• Tunisia, February 17th 2024 - 10:20:26
  • ENG

MESSAGE FROM THE CEO

Curious destiny! At the time when I was packing with my wife, Amina, to move to Canada for a job in scientific research, the call for the creation of Poulina won me over. We are in 1967. De Gaulle starts his “Live in Free Quebec!” attracting the young, Tunisia gets stuck in the collaboration; none of it very exciting. We had returned from Paris with lots of energy and ambition to be at the service of our nation. Graduate in agronomy, pedology and chemistry, I began to get bored in the offices of the agricultural Administration. Amina, specialist in biology/aviculture, was inpatient to serve her country. This is when it all started, July 14, to be precise!

With a bunch of friends and dinars collected from here and there (my father had sold his house to lend me the money I needed). Poulina was founded.

From the start, the economical project of the business was supported by strong values. We are at the beginning years of the Independence, thus a time for the construction of a modern State and the search for a prosperous economy. The colonialism, racism and the under development had left their traces. The young generations, exacerbated by these insults, had only one ambition: to create challenges, attain high levels of competence and performance, edify a New Tunisia. In brief, it was important to accomplish personal and collective success.

I must admit: as much as I wanted it, I never imagined to see Poulina become this holding, in so little time.

Within Poulina, the merits belong only to those who invested themselves with me: founders, associates, employees and partners. I say partners to include all, in this wide palette of contributors direct and indirect, institutional and private, Tunisian and foreign, who since long, or at a given period, brought their support for the achievement of this collective ambition.

Deep anchorage of our values, the relevance of our vision, and the performance of our system of management, forged in our daily activities for more than 43 years, result today in 105 businesses. They have been grouped in 9 sectors of specialized activities, to constitute Poulina Group Holding; a solidly established conglomerate in Tunisia that has spread itself to the countries of the Maghreb, and internationally, to China. Creating thousands of jobs, product innovation and new managerial practices, and providing new challenges every day, we generate sustained growth and generous wealth. The young generation, in whom we have always believed in, ready for the lead and “injected” at all levels, will know to do more and better.

With the memory, grateful to the pioneers that deserve homage, and the vision, set on the future that monopolizes all our energy, ambition intensifies for all of us.

Abdelwaheb Ben Ayed