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

Spotlight

HOLDAL Group

Information last updated on 10 February 2025

Snapshot

Founding

Family Name:

Abou Adal

Founder’s Name:

Georges Abou Adal

Earliest Documented Business Name:

Georges Abou Adal & Cie.

Founding Year:

1947

Founding Location:

Lebanon

Today

Current Operating Status:

Operating

Family Business Name:

HOLDAL Group

Headquarters Location:

Beirut, Lebanon

Key Industries:

Distribution, Retail, Pharmaceuticals and Manufacturing[1]

Number of Employees:

700[2]

ABOUT THE FOUNDER

Georges Abou Adal was born in 1920 to a well-established family in Beirut. After obtaining his high school degree from a Jesuits school in 1938, he moved to Marseilles to study chemistry.[3] In the summer of 1939, he visited Lebanon for holidays to see his family. However, the onset of World War II prevented him from returning to France to finish his studies.[4] Having found himself back in Lebanon indefinitely, he temporarily accepted an offer from the School of Notre Dame de Nazareth and started teaching chemistry.[5] Georges quit his teaching job after a couple of years and undertook his first significant entrepreneurial endeavor — selling narit (paper bags filled with olive pits) as an alternative fuel to wood.[6]

 

In 1944, Georges married Sonia Nicolas Cattan, who came from a well-known Greek Catholic family that owned movie theaters across Lebanon.[7] Through his father-in-law and the latter’s business in the entertainment industries of both Lebanon and Syria, Georges built connections in the region’s entrepreneurial space. After the war’s end, the young couple traveled abroad extensively, ultimately bringing new ideas and products to the country.[8]

FOUNDING STORY

In the aftermath of World War II, Lebanon was in dire need of development. Georges saw that there was a shortfall in the paper and ink supply for the country’s press industry. He launched his import business by importing ink from the Gloucester & Sekolah company.[9] He then became the first to import Reynolds ballpoint pens to Lebanon. By 1947, he had established Georges Abou Adal & Cie with two independent divisions — watches and pharmaceutical products. In 1949, his younger sister, 22-year-old Claire Abou Adal, joined the firm. Claire handled everything from secretarial duties to recruitment to overseeing financial accounts.[10] Having previously worked with a local brand agency, Claire was able to leverage networks both within and outside Lebanon, including in Switzerland. She soon became Georges’s “right hand” and the firm’s “guardian,”[11] building pivotal relationships with several major business owners.[12] Through this network, Georges built further relationships with the S.T. Dupont lighter company and Patek Phillippe watch manufacturer.[13]

GROWTH PHASE

Throughout the early 1950s, Georges Abou Adal & Cie. benefited from Lebanon’s advantageous geopolitical position, its socio-religious equilibrium, and the emergence of the Arab oil economy.[14] As the business grew, Georges moved to a new office, which the company outgrew quickly. He then opened the group’s new headquarters in the newest building in Beirut’s prestigious district of Sursock.[15] Sister companies were established in Syria (Abou Adal & Machhara Frères), Iraq (Georges Abou Adal Iraq) and Egypt. Georges saw Syria in particular as crucial to his vision of market expansion, especially in the pharmaceuticals field, and he sent his brother, Gabriel Abou Adal, to manage the company’s new operations there.[16] Within a decade, Gabriel succeeded in turning a three-person operation into one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in Syria.

 

In 1956, Georges established an import deal with Omega and, the very next year, he signed contracts with Tissot and Movado.[17] Deeply concerned by tensions in the MENA region, Georges started a press company in the late 1950s, launching a newspaper, Ousbouh El Arabi, that aimed to promote Lebanon’s position in the Middle East and the country’s commitment to regional development.[18]

 

By the end of 1961, Abou Adal’s business had grown from a turnover of $23,300 in 1947 to $4.7 million.[19] In 1965, he set up a food and beverage company in collaboration with Jean-Pierre Sara. Abou Adal owned 80 percent of the new joint venture, Société de Gestion des Produits Alimentaires (SOGEPA). He became a distributor for Lancôme in the late 1960s, and subsequently for L’Oréal after its acquisition of Lancôme.[20] His interests were turning toward politics during this period, and he slowly stepped aside from directly managing the business, handing over increasing responsibility to his three children: Freddy, Raymond, and Charles.[21]

 

The business continued to grow until increasing political instability led to the eruption of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975 and a consequent breakdown of government structures.[22] Raymond took over the company’s commercial operations in the early years of the Civil War, and assumed leadership of the company for several decades.[23] People began to leave to pursue opportunities outside of the country, significantly undermining business operations.[24] By the early 1980s, the Lebanese army had severely deteriorated, opening the door to further unrest. In 1992, Raymond restructured Ets Georges Abou Adal SAL and established the holding company HOLDAL Group.[25]

TODAY

Despite facing political and economic instability, the Abou Adal family business has been operating in the region for eight decades. In 2014, its holding company, now known as the HOLDAL Group, was recognized by Forbes Middle East as one of the “Top 100 Private Companies Making an Impact in the Arab World.”[26] The company’s luxury-brand business in Lebanon, Egypt, and Iraq, still included L’Oréal and Patek Philippe, alongside many other distinguished trademarks such as Lacoste and Colgate-Palmolive.[27] In October 2021, Raymond Abou Adal appointed his son Georges Abou Adal as CEO.[28] Today, the Holdal Group is under the leadership of Georges Abou Adal as CEO, while Raymond’s daughters  — Maissa, Syma, Nour— assume the strategic executive roles and as directors on the board of directors.[29]

 

Notes

Photo Credit: Advertisement for a perfume by "Groupe Georges Abou Adal" (now known as HOLDAL Group), 1960s. Source: Abou Adal family.

[1] “Our Story.” HOLDAL Group, http://www.holdalgroup.com/OurGroup. Accessed 3 February 2025.

[2] Statement by Abou Adal family. Family Business Histories, Research Project, Tharawat Family Business Forum and New York University Abu Dhabi. 2024.

[3] Interview with Freddy Abou Adal. Oct. 23, 2017, Family Business Histories, Research Project, Tharawat Family Business Forum and New York University Abu Dhabi

[4] Interview with Claire Abou Adal. Oct. 24, 2017, Family Business Histories, Research Project, Tharawat Family Business Forum and New York University Abu Dhabi

[5] Interview with Raymond Abou Adal. Oct. 24, 2017, Family Business Histories, Research Project, Tharawat Family Business Forum and New York University Abu Dhabi

[6] Interview with Nour Abou Adal. May. 2, 2019, Family Business Histories, Research Project, Tharawat Family Business Forum and New York University Abu Dhabi

[7] Interview with Charles Abou Adal. Oct. 23, 2017, Family Business Histories, Research Project, Tharawat Family Business Forum and New York University Abu Dhabi

[8] Interview with Claire Abou Adal. Oct. 24, 2017.

Interview with Nour Abou Adal. May. 2, 2019

[9] Interview with Claire Abou Adal. Oct. 24, 2017.

[10] Interview with Nour Abou Adal. May. 2, 2019.

[11] Interview with Freddy Abou Adal. Oct. 23, 2017.

[12] Interview with Charles Abou Adal. Oct. 23, 2017.

[13] Interview with Freddy Abou Adal. Oct. 23, 2017.

[14] Rouleau, Eric. “Crisis in Lebanon.” Journal of Palestine Studies, vol. 5, no. 1/2, 1975, pp. 233–43. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2535710.

[15] Interview with Freddy Abou Adal. Oct. 23, 2017.

[16] Ibid.

[17] Ibid.

[18] Interview with Raymond Abou Adal. Oct. 24, 2017.

[19] Interview with Charles Abou Adal. Oct. 23, 2017.

[20] Interview with Raymond Abou Adal. Oct. 24, 2017.

[21] Family tree – Abou Adal. Family Business Histories, Research Project, Tharawat Family Business Forum and New York University Abu Dhabi

[22] Paul, Christopher, et al. Paths to Victory: Detailed Insurgency Case Studies. RAND, 2013.

[23] Interview with Raymond Abou Adal. Oct. 24, 2017.

[24] Interview with Freddy Abou Adal. Oct. 23, 2017, Family Business Histories, Research Project, Tharawat Family Business Forum and New York University Abu Dhabi.

[25]  Interview with Raymond Abou Adal. Oct. 24, 2017.

[26] “Our Group Profile.” HOLDAL GROUP, https://www.holdalgroup.com/OurGroup#history. Accessed 10 Feb 2025.

Samara, G.; Berbegal-Mirabent, J. (2018). Independent directors and family firm performance: does one size fit all? International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 14(1): 149-172. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11365-017-0455-6

[27] Magazine, Tharawat. “Make It Happen HOLDAL 2020: The Unconventional Ways of the Abou Adal Family.” Tharawat Magazine, 10 Nov. 2014, https://www.tharawat-magazine.com/disruptive-innovation/make-happen- holdal-adal-2020/. Accessed 30 Apr. 2019

[28] HOLDAL Group, Company Letter from Raymond Abou Adal about the appointment of his son Georges Abou Adal as the new CEO of HOLDAL, October 5, 2021.

[29] “Georges Abou Adal.” LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/in/georges-abou-adal-57505811/?original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Egoogle%2Ecom%2F&originalSubdomain=lb.

Statement by Abou Adal family. Family Business Histories, Research Project, Tharawat Family Business Forum and New York University Abu Dhabi. 2024.

To cite this article please use:

“HOLDAL Group” Family Business Histories Research Project, New York Unviersity Abu Dhabi and Tharawat Family Business Forum, 20 Mar. 2023, familybusinesshistories.org/spotlights/holdal