Premier Flour Mills Limited (PFML) is one of the pioneers in the lucrative flour milling industry in Kenya. In this article WoK brings you the story of Diamond Lalji – the tycoon who owns PFML which produces the popular Chef Unga Safi Wa Ngano among other top brands.
Background
PFML is a milling company that mainly specializes in manufacturing wheat and home baking flour. The company is certified by the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) and is equipped with modern equipment that ensures the flour produced is of high quality. Some of its major products include the All-Purpose Baking Flour used in breads and chapati, Atta Mark 1 Flour for making chapatti, Brown Bread Flour, Chapati Flour, Mandazi Flour, Self Raising Flour used in making muffins and biscuits and White Bread Flour. These products retail in the market under different brand names including Chef, Nyota, Tembo, Mpishi, Atta and Highland range of flour.
The Vast Estate Owned PFML Founder
Hasham Lalji is the former Chairman of the Cereal Millers Association of Kenya and runs an empire of about 16 companies in various industries as reported by the Daily Nation. Apart from PFML, he owns Maize Milling Company and Milling Corporation of Kenya in the same industry. The details of his business empire were first revealed in 2017 after the tycoon was taken to court for defaulting on a Ksh 520 million debt owed to Cargill limited.
Court documents that were seen by Business Daily revealed that the tycoon’s Premier Group of Companies owns Trident Insurance Company, Steel Rollers, Emco Billets and Polysack Limited – the company that was involved in the 2009 maize scandal. He is also the CEO of family-owned Hasham Lalji Properties – a real estate company that owns multi-billion shilling properties across various parts of the country.
Other companies owned by the tycoon include Propinvest Limited, Premier Oil Mills, Premier Bag and Cordage Limited, Morris and Company Limited, Raffia Bags East Africa Limited, Polypipes Limited, Lowerhill Park Limited, vEldo Enterprises Limited and Himsons Investments.
Family Conflicts
The tycoon has for the longest time been in conflict with his brother Bahadurali Hasham Lalji over the ownership of Atta Kenya. Bahadurali accused Lalji of falsely transferring the family company to himself and another sibling named Ahmed. He would then move to court seeking his brothers to be arrested for allegedly engaging in fraud that has led him to get denied a portion of the family wealth. The brothers agreed to settle the matter out of the court corridors.
