History

In 1838, the sons of Charles Pierre Harel, namely Victor, Pierre, Eugène and Emile Harel established Société Harel Frères with a view to acquiring the sugar estate of Belle Vue in Pamplemousses district. This acquisition marks the beginning of the Harel Frères group, of which Belle Vue has remained the landmark since those early days.

Successive acquisitions of sugar estates throughout the years consolidated the group's strength in this sector. The most important deals were the buying out of Solitude Sugar Estate in 1925, the purchase of major shareholding in The Labourdonnais S.E Co. Ltd in 1915, the acquisition of The Beau Plan S.E. Co. Ltd and La Nouvelle Industrie Limitée in 1940 and finally the amalgamation of The Mount S.E. Co Ltd in January 2010.

As from 1932, the group embarked on a diversification strategy by acquiring the Mauritius OK Distillery Co. Ltd. The distillery and bottling plant were rebranded as Grays Refinery Ltd and Grays Ltd respectively. Grays has since extended its activities to the representation and distribution of some renowned wines and spirits, food and hygiene products. It has also embarked in 2005 in the production of high quality rums in partnership with Groupe Quartier Francais. In 2006, Distell, a South African group acquired 26% shares of Grays' bottling and commercial activities, which have since been conducted under the name of Grays Inc. Ltd.

Another milestone for Harel Frères Limited has been its official listing at the Stock Exchange of Port Louis in 1990. This coincided with a new diversification era through the creation of Proban, a partnership with The United Basalt Products Ltd. Proban is a stone crushing and concrete block making company. The group also successfully invested in construction through Rehm Grinaker Construction Co. Ltd and increased its shareholding in the Swan group, the oldest insurance group in the country.

To date, the group employs, on a permanent basis, around 1300 staff. It produces an average of 80,000 tons of sugar and is the sugar estate in the island which produces the greatest quantity of specialty sugars.

The creation of Compagnie Thermique de Belle Vue Limitée (CTBV) is in line with the group's intention to optimise the use of bagasse, a byproduct in sugar production to produce power. A thermal power plant built by CTBV near Belle Vue sugar factory has been using bagasse and coal since 2000 to produce power, essentially for the Central Electricity Board. CTBV is recognized as a model thermal power plant. Another major development was the acquisition of shareholding in two sugar estates in Ivory Coast. However, this investment in West Africa has not yielded the expected profits on account of the political unrest there.

Last but not least, one of the most recent developments of the Harel Frères group is the creation in 2001 of its property arm, Sagiterre Ltée. The latter offers its services to companies within the group as well as to external clients. Amongst the major achievements of the group are the prestigious development such as Domaine de Bon Espoir, Domaine de Belle Vue and the Beau Plan Business Park.