A growing family
South Africa’s Louis Group is now one of the country’s most successful property and investment enterprises, with a wide range of interests and activities.
In just four years’ time, Louis Group will be celebrating 100 years of operation in South Africa. The company was founded by Salim and Michel Louis, who emigrated from Lebanon in 1914 and set themselves up as general wholesale merchants. It continued in that line of business until 1959, by which time it had become one of the largest wholesale merchants in the country. In that year, the company—led by Salim’s son, Colia Louis—acquired its first commercial property. When the next generation came into the group its focus turned towards expanding its property, investment and administration activities. Still family-owned, the group has been headquartered in Cape Town since 1994, although it retains its original base, an historic building in Bloemfontein.
