Tibetan bell launches firm
The Advertiser, Wed July 23, 1980
It was a company launching with a difference. Instead of cigarette smoke there was the aroma of wood fires and a wine-based herbal elixir that took the place of champagne.
The firm, Australerba, which will market herbal elixirs, was launched officially yesterday morning by the SA Ombudsman, Mr R.D. Bakewell, with the ringing of a small Tibetan bell.
The ceremony, to mark a partnership or forming of a business, is traditional in Asia where the firm’s two principals lived and worked for many years.
They are Dr K Kumar and Professor M Junius who formed Australerba in 1979 with the help and guidance of the Department of Trade and Industry, the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health.
The house containing the company’s offices and laboratory stands among factories and warehouses at Ridleyton, and exudes the aroma of peppermint, camomile and lavender.
Many of the herbs used are grown on 20 SA farms and it is hoped that some imported varieties eventually will be grown locally.
Dr Kumar said herbalism did not seek to replace Western medicine.
Professor Junius said their elixirs were developments of formulas derived from the 4000 year-old tradition of herbalism.
Herbal wine award
The News, Tue. February 29, 1984
An Adelaide company which manufactures herbal wines and tonics has won a European distinction.
Australerba Herbal Products, Ridleyton, has been awarded one of the esteemed annual food awards given by the Spanish publishing company, Editorial Office,
Australerba, established five years ago by herbalists Dr Krishna Kumar and Prof Manfred Junius, put its products before the award judges at the Abyga Food Fair, Cologne, in October.
The company was one of a number of Australian food manufacturers invited to participate in the fair by the Commonwealth Trade Department.
The Editorial Office award, conducted by the food magazine, El Comestible, was previously won by Macadamia Nuts Pty Ltd, Queensland.
Dr Kumar, who flies to Barcelona on March 12 to collect the award during the Alimentaria ’84 International Food Trade Fair, said there was a certain irony in receiving it.
While Australerba had established export markets in Singapore, Malaysia, Britian and the US, it had trouble selling its products locally.