About Us

Group Overview

Trading in Southern Africa naturally comes with economic, political and business challenges which require strong local knowledge and an agile strategy to overcome.  Lluvia has built a sustainable model and has acquired the expertise to develop infrastructure and navigate through the volatility from the global and local markets alike that we have become accustomed to.  This has afforded the group opportunities to diversify into Trading Operations, Freight and Warehousing services, Food Manufacturing and Paper packaging. 

Lluvia has two main Business Segments:

  1. Manufacture of therapeutic foods and sauces. 
  2.  Trading of agricultural commodities, packing into own brands and distribution to end customers.

The group continues to participate in a number of strategic acquisitions and joint ventures to complement the existing business structures and achieve its future growth ambitions. 

An essential requirement has been the entrepreneurial spirit of the energized and highly ambitious senior management team, supported by excellent sales, administrative, technical and operations divisions.

Managing Partners

Lluvia has a management team with direct knowledge of the industry, extensive experience and skills. The company’s management team consists of people with broad backgrounds in manufacturing, automation, and finance. The Lluvia Group was founded by two managing partners, Morné Grove and Ian de Waal.

Morné Grove

Morné is a young dynamic entrepreneur, co-owner and director of Lluvia Group of companies that specialise in a wide range of disciplines ranging from manufacturing to construction. Morné has over 14 years experience in international trading and corporate management. He is an expert in international procurement and soft commodity trading and a trendsetter in his field. He started his career as sales and marketing manager for Mercedes Benz, Chrysler/Jeep and Mitsubishi division in Namibia, where he launched 8 new products and received multiple sales awards, achieving the highest CSI in the industry. He decided to expand his horizons into trading commodities and became founder and co-owner of Tradex International Namibia, a company which is still in operation today. He continued his career in international trading as international marketer for Scrap Salvage Namibia, a company trading in ferrous and non-ferrous scrap metal. After relocating from Namibia to South Africa, he became co-owner of Lluvia Sugar Distributors in 2012. Today as co-owner and managing partner of Lluvia Sugar Distributors, Morné built the business by harnessing and utilising his greatest asset, his people by creating and developing teams that support his core business and ethical values. Together with his partner Ian, they have since expanded the Lluvia Group of companies into 7 affiliate businesses: Lluvia Sugar Distributors, Lluvia Food Ingredients, Lluvia Trade Division, Lluvia Alcohols, Lluvia Nutrition, Logistico, Best Choice Retail Sugar and have stakeholder partnerships in several other businesses.

Ian de Waal

Ian de Waal has over 12 years experience in Animal Feed and Raw Material trading and 34 years in trading Sugar imports . With a formal education in Financial Management and training in Animal Nutrition, mainly ruminants and single-stomach animals, Ian started his career in 1975 as sales representative for Epol - Animal Nutrition in Namibia. Four years later he starts his own business distributing Animal Feed and Agri Raw Materials, mainly in Namibia. After a long and protracted court case against the Department of Trade and Industry in SA, Ian was finally allowed to import sugar into Namibia and Sugar imports began in 1986. To this end, a packaging plant, as well as a sugar blending plant in Walvis Bay, was erected. After a very successful period, a share is sold to Tongaat - Huletts in 1994, after which Ian became involved with a Transport Company, as well as Animal Feed and Distribution of Agri Products. In 2012, Ian met Morné Grove, and a longstanding partnership was established. Since then, as co-owner and director of Lluvia Group of companies that specialise in a wide range of disciplines ranging from manufacturing to construction, Ian has been involved with the import, packaging and distribution of Sugar in the Western Province, Gauteng South Africa for the past 8 years. Together with his partner Morné, they have since expanded the Lluvia Group of companies into 7 affiliate businesses: Lluvia Sugar Distributors, Lluvia Food Ingredients, Lluvia Trade Division, Lluvia Alcohols, Lluvia Nutrition, Logistico, Best Choice Retail Sugar and have stakeholder partnerships in several other businesses.