL BEVERAGES Green Status, making CHILL 1 of only a handful of long life suppliers to Woolies to be accorded this honour – that means in audit areas covering hygiene, foreign objects and ethics, CHILL scored in excess of 91%. Pretty good grades for the family.

Imminent HACCP accreditation means CHILL will be regarded as adhering to internationally recognised and recommended food safety standards and systems to prevent chemical and biological hazards. But the guys would tell you they knew that anyway because they still make all their beverages good enough for their kids to drink.