Billionaires: How Tanzania’s Said Salim Bakhresa built one of the biggest business conglomerates in Africa

Said Salim Awadh Bakhresa, one of the richest East Africans, dropped out of school at the age of 14 to become a potato mix salesperson.

His proper business journey did not start until the 1970s, when he opened a restaurant in Dar-es-Salaam.

From this restaurant, he has created a business empire that spans the African continent within three decades.

Humble start

The genesis of the company’s food and beverage operations began in 1983 with the formation of Said Salim Bakhresa & Co Ltd (SSB), the flag-ship company of the Group.

Bakhresa leveraged on the privatization program from the Presidential Parastatal Sector Reform Commission of Tanzania to acquire wheat, rice and maize mills, which enabled him to build his empire in no time.

In Zanzibar, the flour miller runs the Zanzibar Milling Corporation Limited with a total milling capacity of 170 tons of wheat per day. In 2020, the company revealed plans of expanding its total wheat milling capacity to 3,500 tons per day. It also has a maize mill of 100 tons per day and a rice mill of 50 tons per day capacity. Products from all its mills include wheat flours, wheat bran pallets, semolina, maize flour, maize bran and rice.

Bakhresa formed another subsidiary, Bakhresa Food Products Ltd (BFPL), to quench the thirst of the millions of Tanzanians and citizens of its neighbouring countries. Providing the vital lifeline, the company produced its first water brand in 1998 that is currently sold under the ‘Uhai’ and ‘Safina’ brand names.

The investment in bottled drinking water paved way for the manufacturer to pump money into the establishment of the Azam Fruit Juice Processing Division.

The state-of-the-art plant has the capacity to process 350 tonnes of fruits and vegetables daily and stores the pulp/juices/concentrates in 210 litres aseptic bags. orange, pineapple, guava, and tropical mix fruits juice drinks.

The company’s premium range of nectar and fruit juice were introduced in 2010 in one of the most modern Tetra Prisma 1 litre packs with stream caps. This range included juices in mango, orange, pineapple, guava and tropical mix fruit, mango/orange and pomegranate flavours.

Having successfully established its presence in fruit juice and bottled water market, Bakhresa Group ventured into a new phase of beverage market in the year 2011 and started producing carbonated soft drinks and malt flavoured beverages.

Nothing seemed to slow down the processing giant as it further extended its line of businesses to dairy sector by installing a world class, sophisticated dairy plant in Zanzibar in 2014 to produce UHT milk such as full fat, low fat and flavoured milk. The plant has a processing capacity of 180,000 litres of milk per day.

Further expanding its offerings, the Tanzanian manufacturing behemoth runs the largest bakery in the country producing the popular Azam brand bread, biscuits, cakes and donuts. The state-of-the-art facility also manufactures high quality ready to use white and brown chapattis and samosa leaves.

In its sleeves of tonnes of investment in Tanzania, its flag-ship company SSB is nearing completion of the first phase of the US$300 million Bagamoyo Sugar Limited that started production in June 2022. The project, which has three phases, commenced with an installed processing capacity of between 30,000 tonnes and 35,000 tonnes, with the annual processing capacity later expanded to 100,000 tonnes.

Venturing abroad

Milling being its core business, Bakhresa Group has set up operations in over five countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The company tested the abroad water by opening its first mill in neighbouring Uganda in 1998. Situated in Kampala, Bakhresa Grain Milling Uganda Limited commenced operations with an installed wheat milling capacity of 250 tons per day. This was later increased to 450 tons per day in 2004, and later more than doubled to 1,050 tons per day in 2011, thereby becoming one of the largest wheat mill references in the country.

Further spreading its operations in the region, Bakhresa incorporated its Malawian subsidiary in 2003 following the company’s take-over of assets of the former government parastatal, Grain & Milling Company Ltd (GRAMIL), under the Government of Malawi Privatisation Programme. Following the acquisition, Bakhresa invested in an ultra-modern 250 tons per day capacity wheat mill and later doubled it to 500 tons per day in 2009.

Bakhresa’s quest to become a leading player in the grain and milling industry did not stop there as the company in 2006 opened the Bakhresa Grain Milling Mozambique Limitada. The grain handing and bulk storage facility was set up inside the port of Nacala with a capacity to receive 600 tons of grain per hour and storage capacity of 30,000 tons. Later in 2012, the company commissioned an ultra-modern 250 tons per day capacity wheat mill with a 30,000-ton wheat storage silo in the Special Economic Zone of Nacala Industrial Area. The milling capacity was increased to 500 tons per day in 2013.

The deep-pocketed manufacturing conglomerate set base in Rwanda in 2009 with the objective of manufacturing high-quality wheat products to cater to the local demand in the country and export to Eastern Congo and Burundi.

The Rwandan mill is one of the pioneer facilities to be set up in the Special Economic Zone in Kigali. It boasts of a wheat milling capacity of 500 tons per day, serviced by storage units with capacity to hold 12,000 tons. The investment in Rwanda enabled Bakhresa to knock the doors in Burundi and commenced production in the East African nation in 2013 with a wheat mill of 360 tons per day processing capacity.

In the same old-fashioned way of seeing gems in run down and defunct facilities, the milling giant acquired the old Union Flour Mill Building in Durban South Africa in 2015, turning it into a new 750 tons flour mill – becoming one of the few food companies from the rest of Africa to successfully invest in South Africa.

Family life

Bakhresa is married to Fathiya Bahhresa and they have seven children: Mohamed Said Salim Bakhresa, Abubakar Said Salim Bakhresa, Omar Said Salim Bakhresa, Yusuf Said Salim Bakhresa, Khalid Said Salim Bakhresa (deceased 2007) and Mariam Salim Bakhresa. Bakhresa Group is a family business.

His sons are all Executive Directors of Salim Bakhresa & Co Ltd, which is majority shareholder in Azam Media Limited.

His sons also additionally hold the following positions:

Yusuf Said Salim Bakhresa is the Managing Director of Azam Media Limited and is a director in the Group Companies. He is actively involved in the day to day operations of Bakhresa food products Ltd.

Abubakar Said Salim Bakhresa manages Bakhresa Malawi Limited, Bakhresa Grain Milling (Rwanda), Bakhresa Grain Milling Limitada (Mozambique) and Bakhresa South Africa (Pty) Limited.

Mohamed Said Bakhresa is the Managing Director of Bakhresa Grain Milling (Uganda) Limited, the largest wheat milling industry in Uganda.

Omar Said Salim Bakhresa, a Mechanical Engineer, is the Executive Director in charge of Logistics Division of Said Salim Bakhresa & Co Ltd. He has over a decade of experience in logistics & transportation industry.