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

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It ...

with a turnover of over 16 billion

Mauritian rupee The Mauritian rupee (sign: Re (singular) and Rs (plural); 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 1, 2, 5, 10 and 20 cents w ...

s (approx. US$467 million) as of 2015 listed on the Stock Exchange of Mauritius. 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 Univer ...

, 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

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 personal care company headquartered in Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine with a registered office in Paris. It is the world's largest cosmetics company and has developed activities in the field concentrating on hair color, ...

Kraft foods The second incarnation of Kraft Foods is an American food manufacturing and processing conglomerate, split from Kraft Foods Inc. in 2012 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It became part of Kraft Heinz in 2015. A merger with Heinz, arran ...

, Colgate Palmolive, Johnson & Johnson 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

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 (french: Port-Louis; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Polwi or , ) is the capital city of Mauritius. It is mainly located in the Port Louis District, with a small western part in the Black River District. Port Louis is the country's e ...

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

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 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 vesse ...

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

French Navy The French Navy (french: Marine nationale, lit=National Navy), informally , is the maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the five military service branches of France. It is among the largest and most powerful naval forces in t ...

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, ...

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

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

, a 39-metre barge for

Mayotte Mayotte (; french: Mayotte, ; Shimaore: ''Maore'', ; Kibushi: ''Maori'', ), officially the Department of Mayotte (french: Département de Mayotte), is an overseas department and region and single territorial collectivity of France. It is loca ...

, 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.

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 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: 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 Stock Exchange of Mauritius in 1993. In 2007, the company became the first in the Indian Ocean (and in Mauritius) to obtain the ISO 27001 certification relating to

information security Information security, sometimes shortened to InfoSec, 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 unauthorize ...

References

{{reflist Conglomerate companies of Mauritius Companies based in Port Louis