The Profile Of Scoa
p. 63 · Read in the full issue
Scoa, the French company which in February acquired control of the 55year-oid Sydney-based Islands trading company, C. Sullivan Holdings Ltd, was born in 1907 as the Societe Commerciale de VQuest Africain.
The venture of two young Swiss, Wilhelm Roth and Hans Ryff, it opened its first store on Sherbro Island in Sierra Leone.
From that small beginning, the company has grown until today- it employs 32,000 people in 44 countries in Europe, Africa and North America. Its annual turnover is more than SAIOOO million.
The company has long ceased to be merely a trading enterprise. Its Industries Department employs 16,000 people, half its total personnel.
Scoa industries, largely concerned with processing local raw materials in a number of African countries, include Said, a pineapple processing subsidiary on the Ivory Coast, which is one of the world's largest producers of pineapple-derived products.
Scoa is also active in the distribution of machinery, automobiles and the operation of large stores, particularly in Africa and France.
In 1969, Scoa, anxious to complete its expansion programme and to ensure its future success, entered into agreements with the Compagnie Financiere de Paris et du Pays-bas, one of the Big Two private financial institutions in France, which is now the company’s biggest single shareholder.
In 1973 Scoa shareholders voted to discard the company’s old name in favour of the simple title, Scoa. The new name drops all reference to West Africa and to trade, catching up with the fact that the group’s activities now extend far beyond that region and include manufacturing and distribution, as well as trade.