THE IRANI FAMILY

$800 Million

OWNERS, IRANI BROTHERS & OTHERS LIMITED

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Wealth: INHERITANCE, FLOUR

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Known For: IRANI BROTHERS

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OVERVIEW

Two Lebanese brothers, Anthony Irani and Edmund Irani, who immigrated to Ghana founded Irani Brothers & Others Limited in 1967 to produce wheat flour for the bread and pastry industry. It accounts for about 60% of wheat flour sales in Ghana. They provided the required start-up capital and have operated and managed the firm as a family business ever since. Anthony and Edmund Irani, who both had technical expertise in the flour milling business, provided leadership for the company.

One of the unique attributes of the company is that the two brothers developed and implemented a good succession plan to identify and develop the capacity of individuals within the Irani family to take up leadership positions in the company. This plan has contributed to the operational success of the company over the past 40 years. Although Anthony and Edmund Irani are both deceased, the managing director of the company is a member of the Irani family (a son-in-law of the founders). Irani Brothers & Others Limited is the oldest and largest wheat flour mill in Ghana and is one of the most successful of Ghana’s second- and third-generation companies.

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NET WORTH SUMMARY

Irani Brothers is the market leader in wheat flour production in Ghana with about 55% of the total market and employs over 400 people.

Irani Brothers currently produces two main products: bread flour and pastry flour. The extension to pastry flour was in response to the growth in domestic demand for the product that came with an expansion in the number and capacity of Ghana’s biscuit factories and the entry of a large number of domestic pastry producers.

The company currently imports about 180,000 metric tones of wheat annually for milling into bread and pastry flour and it accounts for about 60% of wheat flour sales in Ghana.

The core strength of Irani Brothers lies in its ability to source full shiploads of wheat and to secure the necessary funding arrangements; this gives it a competitive advantage over all the other flour mills in Ghana, no other flour mill in Ghana has the capacity to continuously source wheat in large quantities.

Irani Brothers has the largest flour milling capacity in Ghana and accounts for 60% of total wheat flour sales. The company has three milling plants, all imported from Switzerland. The equipment is top of the range for the international wheat flour industry. The total installed capacity is about 150,000 metric tonnes per annum and this even falls short of total market demand in Ghana.

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