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Brahim Zniber (1920 – 29 September 2016) was a Moroccan businessman. Through Diana Holding, he was the founder and the owner of Celliers de Meknès, the largest wine producer in Morocco, and owned 85% of the country's wine production. From the 1970s onward, he expanded into fruit and poultry production, and Coca-Cola bottling plants.

Early life

Brahim Zniber was born in 1920 in Salé, Morocco. He grew up in Sidi Kacem, then known as Petit Jean. His father, Taher Zniber, was a cereal and wool merchant who was active in the Koutla political coalition. His mother was Oum Kalthoum Chemaou, he had five brothers and four sisters.

Zniber studied arboriculture and viticulture remotely, taking courses at the Ecole universitaire de Paris. While he was a student, he became a nationalist activist, serving under Mehdi Ben Barka. He hid in a remote location near Meknes to flee persecution.

Career

Zniber began his career in wine-making in 1956, when he purchased 740 hectares in Ait Harz Allah. Meanwhile, he joined the board of directors of the regional chapter of the Crédit agricole du Maroc. By 1958, he founded the Union marocaine de l’agriculture, a trade organization for Moroccan agriculture.

Zniber was granted 1,100 hectares by King Hassan II in 1958, mainly landholdings that were restituted from French colonists in the wake of Morocco's independence. By 1964, he founded Samavin, later known as Celliers de Meknès. He was responsible for the growth of the wine industry in the Meknès Prefecture and Benslimane Province from the 1960s onwards.

Zniber served as a member of the House of Representatives in the 1970s. Meanwhile, he began to grow citrus fruits, apples, apricots, pears, almonds and pistachios. He acquired a poultry factory in 1975. Six years later, in 1981, he acquired Ebertec, a wine production distribution company with two subsidiaries, Thalvin and MR. Renouvo. Additionally, he invested in two bottling plants for Coca-Cola, one in Tangier and the other one in Oujda. He founded Diana Holding in 1986. In 2005, he established the first "appellation d'origine contrôlée" in Morocco, known as Les Coteaux de L’Atlas.

By 2014, Zniber was the owner of 2,000 hectares of vineyards near Meknes through Celliers de Meknès, and he sold 35 million bottles every year, making him the largest wine producer in Morocco. His flagship vineyard was Château Roslane. His holding company, Diana Holding, had a payroll of 8,000 and annual sales of US$3 billion. His investments included the production of olive oil under the brandname of CaracTerre and wine via Celliers de Meknès as well as "meat processing and commercial nurseries".

By 2016, Zniber owned 85% of Morocco's wine production, and 8,300 hectares. Diana Holding was the seventh largest privately owned company in Morocco. His main competitor was Groupe Castel.

Personal life and death

Zniber was first married to Touria Tazi, with whom he had three children: Ahmed Saad, Mohamed Nabil and Taher Moncef. The couple divorced and he married a second time to Rita Maria Zniber, born Marie-Françoise Duchesne,(now CEO/Chairman of Diana Holding). They had children, among them Leyth Zniber, who founded Eiréné, an investment fund, in 2014.

Zniber died on 29 September 2016 in Meknès, Morocco at the age of 96. He received a Muslim funeral on 1 October and was buried in Meknès.

References

1. ^ Nsehe, Mfonobong (October 1, 2016). "Moroccan Multi-millionaire Brahim Zniber Dies at 96". Forbes. Retrieved October 2, 2016.
2. ^ "Le milliardaire Brahim Zniber s'est éteint". TelQuel. September 30, 2016. Retrieved October 1, 2016.
3. "Brahim Zniber : L'homme qui murmurait aux vignes | Reportage sur feu Brahim Zniber (1920-2016), fils de Tahar Zniber et Oum Kalthoum Chemaou originaires de Salé, fondateur des Celliers de Meknès et de... | By Dar Zniber | Facebook". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2023-09-23.
4. "Avalon Project - President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points". avalon.law.yale.edu. Retrieved 2018-12-10.
5. ^ "Décès du "premier vigneron" du Maroc, le millionnaire Brahim Zniber". TV5Monde. September 30, 2016. Archived from the original on October 2, 2016. Retrieved October 1, 2016.
6. ^ Lindsey, Ursula (March 23, 2016). "Morocco's Atlas Mountains seek place on winemaking map". Financial Times. Retrieved October 1, 2016.
7. ^ Bonte, Marie (2011). "Ethiques et pratiques éthyliques en milieu urbain marocain". Confluences Méditerranée. 3 (78): 145–156. doi:10.3917/come.078.0145. Retrieved October 1, 2016 – via Cairn.info.
8. ^ Nsehe, Mfonobong (March 3, 2014). "5 Moroccan Multi-Millionaires You Should Know". Forbes. Retrieved October 1, 2016.
9. ^ "Instagram". www.instagram.com. Retrieved 2023-09-23.
10. "Une femme de biens contestée par les siens". www.lecanardlibere.com (in French). Retrieved 2023-09-23.
11. ^ "L'empire Zniber, un héritage qui tangue". Economie Entreprises (in French). Retrieved 2023-09-23.
12. Rita Maria Zniber, CEO and Chairman, Diana Holding: Interview Oxford Business Group
13. "The Most Powerful Arab Women 2015: #30 Rita Maria Zniber". Forbes Middle East. April 12, 2015. Archived from the original on September 15, 2016. Retrieved October 1, 2016.
14. "Leyth Zniber lance un fonds d'investissement". Challenge. May 27, 2014. Retrieved October 1, 2016.

• 1920 births
• 2016 deaths
• People from Salé
• People from Meknes
• Moroccan businesspeople
• Businesspeople in agriculture
• Wine merchants
• 20th-century Moroccan politicians