Our History

KAL Group was first established in 1912 in the Swartland region of the Western Cape when a group of farmers jointly purchased guano (bird manure) to use and sell as fertiliser.

At the time, forming a member-owned business in this way was considered pioneering since co-operative legislation had not yet existed. The group’s operations later primarily included grain handling, which led to the formalisation of the company as De Westelike Graanboeren Ko-örporatiewe Vereniging. 

Over the years, the company expanded its grain-handling network with a branch and silo complex in the Boland region of the Western Cape. Further subsidiary agricultural corporations were then established in the neighbouring towns of both the Swartland and Boland regions. 

Although grain handling remained its primary service for several years, the company decided to expand its offering by joining forces with Western Province Fruitgrowers in 1981 to form WP (Koöperatief) Beperk. This was the first large corporate merger. Later, the company also merged with Drakenstein Vrugtekwekers and Wynland Koöperasie from the Cape Winelands region of the Western Cape.

By 1995, WP (Koöperatief) Beperk converted to a public company and was renamed WPK Landbou Beperk. The company later acquired and merged Porterville Landboukoöperasie and Noord-Boland Koöperasie to form the subsidiary, Boland Agri. After some time, Boland Agri and WPK Landbou Beperk ultimately merged to form Kaap Agri. All of its preceding mergers led to Kaap Agri’s diversified market approach, as well as the leveraging of buying power in order to provide the best prices for agri inputs.

Kaap Agri diversifies into the fuel & convenience space. It opens its first retail fuel & convenience site in Simondium in November 2012, launching its own homegrown convenience store brand, Expressmark, with fuel supply in partnership with Total. The Kakamas Expressmark site followed soon in 2013. As these sites grow successfully, Kaap Agri establishes The Fuel Company in 2016 as its retail fuel & convenience business using a unique multiple partner approach for supply of its fuel service, convenience store and quick service restaurant offerings.

With its unique agri-retail offering, Kaap Agri lists on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) main board with the share price ticker "KAL" on 26 June 2017 in the Speciality Retailers sector.

The company establishes its reputation as a fully-diversified business in the agriculture trade, retail, fuel, and convenience, as well as manufacturing sectors. At the time, Kaap Agri is also one of the few JSE-listed agribusinesses in South Africa. 

The company introduces a streamlined brand architecture, with Agrimark being positioned as the main retail consumer facing brand. The group's trade, retail and value-added businesses will be consolidated under the Agrimark brand name to ensure our one-stop agri-lifestyle offering becomes more recognisable, especially amongst new customer segments.

In line with our growth strategy, Kaap Agri, via its subsidiary TFC Operations acquires PEG Retail Holdings - a leading independent fuel retailer in South Africa, adding 41 service stations to its multi-brand fuel network. 

The JSE-listed company,  Kaap Agri Limited becomes KAL Group Limited. 

On 1 March 2024, the operating company, Kaap Agri Bedryf Limited becomes Agrimark Operations Limited, uniting all agri-retail operations with its consumer-facing brand, Agrimark.