A collaborative research project between New York University Abu Dhabi and Tharawat Family Business Forum

Spotlight

Al Bunnia Group

Information last updated on 24 July 2022

Snapshot

Founding

Family Name:

Al Bunnia

Founder’s Name:

Haj Mahmood Jassim Al Bunnia[1]

Earliest Documented Business Name:

Al Bunnia Company[2]

Founding Year:

1910[3]

Founding Location:

Baghdad, Iraq[4]

Today

Current Operating Status:

Operating

Family Business Name:

Al Bunnia Group

Headquarters Location:

Baghdad, Iraq

Key Industries:

Commercial Agencies, General Trading, Logistic, Marketing & Distribution, Agriculture, Electricity Sector, Information Technology and Telecommunication, Oil Services, Foodstuffs, Aviation & Air Transportation, Investments, Restaurant Management[5]

Number of Employees:

6500+[6]

ABOUT THE FOUNDER AND FOUNDING STORY

Mahmood Jasim Al Bunnia was born in the late 1800s in Iraq into a family of the Al Obaid tribe.[7] From a young age, Mahmood worked as a barter trader in Baghdad. In 1910, he established a small business in basic food and agricultural commodities — seeds, dates, beans, fruits, and wool.[8] Under the Ottoman administration, agriculture in Iraq flourished as cultivated areas underwent significant expansion.[9] Mahmood’s business grew as a result until he was able to establish himself as one of the main local suppliers of food commodities.[10] In 1924, Mahmood’s eldest son, Abdel Wehab, was born;[11] two other sons followed: Saadun and Abdullatif.[12]

GROWTH PHASE

As Mahmood’s business evolved, it eventually focused on the wholesale trade of food commodities[13] under the name of Al Bunnia Company.[14] In 1950, the founder’s three sons took over their father’s business, establishing H. Mahmood J. Al Bunnia & Sons (HMBS).[15] By that point, the company had expanded into food processing and manufacturing.[16] It continued to evolve under the leadership of the second generation, who began to export products to the US and Europe in the 1950s.[17]

 

Following the overthrow of the Hashemite monarchy in Iraq in 1958, the country experienced an era of political and economic turmoil[18] that massively impacted Al Bunnia business operations. Reflecting on the decades following the coup d’état, family members say that every business move from that point forward was dictated by the successive authoritarian regimes in Iraq.[19]

 

Abdul Wehab Al Bunnia, the founder’s eldest son, had married Nahed Al Rahmani, with whom he had four daughters and six sons — the eldest, Khalil,[20] was born in 1955.[21] When Khalil turned 10, his father and grandfather started involving him in the business. They put him in charge of a small shop in a souk where he sold miscellaneous items and took him to business meetings to listen and observe. In 1978, Khalil graduated with a BA in business administration from Baghdad University.[22]

 

Khalil Al Bunnia joined the family business in a more official capacity, but in 1981, he was sentenced to death and placed in solitary confinement for resisting government orders to turn the Al Bunnia food processing factories into production units for the Iraqi army. The sentence was ultimately overturned and Khalil was released. In 1990, he was sentenced to death a second time on the charge of treason for no more than having been in Kuwait during the Gulf War.[23] After four months in solitary confinement, he was declared innocent. In the early 1990s, as Iraq suffered extreme inflation, with its currency at times losing 6 percent of its value in a single day, the government called for the execution of “profiteering merchants” and a total of 47 Iraqi tradesmen were hung.[24] Khalil Al Bunnia was among those targeted, but he managed to escape to Jordan in 1994, eluding a third death penalty.[25]

 

The Al Bunnia Group faced additional challenges in sustaining its operations under Saddam Hussain’s regime. For example, the import of foreign goods into Iraq was constrained by the impossibility of legally exchanging currency.[26] Importation thus had to rely on money changers who would smuggle cash to and from neighboring countries, obviously a high-risk business operation model. [27]

 

Khalil’s younger brothers gradually became involved in the business. Mustafa became vice-president of the group,[28] and later the executive manager of five of its subsidiaries. [29] Since Khalil first took over the business, the lifelong automobile aficionado had dreamed of one day manufacturing cars in Iraq, which was impossible due to the restrictions under the regime. However, in 2000, he entered the automobile world [30] by becoming a distributor of SCANIA,[31] Caterpillar, BMW,[32] and Renault vehicles.[33]

 

In the aftermath of the American invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the end of the Saddam Hussein era, the Al Bunnia family faced intense local repercussions. As the family members were among those merchants who had kept their wealth under Saddam,[34] they were singled out and threatened by politicians spearheading what was called the “economic de-Baathification program.[35] Family members faced accusations of corruption,[36] some of their employees were kidnapped, and their warehouses were set on fire.[37]

 

In 2016, the Al Bunnia Group were finally allowed to assemble SCANIA trucks in Baghdad, at the Askandaria factory, bringing Khalil’s ambition of manufacturing cars in Iraq one step closer to reality. Realizing that his dream will probably not be achieved in his life time, Khalil’s ambition is to lay the groundwork for automobile manufacturing in Iraq for the fourth generation to accomplish.[38] Khalil Al Bunnia has one daughter and three sons,[39] whom he has involved in the family business from a young age.[40]

TODAY

Today, with over 6,500 employees, the Al Bunnia Group remains fully owned by the family; it runs more than 60 subsidiaries in Iraq[41] and has international offices in Frankfurt and Beijing.[42] Abdul Wehab Al Bunnia from the family’s second generation passed away in 2022 at the age of 98.[43]

Notes

Photo Credit: Founder Haj Mahmood Jassim Al Bunnia in 1961. Source: Al Bunnia Group website

[1] Our History – Al Bunnia Group. https://albunnia-group.com/en/our-history/.  Last Accessed 24 Jul 2022

[2] Our History – Al Bunnia Group. https://albunnia-group.com/en/our-history/. Last Accessed 24 Jul 2022

[3] Our History – Al Bunnia Group. https://albunnia-group.com/en/our-history/. Last Accessed 24 Jul 2022

[4] Khalil Al Bunnia | حديث آخر – مقابلة مع خليل البنية. Directed by Ricardo Karam, 2019. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTdXOl49SjY. Last Accessed 24 Jul 2022

[5] Our Activities – Al Bunnia Group. https://albunnia-group.com/en/our-activities/. Last Accessed 24 Jul 2022

[6] About Us – ar – Al Bunnia Group. https://albunnia-group.com/ar/about-us-2/. Last Accessed 24 Jul 2022

[7] Khalil Al Bunnia | حديث آخر – مقابلة مع خليل البنية. Directed by Ricardo Karam, 2019. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTdXOl49SjY. Last Accessed 24 Jul 2022

[8] Our History – Al Bunnia Group. https://albunnia-group.com/en/our-history/. Last Accessed 24 Jul 2022

[9] Çetinsaya, Gökhan. Ottoman Administration of Iraq, 1890-1908. Routledge, 2006. Library of Congress ISBN, https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/24089/1006042.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y. Last Accessed 24 Jul 2022

[10] Hassan Al-Bunnia – Posts | Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/265172926979037/posts/265764646919865/. Last Accessed 24 Jul 2022

[11] “العراق بغداد 🇮🇶 على تويتر.” Twitter, https://twitter.com/PageIraqBaghdad/status/1477574399373066241. Last Accessed 24 Jul 2022

[12] Our History – Al Bunnia Group. https://albunnia-group.com/en/our-history/. Last Accessed 24 Jul 2022

[13] Khalil Al Bunnia | حديث آخر – مقابلة مع خليل البنية. Directed by Ricardo Karam, 2019. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTdXOl49SjY. Last Accessed 24 Jul 2022

[14] Our History – Al Bunnia Group. https://albunnia-group.com/en/our-history/. Last Accessed 24 Jul 2022

[15] About Us – ar – Al Bunnia Group. https://albunnia-group.com/ar/about-us-2/. Last Accessed 24 Jul 2022

[16] Our History – Al Bunnia Group. https://albunnia-group.com/en/our-history/. Last Accessed 24 Jul 2022

[17] Our History – ar – Al Bunnia Group. https://albunnia-group.com/ar/our-history-2/. Last Accessed 24 Jul 2022

[18] Lenczowski, George. “Iraq: Seven Years of Revolution.” Current History, vol. 48, no. 285, 1965, p. 281–307. Last Accessed 24 Jul 2022

[19] Khalil Al Bunnia | حديث آخر – مقابلة مع خليل البنية. Directed by Ricardo Karam, 2019. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTdXOl49SjY. Last Accessed 24 Jul 2022

[20] Khalil Al Bunnia | حديث آخر – مقابلة مع خليل البنية. Directed by Ricardo Karam, 2019. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTdXOl49SjY. Last Accessed 24 Jul 2022

[21] Khalil Al Bunnia | حديث آخر – مقابلة مع خليل البنية. Directed by Ricardo Karam, 2019. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTdXOl49SjY. Last Accessed 24 Jul 2022

[22] Khalil Al Bunnia | حديث آخر – مقابلة مع خليل البنية. Directed by Ricardo Karam, 2019. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTdXOl49SjY. Last Accessed 24 Jul 2022

[23]Khalil Al Bunnia | حديث آخر – مقابلة مع خليل البنية. Directed by Ricardo Karam, 2019. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTdXOl49SjY. Last Accessed 24 Jul 2022

[24] “A Review of Saddam’s Iraq: Three Years after the Gulf War, Part II: Social and Economic Problems.” The Washington Institute, https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/review-saddams-iraq-three-years-after-gulf-war-part-ii-social-and-economic-problems.  Last Accessed 24 Jul 2022

[25] Khalil Al Bunnia | حديث آخر – مقابلة مع خليل البنية. Directed by Ricardo Karam, 2019. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTdXOl49SjY.  Last Accessed 24 Jul 2022

[26]Lenczowski, George. “Iraq: Seven Years of Revolution.” Current History, vol. 48, no. 285, 1965, P. 281–307.  Last Accessed 24 Jul 2022

[27] Khalil Al Bunnia | حديث آخر – مقابلة مع خليل البنية. Directed by Ricardo Karam, 2019. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTdXOl49SjY. . Last Accessed 24 Jul 2022

[28] “Iraq Security Deters Western Firms.” The Sydney Morning Herald, 14 Oct. 2003, https://www.smh.com.au/national/iraq-security-deters-western-firms-20031014-gdhl44.html. Last Accessed 24 Jul 2022

[29] الاعلامي ضياء الكواز يلتقي مع رجل الاعمال العراقي خليل بنيه واسرار الفساد في دوائر الدولة. Directed by شبكة اخبار العراق Iraq news netwerk, 2020. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QYUszHHvjU. Minute 11:37. Last Accessed 24 Jul 2022

[30] Khalil Al Bunnia | حديث آخر – مقابلة مع خليل البنية. Directed by Ricardo Karam, 2019. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTdXOl49SjY. Last Accessed 24 Jul 2022

[31] AB, SCANIA. “Scania Is Back in Iraq.” GlobeNewswire News Room, 3 May 2010, https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2010/05/03/166823/0/en/Scania-is-back-in-Iraq.html . Last Accessed 24 Jul 2022

[32] BMW COMMENCES BUSINESS OPERATIONS IN IRAQ. https://www.press.bmwgroup.com/middle-east/article/detail/T0100578EN/bmw-commences-business-operations-in-iraq?language=en . Last Accessed 24 Jul 2022

[33] Editor. Renault Appoints UTAC as Official Distributor in Iraq | Iraq Business News. 20 Apr. 2011, https://www.iraq-businessnews.com/2011/04/20/renault-appoints-utac-as-official-distributor-in-iraq/ . Last Accessed 24 Jul 2022

[34]  Roston, Aram. The Man Who Pushed America to War : The Extraordinary Life, Adventures, and Obsessions of Ahmed Chalabi. New York : Nation Books, 2008. Internet Archive, http://archive.org/details/manwhopushedamer0000rost. P. 272 . Last Accessed 24 Jul 2022

[35] Zarroli, Jim, and Marie Andrusewicz. “Iraqi Politician Ahmed Chalabi Dead Of A Heart Attack, State TV Reports.” NPR, 3 Nov. 2015. NPR, https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/11/03/454192387/iraqi-politician-ahmed-chalabi-dead-of-a-heart-attack-state-tv. Last Accessed 24 Jul 2022

[36]  Roston, Aram. The Man Who Pushed America to War : The Extraordinary Life, Adventures, and Obsessions of Ahmed Chalabi. New York : Nation Books, 2008. Internet Archive, http://archive.org/details/manwhopushedamer0000rost. P. 272. Last Accessed 24 Jul 2022

[37] Khalil Al Bunnia | حديث آخر – مقابلة مع خليل البنية. Directed by Ricardo Karam, 2019. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTdXOl49SjY. Last Accessed 24 Jul 2022

[38] Khalil Al Bunnia | حديث آخر – مقابلة مع خليل البنية. Directed by Ricardo Karam, 2019. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTdXOl49SjY . Last Accessed 24 Jul 2022

[39] Lenczowski, George. “Iraq: Seven Years of Revolution.” Current History, vol. 48, no. 285, 1965, P. 281–307. Last Accessed 24 Jul 2022

[40] الاعلامي ضياء الكواز يلتقي مع رجل الاعمال العراقي خليل بنيه واسرار الفساد في دوائر الدولة. Directed by شبكة اخبار العراق Iraq news netwerk, 2020. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QYUszHHvjU. Last Accessed 24 Jul 2022

[41] الاعلامي ضياء الكواز يلتقي مع رجل الاعمال العراقي خليل بنيه واسرار الفساد في دوائر الدولة. Directed by شبكة اخبار العراق Iraq news netwerk, 2020. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QYUszHHvjU. Last Accessed 24 Jul 2022

[42] Contact – Al Bunnia Group. https://albunnia-group.com/en/contact/. Last Accessed 24 Jul 2022

[43] “صحيفة عمون : الحاج عبدالوهاب محمود جاسم البنية في ذمة الله.” وكالة عمون الاخبارية, https://www.ammonnews.net/article/656366. Last Accessed 24 Jul 2022

To cite this article please use:

Al Bunnia Group” Family Business Histories Research Project, New York University Abu Dhabi and Tharawat Family Business Forum, 20 Mar. 2023, familybusinesshistories.org/spotlights/albunnia