Etienne DENIS was born in 1799, the same year as Balzac. He was the grandson of a court clerk at the Parliament of Lorraine (France) and son of an officer of the Empire, stationed in a garrison located in Blaye. In this small port near Bordeaux, Etienne Denis and later his sons would train to become deep sea captains. Etienne Denis, founder of the eponymous company, started his career in trade by sailing to India, the coasts of Africa, Peru and the Far East for Bordeaux’s ship owners. The trust and loyalty of the Bordeaux ship owners towards Etienne Denis, and his reputation and honesty would build the character and originality of the Denis family through the years until now.

Etienne Denis, together with his four sons, took the difficult decision to commit the entirety of their wealth into the construction of a Clipper, "La Mouette". Speed had become a must in modern trading, and so the ship needed to be slender, lightweight, heavily-canvassed and incredibly fast. To achieve this, Etienne chose to base the design of their ship on the revolutionary American clipper design of the 1850s. This vision of the future proves that the Denis family was already looking ahead of their time.

La Mouette arrived in Saigon in Oct ober 1862, and on December 2nd the Denis family founded the company “Denis Frères”, known today as “Maison Denis”. They immediately started to undertake business as well as rice trading in coastal waters between Singapore and Hong Kong.

Alfred Denis joined his 2 brothers in Saigon, and a first cargo of 250 tons of rice left for France. The first two cargoes of rice were quite a failure, but the Denis brothers were determined and resilient and did not stop trading despite adversity.

Alphonse, the younger son, arrived in Saigon and took the decision on impulse to develop his business by creating a substantial rice-processing plant in Saigon. In doing so, he sought to improve the quality of the product and to produce and market it in the most efficient way. It was through this innovative method of transforming cargo rice into white rice that the volume of business would grow substantially.

With no relationship yet with Maison Denis, a young entrepreneur Mr. Alfred Clouet created his own trading company in Singapore. He successfully traded many products including building materials, wines, spirits, and hygiene products. His main success was in canned food however, under the trademark Ayam Brand that became very popular in Singapore and Malaysia.

Ayam Brand canned food received a gold medal at the 1900 Universal Exhibition of Paris. Canned food was an innovative technology at this time.

Since its humble debuts in rice trading, Denis Frères became one of the most successful and respected trading companies in French Indochina. Besides rice plants and manufacturing facilities, the family also own beer production facilities, pharmaceuticals, generally traded products and were trademark agents of all the most reputable French brands. They also became the travel agents for the new international airline companies.

Etienne Denis (grandson of the founder, photo center) decided to diversify the business and travelled through SE Asia to undertake a series of acquisitions and form a number of companies that would be of prime importance to the durability of the company:

• In Hong Kong: creation of the Indo China Trading Company in 1937
• In Thailand: creation of the Commercial Company of Siam in 1938
• In Japan: Creation of NBKK in 1947 and acquisition in 1958 of SCETI KK (established 1925)

During this short period of strategic international growth, Etienne Denis acquired the future jewel of the group:

• in Malaysia: The A. Clouet company together with its famous trademark Ayam Brand™.

In 1954, Denis Frères also invested massively in Madagascar and the country quickly became the second leading source of revenue.

Creation of the SORIC company in the island of La Réunion. The business soon became a base from which to develop the distribution of consumer good products and professional equipment to all the islands of the Indian Ocean.

The company re-invented itself and Singapore became the new headquarters. Denis Frères decided to build on the extraordinary experience they had acquired in Asia, Japan and the Indian Ocean with a focus on 3 activities:

• Food manufacturing and marketing
• Health Science in Japan
• Consumer goods in the Indian Ocean

Denis Frères built a canned food factory in Taiping, Malaysia, which today employs 1200 members of staff. Expanding their reputable brands such as Ayam and Duchef, this focus on shelf stable foods led to them becoming the business leader in SE Asia. This remain the case today.

Denis’s food business expanded to Indonesia with the incorporation of the new company in Jakarta.

In 1986, Maison Denis launched Ayam™ in Australia and within a few years, the trademark became the leading brand of Asian food ingredients in Australia/New Zealand.

Denis settled back in Madagascar in 2000, with the incorporation of the SICMA company.

In 2001, Denis established a company in Shenzhen to develop its food business in China.

The extension of the business in the Indian Ocean was completed by the incorporation of the Sirud company in Mauritius.

Alce Nero and Denis Group formed a joint venture to promote and distribute Alce Nero throughout Asia and Japan. Alce Nero is a pioneer in organic food and the first trademark in Italy in this business.

In Japan, SCETI secured a major investment in radiopharmaceuticals through the incorporation of DENIS PHARMA KK, whose activity is the importing, manufacturing and marketing of innovative biomarkers.

Denis created a joint venture with the Ling family to produce and market coconut products, such as coconut milk and coconut water, becoming a leading company in this field today.

Denis Frères celebrated its 150th anniversary and changed its name to Denis Group. In the same year, Denis took over the French company EWD to develop its food business in France and Europe.

Maison Denis decided that a physical presence in Vietnam was necessary and built a canned food factory at Binh Duong, the very same province in which the rice mill of Binh Duong, its biggest industrial site, was originally located in the 60s. The company registration of DENIS GREAT MEKONG, DGM DENIS GM CO. LTD. - “CONG TY TNHH DENIS GM” took place on February 14th 2014.

Denis Group joined the United Nations Global Compact and undertook to implement an ambitious ESG strategy.

For its 160th anniversary, Denis Group became Maison Denis, a name which has existed in the family since the beginning. It evokes not only its French origins but also the expertise accumulated in 6 generations and the human values inherited from the founders.

As Denis’s business model is durable and sustainable, Denis can already announce some dates for the future:

• All food packaging will be fully recyclable to better participate in a global circular economy.
• All Denis’s buildings and facilities will be ‘green certified’, an initiative started in 2016.

Denis is committed to reach carbon neutrality.