DAL Group is a

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Sudanese conglomerate, the largest private company in the country. It operates across several business sectors including food,

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

and

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

History

The DAL Group originated from the engineering company Sayer & Colley, founded in 1951 by two

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

partners when Sudan was under Anglo-Egyptian rule. Sayer & Colley later received

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 Sym ...

's franchise for the country. In 1966, ten years after Sudan's independence, Caterpillar transferred the franchise to the Sudanese Tractor Company (SUTRAC) owned by Daoud Abdellatif, with Sayer & Colley retaining a minority share. Both companies were

nationalized Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...

in 1970 then de-nationalized in 1971, although the government kept a minority share in both.

Osama Daoud Abdellatif Osama Daoud Abdellatif is a tycoon Sudanese businessman and the chairman of DAL Group, a large number of companies based in Khartoum, Sudan. Business DAL Group Osama Daoud is the chairman and founder of DAL Group, a large number of companies bas ...

, Daoud Abdellatif's eldest son, joined SUTRAC in 1975 and became sales manager in 1978. After the government's share was bought out, he convinced his father to buy Sayer & Colley's share in 1979 and became CEO of SUTRAC the same year when Abdellatif became sick. Osama renamed the company DAL Engineering (his father's initials). DAL Agriculture was created soon after, leading to the creation of the DAL Group. Several additional companies under the DAL name have been created since. In response to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, DAL provided sanitization booths to the Ministry of Health in

Khartoum Khartoum or Khartum ( ; ar, الخرطوم, Al-Khurṭūm, din, Kaartuɔ̈m) is the capital of Sudan. With a population of 5,274,321, its metropolitan area is the largest in Sudan. It is located at the confluence of the White Nile, flowing n ...

Business sectors

Agriculture

DAL Agriculture, founded in 1984, provides machinery and engineering services to Sudan's farmers. DAL Dairy Factory operates a dairy farm and co-operates with

USAID The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. With a budget of over $27 bi ...

to provide impoverished school children in the

Red Sea state Red Sea ( ') is one of the 18 states of Sudan.States of Sudan
statoids.com It has an area of 212,800 km²

with milk. The DAL Group signed an agreement with the

African Development Bank The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) or (BAD) is a multilateral development finance institution headquartered in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, since September 2014. The AfDB is a financial provider to African governments and private companies i ...

in March 2020, which provides a loan of up to $75 million to improve Sudan's food security and create more agricultural jobs. In October 2020, DAL and

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

-based IHC Food Holding agreed to invest $225 million over five years to develop 100,000 acres of farmland in

Abu Hamad Abu Hamad (Arabic: أبو حمد), also spelt 'Abu Hamed', is a town of Sudan on the right bank of the Nile, 345 mi by rail north of Khartoum. It stands at the centre of the great S-shaped bend of the Nile, and from it the railway to Wadi Ha ...

Automotive

DAL Motors operates several franchises in Sudan, including

Mitsubishi The is a group of autonomous Japanese multinational companies in a variety of industries. Founded by Yatarō Iwasaki in 1870, the Mitsubishi Group historically descended from the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, a unified company which existed from 1870 ...

since 1994,

Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to as Mercedes and sometimes as Benz, is a German luxury and commercial vehicle automotive brand established in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a Mercedes-Benz Group subsidiary established in 2019) is headquartere ...

since 2006, and

Kia Kia Corporation, commonly known as Kia (, ; formerly known as Kyungsung Precision Industry and Kia Motors Corporation), is a South Korean multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. It is South Korea's second lar ...

. The company signed up to the

United Nations Global Compact The United Nations Global Compact is a non-binding United Nations pact to encourage businesses and firms worldwide to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies, and to report on their implementation. The UN Global Compact is a princ ...

, but was delisted in April 2019 for failing to provide an annual report.

Development

DAL Group partnered with the National Social Insurance Fund and Khartoum State on the Al Mogran Development, a $4.5 billion construction project in Central Khartoum, next to the confluence of the Blue and White Nile project. The project consisted of two phases with the first phase being the creation of a Central Business District, and second phase consisting of 1500 acres of residential space. In light of the ongoing war in Darfur, the project came to a halt in 2007 after the United States included the project management company, Al Sunut Development to the

OFAC The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is a financial intelligence and enforcement agency of the U.S. Treasury Department. It administers and enforces economic and trade sanctions in support of U.S. national security and foreign policy o ...

Sudan sanctions list, due to its connection to the Sudanese government. In 2021, the Emirates Stallions Group announced a hospitality project within the Al Morgan Development in partnership with DAL Group worth $65.3 million. The project will consist of a 16-floor hotel and residences.

Food

DAL Food is the largest company within the group by business volume and operates

flour mills A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separat ...

under its Sayga brand. It has also produced and distributed

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta ...

for the Sudanese market since 2002 and has a factory for processing

gum arabic Gum arabic, also known as gum sudani, acacia gum, Arabic gum, gum acacia, acacia, Senegal gum, Indian gum, and by other names, is a natural gum originally consisting of the hardened sap of two species of the '' Acacia'' tree, ''Senegalia sen ...

for export.

Others

DAL is involved in the

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Va ...

sector, having founded the

Khartoum International Community School Khartoum International Community School (KICS) is a private English-medium international School, established by the DAL Group in 2004. Located on a purpose-built campus in the Hay El Raqi area, a Southern suburb of Khartoum, Sudan, KICS caters fo ...

(KICS) in 2004. It also has a foothold in the

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...

healthcare Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health profe ...

distribution and

industrial gas Industrial gases are the gaseous materials that are manufactured for use in industry. The principal gases provided are nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, argon, hydrogen, helium and acetylene, although many other gases and mixtures are also avail ...

industries.

Controversies

There is criticism within

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

about subsidies given to companies involved in flour production and import, although the subsidies are intended to keep prices down for consumers and manufacturers.

References

External links

DAL Group CEO talks about the history of DAL Group on CNN Marketplace Africa.
{{Improve categories, date=December 2020 Companies of Sudan Privately held companies Conglomerate companies established in 1951 1951 establishments in Sudan