NxG Award 2021 - Winner - Wissam el Khoury
Wissam el Khoury, 2nd Generation K. Invest, Levant. Founder of “ Le Pré”
Wissam is 2nd Generation, K.Invest, Levant
Project Name: “Le Pré”
Year initiated: 2019
Project description: Le Pré SAL ventures into premium natural and health beverages manufacturing and distribution under the brand of le Pré. The products are made from highly natural selected ingredients blended with a unique recipe to deliver superior taste for consumers.
About Wissam
Wissam el Khoury is the CEO of K. Invest (Holding) SAL, a Lebanese based single family office, with an aim of preserving and generating assets by investing in social, durable, and sustainable projects with direct effect on the local community. The fund ventures into Real Estate, direct Private Equity investments (Food & Beverage and Banking), as well Asset Management. To that effect, Wissam has founded Le Pré SAL, a start-up fruit juice and vinegar manufacturing company, based in Lebanon, to cater directly to social problems, such as solidification of the rural economy by generating employment in remote villages in the mountain, fruit supply chain improvement by processing the fruits that farmers grow, as well as push the “health” consumption trend by offering consumers 100% natural beverages. Wissam is a member of the NxG committee of FBN Levant and the 6 th generation of an agricultural family. Over the years, previous plantations included wheat and tobacco, which have been totally replaced by fruits since the mid-1950’s. Wissam holds a Bachelor’s in Industrial Engineering degree from the Lebanese American University (LAU) as well as a Master’s in Business Management degree from the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Paris (ESCP Business School), as well as attending family business courses at IMD Lausanne on how to lead the family office.
How does your project provide a solution to a problem or satisfies a specific need?
We are helping the rural economy of the village by providing local jobs and helping its farmers by buying the fruits they grow. With respect to the market we are providing the 1st premium 100% natural beverages with no additives whatsoever. We are accompanying the trend of the « premiumization » of the beverage industry while providing the right product for the increasing health conscience consumers.
How do you create customer value?
High quality and 100% additive free product for a reasonable pricing while at the same time participating in a social cause and keeping an eye on the health benefit.
How is your project innovative?
For the Lebanese market, it is the 1st juice brand that combines both longer shelf time (1 year) than usual fresh juices (3 weeks) while being completely additives and preservatives free.
What is the most valuable mistake that you have made, and what did you learn from it?
I didn’t want to serve the B2B market or even to produce white label for other manufacturers, which have left the company out from few opportunities. Considering the small market of Lebanon, I might be inclined to listen to new upcoming opportunities to serve other types of clients / B2B and also to produce for other people which might help in increasing the machines utilization rate.
How being from a family business has impacted you as a person, and which influence this has in turn had on your project?
Being part of a family business, is working with a set of values and long term vision. The project was set up for a social need to help local villagers with a long term goal of making the project sustainable. If I wasn’t part of a family business and my goals were shorter term, then definitely the handling of the business and relation to its financial figures would have been completely different with no consideration to the social and people’s impact, especially during the difficult times the country is currently passing through.