about >> past & future

THE founding father of HL Hall & Sons, Hugh Lanion Hall, had a heart for life and farming - and a mind for strategic innovation long before business schools taught the subject.

The sceptics said you could not successfully run a commercial farming operation in the hostile low lands (Lowveld) back in 1890. But Mr Hall had other ideas, and his mixed agriculture business went from strength to strength.

During the 1940s Halls became well known for offering the first mail order delivery service of fresh produce to households across South Africa. In the 1950s Halls was recognised as the largest producer of citrus in the Commonwealth. By the early 1960s, Halls owned more than 40,000 ha of agricultural land, and diversified its products and services, adding timber, tobacco, fruit processing, honey, a feedlot, an abattoir, game farming, and irrigation engineering to its fruit and vegetable core offerings.

The 1980s saw a change in focus for the company as avocados
replaced citrus as Halls' main export crop and the foundations were laid
to make full use of the property opportunities available to the company
as a significant landowner.

Today our highly focused farming, fresh produce packing and
marketing operations remain a core component of the Halls
business, which has diversified into property development
and new investments.

Halls' pioneering and enduring spirit is evident in a family
business that has not simply survived, but has flourished
for more than 120 years.