MOULAY MESSAOUD AGOUZZAL

BUSINESSMAN ,INDUSTRIAL AND MOROCCAN RESISTANT

Moulay Messaoud ben Brahim Agouzzal (1930 – 2019) was born in

Souss region. He practiced commerce and industry.
He was still young when he get involved in the Moroccan national
movement and struggled in the ranks of the Resistance.
After the independence of his homeland, he contributed as a
businessman in the economic construction of Morocco, by
establishing one of the largest economic groups in the kingdom, in
the latest two decades of the last century.

1- His birth
2- His affiliation
3-His childhood
4-His commercial activity
5-His industrial activity
6- An exceptional path in the political field and in the ranks of
Resistance
7-A prominent presence in the social field
8- It’s unique national initiatives
9- His death
1 - His birth
Moulay Messaoud Agouzzal in was born in 1930 , in the Souss region at the
east of Agadir ; from his father Moulay Brahim ben Moulay Ali and his mother
Hadja Lalla Khadija.

2 - His affiliation

He descends from Idrissides Chorfas, children of Sidi Messaoud Ben Ali, whom
their lineage ends at the Imam Ali bnou Abitaleb, cousin of the prophet
Mohammad (peace on him) .

A number of the kings of the Alaouite family singled out the children of Sidi
Messaoud ben Ali with Cherifian Dahirs ( Certificates ) confirming their lineage
and requiring their respect and reverence ,the family of Moulay Messaoud keeps
until today three of these Dahirs ; the first one was granted by the Sultan Moulay
Hassan I in 1890 , the second Cherifian Dahir dated 1901 was granted by the
sultan Moulay Abdelaziz, and the third cherifian Dahir was granted in 1939 by
the Sultan Sidi mohamed the fifth .

3 -His childhood
Moulay Messaoud lived a normal childhood in his birthplace. He learned in the
Quranic elementary school before studying in the antique traditional school.
In 1942, he moved to Meknes where his eldest brother Moulay Ahmed ran the
several shops left by their late father Moulay Brahim, who died in 1936.
At first the young Moulay Messaoud worked as an assistant to his brother in
trade, before becoming independent and running his own business in 1947.
In 1948 ,he married Hajja Fatima Elkadi, and they had, may Allah have mercy on
them, six sons and six daughters.
4 -His commercial activity
When he became the boss of his own business, he worked in buying and selling
edible oils, then bottling and distributing them between 1947 and 1952,
thereafter he expanded his commercial activity to including vegetable oils and
legumes and exporting olive oil abroad, especially to Italy before starting the
manufacture of this oil and entering the world of industry from 1961.

5 -His industrial activity

He fought his path in the industrial field with great self-made. He established his
Group factories in several cities such Meknes, Mohamedia, Casablanca,
Essaouira, Marrakesh, Goulimime, Tan tan and Layoune ; where he established
production units with a vision of synergy between units and sectors. Thus he
gave an added value to Moroccan industry, based on modernization and
rationalisation of costs and energies , recycling waste materials.
Since the sixties of the last century, he realised the importance of clean energy,
using the olive pomace in his own group’s manufactories, and selling it to cement
factories and brickyards, with productions reaching two hundred thousand tons
annuallly.
He began his industrial march in the fat products sector,in 1961, with the
establishment of oil mills in Meknes to refine vegetable oils and the olive oil
production. Then he added the sapling of olives and the production of olive
pomace oil in his factories in Meknes, Essaouira and Marrakesh ,as well as the
manufacture of natural vegetable soap, and the distillation of fatty acid. For all
that he brought the latest machines.
In the early nineties he added a unique unit for physical refining of oils, and a
unit for fatty acid distillation ,which was then the first of its kind in North Africa.
Thanks to its respect of quality standards ,Meknes oil factories gained
membership in the american Association of Food Industries (AFI) and in the
“North American Olive Oils Association” (NAOOA).
In the mills and grains sector, he created “Zerhoun mills” in Meknes, and the
Great Mills in Goulimine the gate of the Sahara. These two units were equipped
with BUHLER SUISSE equipment and considered among the most modern in
Morocco.
He entered the world of the chemical and parachemical industry by creating the
“Maghreb polymer company “ and owning the “Chimicolor factory” for the
dyeing, and “Chimilabo” and “Caplam” for the rubber industries
In the leather industries, he bought in 1973 on the occasion of Morocconization
policy, four major tanneries, from french families, in Essaouira, Mohamedia,
Meknes and Casablanca, and rouse it’s operational and production capacity.
In the marine products industry field, he established a unit for the production
of fish flour in Essaouira, and owned in the same city a factory for fish
processing . Then he continued investing in this sector in the provinces of Sahara
after the Green March by setting up a unit of fish flour production and castering
fish in Tan tan and Layoune.
In the agricultural field , he invested in various crops mainly the olive grove with
an integration policy between industry and agriculture,using the agricultural
production of his three estates in the region of Meknes and Biougra, reaching
one thousand hectares .
In the construction sector, he had also a productive activity through the
achievement of great residential buildings, and the realization of important
sudivisions in Meknes and Sefrou
In parallel with the modernization and rehabilitation of its industrial units in all
sectors, starting from the early nineties, he established the legal restructuring of
his companies under the name of “Holding Moulay Masoud Agouzal” (H-MMA-
GROUP) , with a turnover that reached two billion Dirhams, and with a workforce
of 4000 people.
6- An exceptional path in the political field and in the ranks of Resistance
The great events that the world has lived during the fourties of the tweentieth
century ,especially the second world war ; and also the triggering in Morocco of
the national movement for the independence in 1944 ; All these events had a
great influence on the personality of Moulay Messaoud, which was marked any
further by his membership, while being very young (17 years old) , in the Istiklal
Party and then in the ranks of Resistance movement.
And when the revolution of the king and the people broke out on August
20,1953 ,Moulay Messaoud doubled his efforts in the resistance with field
participation, supporting some resistance cells and some leaders of the
Liberation Army, with money, food, clothing and weapons, in the northern
regions as well as central, southern and Sahara regions.
His activity in the resistance extended beyond the borders as he supported the
Algerian Liberation Front, and was associated with a distinguished friendship
with Ahmed Benbella and Mohamed Boudiaf.
He also supported the Palestinian cause, and the food products of his factories
were famous in the Palestinian camps in Lebanon.

7- An exemplary presence in the social field

Moulay Messaoud was a philantropic man. He was concerned with human
development and youth employment along his industrial career, then his
factories remained open to students for training. He helped the engineers and
technicians with training grants, and several of them have done their
traineeships in the group’s factories , moreover he sent others at his expense for
training in Italy, Germany and Switzerland.
At the level of sport and sponsorship, it is enough to remind that the RAC ,a
Casablanca football team, played with Chimicolor label, and the CODEM club
(Meknes) played with Nesr brand, and the Hassania of Agadir team carried the
sign of “Huile Bab Mansour” .
When Morocco submitted his candidacy to host the World cup in 1994 ; he
strongly supported this candidacy, and contributed considerably to its campaign,
and also organized a big reception at his home in Mohamedia in honor of the
FIFA president at the time JOAO HAVELANGE and its general secretary Joseph
BLATTER.
He consistently supported many charitable foundations and health, artistic and
cultural activities, and his house was always open to scholars (Oulemas) and civil
society associations from all the regions of Morocco.
8- Among it’s unique national initiatives
As an early nationalist ; and months before the green march, he was interested
by the question of Moroccan Sahara and its transitions , and watched out the
importance of informing the sahrawi actors such notables and businessmen, on
the development achievements in the northern regions of the
kingdom. Therefore and after the royal approval ,he organized a tour for
them,at his expense, during which they visited several cities and institutions,
between July and August 1975.
*In the Green March, he had regional and national contributions,as he ensured
that the participants in the March from the Meknes region (10 thousand people)
were supplied during their gathering in the city, and supplied them also at their
return to Meknes.
At the national level, he contributed to the March’s logistics by placing 25 lorries
and number of technicians and executives of his group at the disposal of the
state.
He also ensured the supply of some foodstuffs in addition to providing 352 tons
of dates (1 Kg per person)
*Thanks to his international economic relations, he contributed to giving greater
opportunities for Moroccan products to enter the American market. And to
achieve this he undertook a unique initiative ; he was allowed to attend the
annual meeting of the AFI council in 1991 ,and the floor was given to him
exceptionally, to talk about the development of the food industry in Morocco.
And to stand on the truth of what he said, he called the Assembly’s council
members to hold their next meeting (1992) in Morocco, and he undertook to
bear the expenses of their travel and residency with their wives (250 individuals).
After diplomatic consultation and communication,the meeting was effectively
hosted at the “Palais des congrès” in Marrakesh, and on the sidelines of the
meeting he held an exhibition in which all Moroccan producers of food industries
were allocated pavilions to display their production. And with this initiative, he
was among the pioneers in the businessmen diplomacy.
In recognition of his efforts for the sake of his country’s independence as a
resistance fighter, and of his contribution to building its economy as an
industrial businessman, Moulay Messaoud won royal satisfaction and was
decorated by LATE HIS MAJESTY HASSAN II, the WISSAM (Medal) of
satisfaction, second degree, and the order of the Throne of the knight degree in
1989.Then HIS MAJESTY THE KING MOHAMED VI awarded him the Throne
WISSAM in the rank of officer in 2008.
 9- His death
Moulay Messaoud died, may God have mercy on him, in Casablanca on Saturday
5 October, 2019, and his remains were transported to Meknes for burial in the
family cemetery at Sidi Bouzekry mausoleum, there he was buried in a massive
and moving funeral procession.
In the same day the family of the deceased received a letter of condolence from
HIS MAJESTY THE KING MOHAMED VI .