Rolfes Leather: New owners give it entrée to more African markets

Boksburg, Gauteng, SA – Rolfes Leather and the other 4 divisions which collectively make up the Rolfes Group have been acquired by the Solevo Group, a pan-African distributor of specialty chemicals.

In a statement, Solevo said it had bought 100% of Rolfes Group in a deal backed by Solevo’s owner, London-based Development Partners International (DPI).

Solevo’s 7 divisions operate in agriculture, food & nutrition, personal care & hygiene, water treatment, construction, mining & energy, and packaging, overlapping several of the Rolfes Group’s other divisions, which are agriculture, food, chemicals, and water.

Solevo has operations in Angola, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Madagascar, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, and Switzerland, and trades in a number of other African countries. The Rolfes Group trades primarily in SA. Rolfes Leather does sell into other African markets, “but our tie-up with Solevo will make it easier for us to sell in these countries,” said Rolfes Leather MD Quintin Marais. “In the countries mentioned, we will have offices and warehouse facilities, which will help the customers greatly as we can hold stock of products in those countries. Solevo is also present in many other African countries, but without the infrastructure.”