Skip to content
IndustrialExport

Our Heritage

Forty years of building a food and beverage group rooted in Egypt and trusted around the world.

Sakr Group's story begins in 1985, in a small Alexandria office with three employees and a conviction that Egypt could supply the world with quality food. Four decades later, that conviction has built eight factories, seven brands, and a presence in over seventy countries. This is how it happened.

The Founder
Mr. Ahmed Sakr, CEO and Founder of Sakr Group

Mr. Ahmed Sakr — CEO-Founder, Sakr Group

Built by one man's conviction.

In 1985, Ahmed Sakr opened a small trading office in Alexandria with three employees and a clear conviction: Egypt had the agricultural depth and the ambition to supply world-class food. The opportunity was obvious. The path was not.

Starting as El Riyada for International Trading — importing foodstuffs into an Egyptian market hungry for quality — he built the company not on quick returns but on relationships, standards, and patience. Each partnership was chosen carefully. Every product carried a promise.

His founding philosophy has not changed in forty years: food safety and quality are non-negotiable, meeting customer needs is the first priority, and the company's greatest investment is in the people who carry it forward.

"Our commitment has always been to offer our customers the highest level of food safety and quality. Every product we make, every partnership we form, every factory we build — it begins and ends with that promise. And it is our employees who make that promise real, every single day."

Ahmed Sakr — CEO-Founder, Sakr Group
1985

A modest office. An immodest ambition.

El Riyada for International Trading opened its doors in Alexandria in 1985. Three employees. A rented office. And a conviction that Egypt could do more than consume — it could supply.

Those first years were built on foodstuff imports, on relationship by relationship, on learning what quality meant in a market that was beginning to demand it.

In 1989, a pivotal partnership formed: Sakr became the exclusive agent for Fonterra — then NZMP — supplying natural butter and dairy to Egypt. It was a handshake that would define the company for the next four decades.

From trader to maker.

In 1997, Sakr Group officially formed, bringing the growing enterprise under a unified identity. The following year, 1998, marked the decisive pivot: Al Sakr for Food Industries launched, moving the business from importer to manufacturer.

The first factory opened — not a warehouse, a production facility. Egyptian hands, Egyptian ingredients, Egyptian ambition — now channeled into making, not just moving, food.

That shift from trader to maker was not just strategic. It was the moment Sakr stopped following the market and started shaping it.

1990s
2000s

Brands, factories, and borders crossed.

The 2000s were a decade of multiplication. New factories came online. A brand portfolio took shape — each brand targeted at a specific category, a specific customer, a specific moment at the table.

Then came export. Egyptian products, bearing Egyptian names, leaving Egyptian ports and landing on shelves in the Gulf, Africa, Europe. What had started as one product line grew into a diversified group spanning dairy, beverages, fats, and culinary categories.

The map of Sakr's reach grew alongside the depth of its production. That double expansion — outward and inward — is what turned a strong Egyptian company into a global food group.

Eight factories. Seventy countries. One story.

Today, Sakr Group runs eight factories and eighteen production lines, producing over 77,000 tons annually across 150+ products. The group exports to more than seventy countries — from Alexandria to Addis Ababa, Dubai to Düsseldorf.

Recent investment in fruit concentrate and frozen vegetable facilities has deepened the connection to Egypt's agricultural strengths, giving the group a uniquely integrated position from field to shelf.

The company that started with three employees now feeds kitchens worldwide. That is the arithmetic of the story. The story itself is the forty years of decisions, partnerships, and people who made the numbers possible.

Today
A Defining Partnership

Thirty-five years as exclusive agent for Fonterra in Egypt.

In 1989, Sakr became the exclusive agent for Fonterra — then NZMP — supplying natural butter and NZMP 25KG butter to Egypt. It was among the earliest chapters of what would become one of the most enduring partnerships in Egyptian food distribution.

Fonterra is one of the world's leading dairy exporters, with branded products in 140+ countries and accounting for a quarter of New Zealand's total exports. The partnership is rooted in shared standards: sustainable farming, grass-fed cows, and premium dairy that earns trust on every table it reaches.

"A partnership built on shared standards, sustained for over three decades."

Exclusive partner since 1989
Then & Now

Forty years in numbers.

Then
3
employees
Now
0+
team members

Three employees in a rented Alexandria office to a workforce that feeds the world.

Then
1
office
Now
0
factories

One rented Alexandria address to eight purpose-built production facilities.

Then
1
product line
Now
0+
products

One imported product to 150+ across dairy, beverages, fats, and culinary categories.

Then
0
export markets
Now
0+
countries

From Egypt-only to kitchens in over seventy countries across five continents.

What's Next

Heritage is the beginning, not the destination.

Investment continues — in Egyptian agriculture, in new production capacity, in the brand portfolio that carries the Sakr name to new markets and new categories. The group that started with three people is now building for the next generation.

Egypt's food story is far from finished. Sakr intends to write more of it.

The next chapter is already being written.