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Gavin Dalgleish, a former CEO of Illovo, will assume office from April 1 this year,

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Sizwe sama Yende

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Mogul Robert Gumede’s consortium has laid the foundation to take over Tongaat Hullets Sugar group to another level following the appointment of a CEO.

Tongaat Hullets is now a 100% black-owned company operating in four countries - South Africa , Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Botswana -and employing over 32 000 staff members.

The consortium, Vision Group, is made up of Gumede’s Guma Agri, Rute Moyo of Remoggo, Amre Youness of Terris Sugar and Nauman Khan of Almoiz. The owners of these companies are global entrepreneurs with interest in diverse ventures.

Vision Group has appointed Gavin Dalgleish as CEO of Tongaat Hullet as the consortium puts final touches on its take-over of the sugar giant. Dalgleish has been Illovo Sugar Group CEO. Illovo has operations in six African countries owned by a British conglomerate. 

Dalgleish takes the baton from acting CEO, Rob Aitken, who  will remain part of the company’s management.

Gumede said: “Gavin is a big catch of the day for Vision Sugar as he brings wealth of experience in managing and growing complex sugar companies in various countries and for having turned around the businesses to sustainable profitability.”

Tongaat Hullets has been under business rescue since 2022 after a new management team uncovered accounting failures and alleged fraud that led the company to a R12 billion reversal in valuation.

Vision Group won the bid to own THL in January 2024 when creditors voted in its favour amid fierce, frivolous and aggressive competition from Tanzanian company, Kagera, and Mozambique’s RGS Holdings.

Tongaat Hullets’ chief people’s officer, Sashir Milne, said that Dalgeish’s appointment would be effective from April 1 this year.

“Gavin will lead the stabilisation and turnaround of the sugar business as well as its strategic downstream diversification through the next exciting chapter of businesses long history,” Milne said.

 Milne said that the implementation of the approved and adopted business rescue plan remained on track. 

“All sale agreements have been concluded, except the sale agreement in respect of the Mozambique subsidiaries. This is expected imminently. The process may be taking longer than many expected, but is understandable due to the involvement of multiple regulatory bodies across different geographies and a very complex structure,” he said.

Tongaat Hullets has assets in KwaZulu-Natal, Mozambique, Botswana, and Zimbabwe. Vision’s intervention  has saved about over 14 000  jobs in KwaZulu-Natal alone, the livelihoods of about  over 125 000 people indirectly benefiting from the business and 40 000 small-scale sugarcane growers who have been selling their products to the company.

Tongaat is the largest operator of sugarcane refineries in South Africa with over 80% of the white sugar market share .

Outside South Africa, the company employs about 18 000 people in Zimbabwe and 11 000 in Mozambique where it is the  second largest employer after governments in both countries.

The operations in Mozambique, Botswana and Zimbabwe were not affected by the business rescue process.