Zalar Holding is Morocco’s leading poultry Group. Since its founding in 1974, Zalar has grown organically as well as through select strategic mergers and acquisitions to become the only operator that is vertically integrated across the entire poultry-meat value chain.
The Group enjoys leading market shares across five business segments: grain trading, animal feed, hatchery, broiler, as well as slaughtering & meat processing. These activities involve more than 2,200 employees spread across the country, particularly around the strategic regions of Casablanca and Fes.

Zalar operates under a corporate governance structure divided between executive officers and a Board of Directors. The Board of Directors includes four outside and independent directors. There are three committees within the Board of Directors in order to ensure better effectiveness and transparency: the Audit Committee, the Executive Committee and the Strategy and Business Development Committee.

In November 2013, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a subsidiary of the World Bank, subscribed to the Group’s capital. This has provided important support for Zalar’s development plan and has helped the Company strengthen a strategy based on continued integration and consolidation of market share. The partnership with IFC is not only a vote of confidence for Zalar – it also marks the World Bank subsidiary’s first direct participation in the Moroccan agribusiness industry.

In November 2014, Zalar executed two new financial transactions: a public bond issuance of MAD350 million and a MAD125 million private placement from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). This was the EBRD’s first private bond placement in dirhams on the Moroccan market.

At the same time, in November 2014, Zalar became the first Moroccan private company to be rated by an international rating agency, receiving a “B+” long-term rating with a “stable” outlook from Fitch Ratings. In June 2015, Seaboard Corporation, an American industrial conglomerate specialized in the agribusiness sector, maritime transport and trading, joined Zalar Holding’s pool of investors. This partnership consolidates the Group’s strategy for institutionalization, as well as domestic and international development, particularly in West Africa.