Huileries du Congo Belge

Huileries du Congo Belge
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryPalm oil
Founded1911
FoundersWilliam Hesketh Lever
Defunct1960
Headquarters
Léopoldville
,
Democratic Republic of the Congo
ParentLever Brothers

Huileries du Congo Belge (HCB) was a subsidiary of the soap manufacturing company Lever Brothers, created by William Hesketh Lever, which ran plantations in the Congo for the production of palm oil, using forced labour.[1] It was established in 1911, when the soap manufacturer received a concession from the Belgian government for 750,000 hectares (1,900,000 acres) of forest in the Belgian Congo, mostly south of Bandundu. By 1923, a Lever soap factory was built there, and by 1924 SAVCO (Savonneries Congolaises) was established. It was the nucleus of the United Africa Company, a principal supplier to the United Kingdom of several key commodities. From 1951 it was producing Lux soap.

The company produced palm oil for Lever Brothers and its successor company Unilever.[2][3] Huileries du Congo Belge was at one time known as Plantations Lever au Congo with Plantations Lever au Zaire, and is now known as Plantations et huileries du Congo (PHC).[3]

In 2009, Unilever sold PHC to Feronia Inc, who took over the operation of the plantations, employing approximately 4,000 people. Feronia declared bankruptcy and entered insolvency proceedings in 2020, and nearly all the company assets, including PHC, were acquired by Straight KKM 2 Limited.[4]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "Huileries du Congo Belge". Unilever. Unilver Archive. Archived from the original on 10 June 2020. Retrieved 12 October 2019.
  3. ^ a b Jules Marechal, "Travail forcé pour l'huile de palme de Lord Leverhulme L'Histoire du Congo 1910–1945". Part III. Editions Paula Bellings. pp.348–368.
  4. ^ "Feronia Inc. Announces Closing of Restructuring Transaction". GlobeNewswire News Room (Press release). 2020-11-23. Retrieved 2021-02-02.