Every culture has a creation story and businesses are no different. We honour our beginnings. Not just the ancient source of our salt in the pristine Kalahari desert, (find out more about the qualities of our salt here) but also the origin story of how Oryx Desert Salt first began.
When Samantha Skyring decided to walk 120km over 7 days through the Namib Desert to the Skeleton Coast in July 2000, she had no idea this experience would initiate the creation of her business, Oryx Desert Salt.
During this walk she had several powerful and remarkable face-to-face encounters with Oryx Gazella (gemsbok). It was these experiences which immediately sprang to mind during the process of creating a new brand for desert salt from the Kalahari.
Researching the Oryx, Sam was staggered to discover that in a few rare instances, Oryx have gone their entire lives without drinking water. Their hair is hydroscopic and so absorbs the moisture from the desert dew at night directly into their bodies, hydrating hyperdermically. Succulents also swell with the dew offering nutrition as well as hydration.
However, Oryx cannot survive more than a few months without licking salt for the sodium chloride, minerals and trace elements vital for survival in the harsh conditions of the Kalahari Desert. And so the Oryx, with its striking colouring and majestic presence, became the symbolic icon for Oryx Desert Salt.
In 2012, an initial and strategic investment and partnership with Donald Brown of the Donald Brown Group, master custodian of the salt pans in the Kalahari, Samantha Skyring built solid foundations for Oryx Desert Salt’s future.
In 2013, Samantha joined forces with entrepreneurial investors, brothers Ian and Garth Solomon of Evolve Capital. This led to a re-branding of Oryx Desert Salt in early 2014. Grant Rushmere, from Bos Iced Tea conceptualised and helped create new branding for Oryx Desert Salt from which emerged our striking black and white iconic horns logo.
In 2019, ZUR Ventures joined the partnership to support the international growth and national launch in Whole Foods Market in the USA.
Samantha has grown the business extensively and we now supply both independent and chain retailers such as Woolworths, Pick ‘n’ Pay, Cape Union Mart and Dis-Chem as well as numerous delis, farm shops and butcheries country-wide. We are also on restaurant and café tables all across the country.
We are growing our international markets, have supplied 23 countries to date and can be found in Whole Foods Market stores in the USA, on Amazon.com as well as many other international locations.
Please mail us to enquire if there is a distributor or store near you.
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