It took a little while for me to find history about Life Savers in South Africa. How did I ultimately find the information? I switched from looking for "Life Savers", to looking for "Lifesavers".
1929
Nabisco, until 1989 (per UPI)
1989
Royal Beech Nut Ltd. was a wholly owned subsidiary of Nabisco Holdings Corporation. During apartheid, NHC sold it to Delfood (UPI).
October 5, 1995
Nabisco Holdings Corp. returned to the South Africa market by purchasing a 50% interest in Royal Beech-Nut Ltd. from Delfood (UPI).
1996
Apparently a South African Life Savers company attempted to re-market Life Savers in the UK market in 1996:
https://letslookagain.com/2015/03/polo/
A South African TV advertisement for Five Flavour Life Savers
https://youtu.be/XzriZ6EM7IQ?si=a4LDbn00UWnu6Z07
1998
The next, brilliant, move was to get South African group "Ladysmith Black Mambazo" to be the voice of the Life Saver theme song. I have listened to their isicathamiya and mbube vocal stylings on Paul Simon's Graceland during virtually every road trip we've ever had. If you have ever heard them singing, you can probably imagine the, "Life...Savers...yummmmm".
https://youtu.be/nTm9FM6XtcE?si=NhW2Z-8bG2o0EmCF
And given the summery, fruity focus, it makes a lot of sense that they came back with this icy commercial for the sparkling, minty Life Savers. https://youtu.be/N1xXVk6VfEU?si=Fn737ZdfK8vuQk4K
THE WRIGLEY CO. (EAST AFRICA) LTD.
P.O Box 30767, Plot LR No. 209/6922 19 Bamburi Rd, Nairobi, 00100 Kenya
Mars Africa
19 Bamburi Rd, Industrial Area, P.O Box 30767 - 00100N, airobi, Kenya; Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; Websiteh ttps://www.mars.com/; Telephone +254 709 802 000
https://amcham.co.ke/report/wrigley-company-ea-ltd
According to Mars (2024),
"Mars Africa is a wholly owned division of Mars Incorporated. Established in 1997, Mars has since grown to a Sub-Saharan business which employs over 400 Associates across 3 local sites in South Africa and a manufacturing facility in Kenya. The Sub-Saharan business is representative of four business segments namely, Petcare, Food, Gum and Confectionary.
"The Mars Multisales Corporate Office is situated in Woodmead Sandton with manufacturing facilities in Montague Gardens in CapeTown producing South Africa’s most loved brands such as Royco and Masterfoods and our Royal Canin Petcare manufacturing facility in Randburg Johannesburg-producing our Petcare brands.
"Our footprint extends across Sub-Saharan Africa with a Gum manufacturing facility in Nairobi Kenya."
Therefore, it appears that, while there are sales offices in South Africa, and gum manufacturing in Kenya, there may not be any Life Savers hard candy produced in sub-Saharan Africa.
Retrieved from https://zaf.mars.com/about/history
⭕ If you have more information about Life Savers in South Africa, please contact me using the contact us link.
Sources
See embedded references, plus:
"Nabisco re-enters South Africa," 5 October 1995, UPI. Retrieved from https://www.upi.com/Archives/1995/10/05/Nabisco-re-enters-South-Africa/8958812865600/