Looking at FY2026, what does it say about where IBL is today?
Arnaud: FY2026 was a strong year of consolidation and organic growth. Despite a challenging operating environment, the Group delivered growth across all four clusters, with operating profit growing faster than revenue. Over the past few years, we have invested significantly in Réunion, Seychelles and East Africa, expanded into new markets and built the platforms to support that growth. We are now seeing those investments bear fruit, with businesses increasingly driving organic growth and becoming regional champions and hubs.
That is an important shift for IBL. Beyond Borders began as a Group-led expansion strategy via IBL Ltd – the holding; today, businesses have stronger local management, deeper sectoral knowledge and greater ownership of their performance. They are taking responsibility for their own growth, while drawing on the capital, expertise and connections of the wider Group.
The new IBL office in Réunion is another expression of that evolution. It gives us a stronger base to support our operations and identify opportunities in the Indian Ocean, while helping us coordinate our growing operations across the neighbouring islands.
Where IBL is today is different from where we were ten years ago: we aren’t entering markets in isolation or driving regionalisation from the centre. Our businesses have solid ecosystems in place, with teams working across borders, applying what works in one business to another and from one cluster to another, together creating new avenues for growth.
Patrice: I agree. There is a clear sense that the businesses are taking the lead, and that has changed the management agenda. There is less emphasis on deciding where we should go next, and more on execution.
Our four strategic clusters provide a clearer framework for managing the Group and developing the businesses.
We have also simplified our organisational structure, appointing three Group Heads of Operations, with fewer layers between the Group and the businesses. This gives clearer focus to each activity, while creating more opportunities for collaboration and talent mobility across businesses. We are also seeing the IBL way of working applied more consistently across the Group, with shared values, a common culture and a clear understanding of what excellence looks like.
The role of the Group is now to set the direction, provide the right resources and strategic guidance, and hold businesses accountable for delivery.
Across the portfolio, where do you see the clearest evidence of progress in the businesses?
Arnaud: I see it in what the businesses are doing with the positions we have built, either by expanding regionally, sharpening strategic focus or building stronger synergies. In Retail, we are putting our Réunion business on firmer footing. Make Distribution, which operates the Run Market hypermarkets, plans to join forces with Caillé Grande Distribution, operator of Leader Price supermarkets with deep roots in Réunion. On completion, the proposed transaction would form the island’s third-largest food retailer.
PBL is also building on its positions in Mauritius, Réunion and Seychelles. A significant milestone was the appointment of Edena Boissons to produce Coca-Cola products in Réunion, which is a strong recognition of PBL’s world-class manufacturing, quality and distribution capabilities, and of the investments made to bring its platforms to international standards. It strengthens PBL’s role within the global Coca-Cola system, creating greater connectivity and routes to market between the three islands.
In FMCG and Healthcare Distribution, HealthActiv and Harley’s have been brought under common leadership, with new shared departments, modernised logistics infrastructure and accelerated digital transformation.
Along with BrandActiv, the businesses are working more closely together to capture opportunities across markets. The result is an integrated regional FMCG and healthcare platform whose scale and breadth few players in these markets can match, with major brands now leveraging our expertise to penetrate new markets.
These are not isolated transactions. They are changing the shape and reach of businesses we already own. We are now strengthening the positions where we have the expertise to lead, building scale where it creates an advantage, and executing with discipline.
What does that look like in terms of day-to-day performance?
Patrice: This year, we saw tangible improvements in operating performance, including in businesses that had been under pressure. Our 13.7% growth in operating profit was broad-based, reflecting stronger performance across a number of BUs.
Run Market continued its operational recovery, returning to positive EBITDA. Aviation delivered a significant improvement in profitability through stronger ground-handling and GSA activities. Manser Saxon benefitted from a wider range of projects with IBL’s business units, while Life Together significantly reduced its losses as it continued developing its healthcare platform.
The businesses that were already performing well continued to expand. Naivas and FMCG & Healthcare Distribution grew their footprints, while technology and data are increasingly supporting the way they manage operations and serve customers. Investments in People are also contributing to performance through deeper leadership benches, more consistent management practices, and clearer operating standards. (See case studies in Technology & Transformation and People.)
Where did performance fall short of expectations, and what have those situations taught you?
Arnaud: Seafood remained challenging. The sector showed some recovery this year, with improved profitability, but supply constraints affecting Marine Biotechnology Products and Cervonic, along with changes in European customs tariffs, have added pressure. The business is investing in its operations, people and management processes to improve performance, but we expect another challenging year ahead.
Edena had a difficult year in Réunion, with production disruptions in the fourth quarter affecting volumes and profitability. Edena’s parent company, PBL, is implementing corrective measures to restore production ahead of FY2027.
Although Winners delivered good revenue growth, the Retail sector overall is facing continued pressure in Mauritius, with household purchasing power constrained, intense competition and rising operating costs. Winners is responding by staying close to customer needs, monitoring the situation carefully, and continuing to improve productivity, notably by developing a buying structure in Asia.
FMCG and Healthcare Distribution saw the cost of building its East African footprint weigh on profitability in some markets, even as its network has strengthened and growth has remained strong. The next phase is about converting that investment and market presence into more consistent returns.
Not all parts of the portfolio are contributing to organic growth at the same pace, and some are still working through changes to their operating model. UBP has undertaken a strategic review of Espace Maison and developed a five-year plan, while DTOS has gone through a leadership change and a rethink of its business model. Both are now executing clear action plans to strengthen their positions and improve performance.
The portfolio now spans different sectors and stages of development, and performance will naturally vary from one business to another. That is part of managing a Group of this breadth.
Patrice: That breadth has implications for how we manage our operations. As the businesses evolve at different speeds and face different market conditions, our role at Group level is to understand what each one needs and make sure the right support is available. That has made us look more carefully at the role of Head Office.
The Head Office needs to add value without becoming another layer of decision-making. We are therefore working to make IBL’s centre leaner, remove unnecessary friction and clarify how Group functions work with the businesses.
The same principle applies to our business leaders. We want them to have the authority to make decisions close to the business, and the ownership that comes with it. That is important when building a Group that can move with the markets rather than waiting for decisions from the centre.
How are you building capability and culture across the Group?
Patrice: The IBL Academy is the vehicle that disseminates and reinforces our values and ways of working, from how we lead and behave to how we operate. But much of the learning happens through the work itself. As our businesses become more complex and evolve at different speeds, people need opportunities to take on new responsibilities, broaden their experience and develop with the business.
That is where People Transformation is much more closely linked to the business agenda. People teams are working with leaders on the organisation and leadership teams they need, while creating more opportunities for people to move across businesses and markets. Talent mobility is exposing IBL’s people to different contexts, broadening their experience, and helping us build a stronger leadership pipeline.
Our engagement label, iBelong, is also helping us understand where engagement can be strengthened and where people experience barriers to performing at their best. Beyond training, building capability is about creating the conditions in which people can thrive, take responsibility and keep developing as the Group changes.
And this is not something the People function can do on its own. It is part of how we lead businesses. We need common values and standards across the Group, but also the freedom for leaders and teams to apply them to the realities of their own businesses. That balance is important to building a culture that is consistent without becoming uniform.
Arnaud: Technology & Transformation and Innovation are also becoming more embedded in how we work. Digital tools are supporting better decision-making, operations and customer engagement, while Innovation is helping us identify synergies between activities that previously operated independently. Logistics, Aviation and Shipping is one example, where businesses are working across traditional boundaries to develop new opportunities.
As IBL has grown, has your perspective about the Group’s role in each market changed?
Arnaud: Being present in a market is not enough. As the Group grows, we have to constantly ask what value we are bringing to our markets.
Renewable energy is an area where the Group is building for the long term. Although it is a relatively new area for IBL, it has quickly become strategically important. In Mauritius, IBL Energy, now ENEYA Energy, is developing solar projects under the Central Electricity Board’s Carbon Neutral Industrial Sector (CNIS) Renewable Energy Scheme, while in East Africa it is developing renewable energy solutions for commercial and industrial clients. These activities are helping businesses access more reliable and lower-carbon energy, while reducing their exposure to volatile energy costs.
This is opening up new applications for the Group’s industrial expertise. CNOI is building the Captain Artic, the first vessel of its kind to be built by the shipyard, and which combines CNOI’s expertise with wind and solar power. Captain Arctic, the first vessel of its kind built by the shipyard, combines wind and solar power with its maritime expertise. This is a significant industrial achievement, showing how CNOI’s industrial niche know-how is being used to support the sector’s transition to lower-carbon operations.
We are also looking closely at the Group’s own footprint, measuring our carbon emissions, developing transition plans for higher-emitting businesses, and assessing the physical climate risks facing our assets. We are approaching the transition from both sides: developing solutions for the markets in which we operate, while understanding what the transition requires of our own businesses.
Patrice: We increasingly operate in areas that directly affect people’s daily lives, and that has changed how we think about our contribution to the markets in which we operate. Issues are being tackled at cluster level, bringing more resources together around those that affect several businesses. In FMCG & Healthcare Distribution, teams across Mauritius, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda are working around shared priorities such as waste and supply chain resilience, while responding to the realities of their individual markets.
That is also shaping the way Fondation Joseph Lagesse (FJL) works. Our materiality assessments and data help us identify the social issues most relevant to our businesses and the communities where we operate. We are developing programmes that address these issues, drawing on the Group’s expertise and resources to achieve more together.
Arnaud, you personally led the 2016 amalgamation. When you look back, what decisions mattered most?
Arnaud: The most important decision was accepting that IBL could not remain primarily dependent on the Mauritian market. In 2016, we were already hitting the limits of what we could do here, and I was convinced that expansion was the way forward.
We had tried expanding into Africa before and, frankly, we made mistakes: in Mozambique, Gabon and Uganda. Those experiences stayed with me when we looked at regional expansion again. From 2018 onwards, we took our time. We set up the Nairobi office and spent several years understanding East Africa, building relationships and looking at opportunities without rushing into a transaction or a major commitment. When the opportunities came, we were in a much better position to judge them.
And then there was a decision about what kind of Group we wanted to build. We did not want to become an international investor sitting in Mauritius and managing a collection of assets from a distance. We had to become active operators there, build local businesses and relationships, and take responsibility for making those businesses work.
There was also a very personal side to it for me. IBL had been built by my family over generations, so I felt a responsibility to preserve what existed. But I knew the business had to keep evolving if it was to remain relevant for the generations that followed, so for me, that meant being willing to take IBL well beyond the Group I had known.
What will define the next year? The next decade?
Patrice: We enter the next phase with a clear priority: execution excellence. That means strengthening the fundamentals of our businesses, improving operational efficiency, creating synergies and continuing to develop our people. It also means pursuing organic growth with the same discipline that has guided our investment decisions.
There is no change in the fundamental direction of IBL. We will continue to grow selectively, invest across the region and look for opportunities where our businesses can build lasting leadership positions. After a period of significant investment and expansion, execution now matters more than ever.
Arnaud: Today’s IBL is the result of a series of choices made, bets placed, lessons learned and people trusted to carry a vision forward. What I hope for the next decade is that we continue to live by the values that have guided us so far, and create opportunities for inclusive development and brighter futures in the markets in which we operate.
I would like to see us continue using technology more deliberately to improve how we operate and serve our customers. We have become much closer to the consumer over the past decade, through businesses in healthcare, retail, leisure and other services, and there is still room to take that further.
At the same time, we should not lose what makes IBL what it is. We have built real industrial expertise and technical know-how over generations, and that remains an important part of our DNA and our ability to build businesses for the long term.
Ultimately, what makes me proudest is not that IBL is bigger, but that it has become capable of doing more for our shareholders, our people and the communities and economies in which we operate.