Ireland Blyth Ltd. (IBL) is the largest business group in

Mauritius Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island (also called Mauritius), as well as Rodrigues, Ag ...

with a turnover in

Mauritian rupee The Mauritian rupee (Currency symbol, sign: Re (singular) and Rs (plural); ISO 4217, ISO code: MUR; ) is the currency of Mauritius. One rupee is subdivided into 100 cents. Several other currencies are also called rupee. Coins In 1877, coins for ...

s of 54.1 billion (approx. US$1.18 billion) in 2023. As of 2015, it is listed on the

Stock Exchange of Mauritius The Stock Exchange of Mauritius (SEM) (); is an organization responsible for the operation of Mauritius's primary stock exchange located at Port Louis. The SEM operates two markets: the Official Market and the Development & Enterprise Market (DEM). ...

. It operates in Commerce, Engineering, Financial Services, Logistics, Aviation & Shipping, Retail, Seafood & Marine sectors under various names, representing over 200 brands and employs over 6,000 people In 2008 the company was reported as the largest company in Mauritius per their net sales revenues.

History

It was incorporated in 1972 following the merger of two leading companies which had been trading in Mauritius since the early 19th Century, namely Blyth Brothers, founded in 1830 by James Blyth, and Ireland Fraser & Co. Ltd. Ireland Fraser & Co. Ltd was founded on the 1st July 1850 by

George Ireland George Ireland (June 15, 1913 – September 14, 2001) was an American basketball coach who led the Loyola Ramblers to the 1963 NCAA championship. Background Born in Madison, Wisconsin, Ireland was an All-American basketball player at the Uni ...

, Hugh Hunter and James Fraser. The original name was Hunter Ireland & Co., but when Hugh Hunter left the company in 1860, the name was changed to Ireland Fraser & Co. It became Ireland Fraser & Co. Ltd. in 1927. In 1994 the group became a public company and was admitted to the official list of the Stock Exchange of Mauritius.

Notable subsidiaries

BrandActiv

Source: Created in 2011 from the merger of IBL Consumer Goods and IBL Frozen Foods, BrandActiv is involved in the importation and distribution of consumer goods in Mauritius. Amongst more than 100 brands that it represents, international brands include

L'Oréal L'Oréal S.A. () is a French multinational personal care corporation registered in Paris

Kraft foods Kraft Foods Group, Inc. was an American food manufacturing and processing conglomerate (company), conglomerate, split from Kraft Foods Inc. on October 1, 2012, and was headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It became part of Kraft Heinz on July ...

, Colgate Palmolive,

Johnson & Johnson Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is an American multinational pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical technologies corporation headquartered in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Its common stock is a c ...

and H.J.Heinz. The earliest predecessor of BrandActiv, Cold Storage (became ''New Cold Storage'' in 1970 and then ''IBL Frozen Foods'' in 1996) was the first importer of frozen meat in Mauritius from Australia in the 1900s.

Chantier Naval de l'Océan Indien

Source: Chantier Naval de l'Océan Indien (CNOI), established in 2001, is involved in the construction, repair and maintenance (including

dry-docking A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...

) of vessels in

Port Louis Port Louis (, ; or , ) is the capital and most populous city of Mauritius, mainly located in the Port Louis District, with a small western part in the Black River District. Port Louis is the country's financial and political centre. It is admi ...

. It was founded as a joint venture between IBL and Chantier Piriou of Concarneau, France before IBL took a 60% controlling stake. The

shipyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are shipbuilding, built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Compared to shipyards, which are sometimes m ...

's facilities include a covered building berth and

slipway A slipway, also known as boat ramp or launch or boat deployer, is a ramp on the shore by which ships or boats can be moved to and from the water. They are used for building and repairing ships and boats, and for launching and retrieving smal ...

for the construction of vessels and vessel sections up to 50 metres long, a dry-dock (130 metres long, 27 metres wide), a

ship elevator A boat lift, ship lift, or lift lock is a machine for transporting boats between water at two different elevations, and is an alternative to the canal lock. It may be vertically moving, like the Anderton boat lift in England, rotational, lik ...

of 1400 tons and 350 metres of quays which can accommodate ships with a

draft Draft, the draft, or draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a v ...

reaching up to 8.5 metres for repairs afloat. Ships worked on by the company includes frigates of the

French Navy The French Navy (, , ), informally (, ), is the Navy, maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the four military service branches of History of France, France. It is among the largest and most powerful List of navies, naval forces i ...

to French and Spanish tunny boats, trawlers, small oil and gas tankers and yachts. Regular customers include the French Navy, which signed a contract for the maintenance and repair of its frigates and patrol ships operating in the Indian Ocean, ''Sapmer'' of

Reunion island Reunion may refer to: * Class reunion * Family reunion Reunion, Réunion, Re-union, Reunions or The Reunion may also refer to: Places * Réunion, a French overseas department and island in the Indian Ocean * Reunion, Commerce City, Colorado, U ...

and

Austral Fisheries Austral means 'southern', often in reference to the Southern Hemisphere. Austral may also refer to: Businesses * Austral Airlines, a list of airlines named Austral *Austral (bus manufacturer), a defunct Australian bus body manufacturer Educati ...

of Australia. Notable construction projects include a 35-metre patrol ship for

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

, a 39-metre barge for

Mayotte Mayotte ( ; , ; , ; , ), officially the Department of Mayotte (), is an Overseas France, overseas Overseas departments and regions of France, department and region and single territorial collectivity of France. It is one of the Overseas departm ...

, and a trawler and a long-liner for Reunion. CNOI also enlarged an Australian fishing boat by 8 metres.

Winner's supermarkets

Winner's is an integrated chain of 20 supermarkets established in 1994 operating in the retail segment of the group. Its turnover of MUR 5.5 billion represented 35% of the turnover of the group in 2015. IBL took 100% stake in the company (from its previous 51%) in 2015. Winner's suppermarkets launched its website in 2011. www.winners.mu is launched today !
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Scomat

Scomat operates in the engineering segment of the group and provides products and professional services in the field of earthmoving and agricultural equipment, generators, uninterruptible power supply, hydraulics & diesel. It is also a dealership for

Caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder ...

in Mauritius, the agreement dating to 1929 between Caterpillar and one of IBL's predecessor, Blyth Brothers.

Mauritian Eagle Insurance Company Limited

Mauritian Eagle Insurance Company Limited (

SEM SEM or Sem can refer to: Computing * Search engine marketing, promoting websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results * Security event manager, a security log tool used on data networks Economics and management * Stock Ex ...

: MEI) is a provider of personal and commercial insurance. It was created in 1973 as a joint venture between Ireland Blyth Limited and South African Eagle Insurance Company Limited (now part of the Zurich Group) and listed on the

in 1993. In 2007, the company became the first in the Indian Ocean (and in Mauritius) to obtain the

ISO 27001 ISO/IEC 27001 is an information security standard. It specifies the requirements for establishing, implementing, maintaining and continually improving an information security management system (ISMS). Organizations with an ISMS that meet the st ...

certification relating to

information security Information security is the practice of protecting information by mitigating information risks. It is part of information risk management. It typically involves preventing or reducing the probability of unauthorized or inappropriate access to data ...

References

{{reflist Conglomerate companies of Mauritius Companies based in Port Louis Companies listed on the Stock Exchange of Mauritius