Company: Lesieur Cristal
Country: Morocco
Sector: Food: Specialty/Candy
CEO: Not publicly listed
Website: Not publicly listed
Careers Page: Not publicly listed
LinkedIn: Not publicly listed
Email: Not publicly listed
Headquarters: Casablanca, Morocco
Founded: Not publicly listed
Valuation/Revenue: $544.0m revenue; $734.6m market value (African Business Top 250, 2025)
Lesieur Cristal is Morocco’s leading edible oils and food products manufacturer, producing cooking oils, margarine and soaps under brands including Lesieur, Cristal, El Kef and Oleor. Listed on the Casablanca Stock Exchange, it is one of Morocco’s largest food-processing companies and a household name across the country’s kitchens.
What Does Lesieur Cristal Do?
Lesieur Cristal refines and packages vegetable cooking oils (sunflower, olive and mixed blends), produces margarine and, historically, soap products, sourcing a mix of imported and domestically pressed oilseeds. Its brands are among the most recognised in Moroccan grocery retail, and the company also has an olive oil business that taps into Morocco’s position as a significant global olive producer. The company operates industrial facilities in and around Casablanca and distributes nationally through Morocco’s modern and traditional retail channels.
Is Lesieur Cristal Legit?
Yes. It is a long-standing, publicly traded Moroccan industrial company listed on the Bourse de Casablanca, and its Lesieur and Cristal cooking-oil brands are everyday staples in Moroccan households. It is not an informal or fly-by-night operation; it publishes regular financial disclosures required of listed companies and operates substantial industrial refining infrastructure.
Who Owns Lesieur Cristal?
Lesieur Cristal’s majority shareholder is understood to be Sofiproteol/Avril, the French agro-industrial group with longstanding interests in vegetable oils and oilseed processing, which built a controlling stake in the Moroccan company over the 1990s and 2000s alongside Moroccan institutional investors. The remainder of shares trade on the Casablanca Stock Exchange. Readers should verify current precise shareholding percentages against the company’s latest annual report, as ownership structures at Moroccan listed industrials can shift through periodic block transactions.
How Big Is Lesieur Cristal?
According to African Business magazine’s Top 250 companies in Africa list for 2025, Lesieur Cristal generated revenue of approximately $544 million against a market value of roughly $735 million, ranking 149th among Africa’s largest companies. As with many edible-oil processors globally, its profitability is sensitive to volatile global vegetable oil commodity prices (sunflower and palm oil in particular), which are priced in dollars and subject to swings tied to Black Sea supply disruptions and global harvest conditions.
Is Lesieur Cristal Publicly Traded?
Yes. Lesieur Cristal has traded on the Casablanca Stock Exchange for many years under the ticker LESUR and is one of the exchange’s established consumer-staples names, frequently included in discussions of defensive Moroccan equities given the non-discretionary nature of cooking-oil demand.
How Does Lesieur Cristal Compare to Its Competitors?
Lesieur Cristal holds a leading position in Morocco’s branded edible oils market, competing against other regional oil processors and increasingly against private-label and lower-cost imported oil brands as Moroccan retail modernises and price competition intensifies. Regionally, it is smaller in scale than large diversified African food conglomerates but remains dominant within its specific Moroccan product categories.
What Has Lesieur Cristal Been in the News For Recently?
Like other Moroccan food processors, Lesieur Cristal has navigated a period of elevated global vegetable oil prices and input cost volatility in recent years, prompting periodic retail price adjustments on cooking oil that have drawn attention amid broader Moroccan cost-of-living concerns. The company has also been part of wider industry discussions about Morocco’s edible oil import dependency and efforts to expand domestic oilseed cultivation to reduce reliance on imported raw materials.
Links
Website: Not publicly listed
Careers Page: Not found
LinkedIn: Not found
Email: Not publicly listed
FAQ
Is Lesieur Cristal legit? Yes, it is a Casablanca Stock Exchange-listed Moroccan food manufacturer and one of the country’s most recognised cooking-oil brands.
Who owns Lesieur Cristal? Believed to be majority-owned by French agro-industrial group Sofiproteol/Avril alongside Moroccan public shareholders; exact current percentages should be confirmed against the latest annual report.
How big is Lesieur Cristal? Revenue of about $544 million and market value near $735 million per African Business’s 2025 Top 250 ranking.
What does Lesieur Cristal make? Cooking oils, margarine and related food products under the Lesieur and Cristal brands.
Where is Lesieur Cristal headquartered? Casablanca, Morocco.
Is Lesieur Cristal publicly traded? Yes, on the Casablanca Stock Exchange under ticker LESUR.