Rebranding in 2024 as South Australian Business Chamber for commerce/industry group with 1839 origins
South Australian Business Chamber chief executive Andrew Kay and chair Sascha Detmold Cox as it announced its rebrand in 2024 – its 185th year.
Images courtesy South Australian Business Chamber
South Australian Business Chamber became the new branding name in 2024 for the South Australian Employers’ Chamber of Commerce and Industry, replacing Business SA.
Celebrating its 185th year, the organisation’s new brand was closer to its original name as the Adelaide Chamber of Commerce, formed in January 1839.
The rebranding of South Australia’s largest membership-based employer organisation, representing 19 business sectors, was to bring it into line with its interstate and international counterparts. Chief executive Andrew Kay told Adelaide’s InDaily that Business Chambers’ research highlighted that “many businesses assume we are a government body due to the similarity our name had with state-based government departments” – such as Tourism SA and SA Health.
Adelaide Chamber of Commerce, set up in 1839, three years after South Australia’s official European settlement, was one of Australia’s oldest – if not the oldest. In 1869, the separate South Australian Chamber of Manufacturers started as a support group for the manufacturing industry. Twenty years later, the South Australian Employers’ Federation was founded.
The Adelaide Chamber of Commerce merged with the Chamber of Manufacturers in 1972 and became the Chamber of Commerce and Industry SA. In 1993, that group merged with the Employers’ Federation to become the South Australian Employers’ Chamber of Commerce and Industry. This remained its official name although it was rebranded to the public as Business SA in 2000. It remained a member of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The chamber of commerce name continued to be used by South Australian regional business groups such as in Loxton, Mount Gambier and Riverland West with variations like Gawler Business Development Group and Woodside Commerce Association. Chambers of commerce was also used by groups in South Australian proimoting trade with countries such as China, Italy and Germany.
