Holdal Group

Georges Abou Adal & Cie, now known as HOLDAL, was established by Georges Abou Adal in Beirut in 1947, a couple of years after Lebanon gained its independence from France.

The company imported and distributed watches and pharmaceuticals in its early years. By 1974, it became one of the major Lebanese companies that accounted for a large percentage of the country’s imports from the west. Despite facing political and economic instability, the HOLDAL Group has now been successfully operating in the region for eight decades, offering a wide range of brands and services including luxury and leather goods, pharmaceuticals, perfumes and cosmetics, watches and accessories, and logistics and manufacturing. In 1992, the company was established as a holding company and is jointly managed by the second and third generations. 

1947

Founding Year

LEBANON, IRAQ,
EGYPT

operations

700

Employees

1920 – 1947

Georges Abou Adal was born in 1920 in Beirut. He was the first child of Khalil Abou Adal and Zbeide Chidiac. After finishing his education between Beirut and Marseille and despite his position as a teacher and deputy prefect in the early 1940s, Georges Abou Adal was always interested in business and commerce and was full of business ideas. His father, however, tried to discourage him from indulging in entrepreneurship as he had seen many of his friends struggle as business owners.

Despite his father’s concerns, Georges Abou Adal decided to quit teaching, determined to pursue a business of his own. In 1944, Georges Abou Adal married Sonia Nicolas Cattan. They travelled together regularly and these journeys exposed them to new ideas, innovations, and products; and the idea ripened to bring them to Lebanon through acquiring brand representations and contacting agencies. Georges Abou Adal was a skillful networker and a fluent French speaker. His language skills and ability to communicate effectively gave him a competitive edge in seeking out potential business partners abroad.

In 1947, Georges Abou Adal established Georges Abou Adal & Cie, now known as HOLDAL. His sister, Claire Abou Adal, joined the business in 1949 and the company became one of the main Lebanese distributors of a host of luxury brands in the late 1950s.

ROOM PART OF GEORGES ABOU ADAL’S OFFICE IN THE COMPANY’S HEADQUARTER, EARLY 1960S, BEIRUT, LEBANON. Source: Abou Adal Family

Despite Lebanon’s ongoing economic instability, Georges Abou Adal continued to expand his companies. The Abou Adal enterprise was considered among Lebanon’s “big houses”, which accounted for the majority of all Lebanese imports from Western countries.

In the late 1960s, Georges Abou Adal began delegating day-to-day management of his businesses to his three children—Freddy, Raymond, and Charles. The company was established as a holding company under Raymond Abou Adal’s leadership in 1992. In 2021, Raymond’s son, Georges Abou Adal, was appointed CEO, while his daughters Maissa, Syma, and Nour Abou Adal assumed various strategic executive roles and positions on the board of directors.

Archive

In 1961 the “Groupe Georges Abou Adal” published a company report featuring its various business activities and growth in the fifteen years since its foundation in 1946/47. A unique piece of corporate documentation, the report includes six chapters that give a deep and detailed insight into the company’s governance, philosophy and performance.