#50YearsAgo A spoon of Illovo’s sugar history

IN 1889, William Pearce planted out 80 to 95 acres of fl at land at Illovo with sugar cane. The following year he purchased a small plant at Mount Edgecombe and, dismantled it and transported it to Illovo.

William Pearce employed Mr EG Pugh of Isıpingo as a bricklayer and Mr Morrison as an engineer, but continued to run the rest of his flourishing business himself.

“I had to be manager, sugar boiler, a bit of an engineer and field overseer and, having served five years in a wagonmaking and blacksmith shop, I was able to do all my own repairs to wagons both in woodwork and blacksmithing,” he recalls in his biography.

“I even did a little wood turning. I also had to keep my own books, as I could not afford a bookkeeper.”

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“You can imagine that I had a bit of a lively time and I never got to bed until 10 or 11pm. In the crushing season it was necessary to be up again at about 2 or 3am.”

But William’s tonnage increased every year and in 1906 he was producing over 3,000 tons of sugar cane. The formation of the floating company, llovo Sugar Estates, came into being because William Pearce needed to purchase more machinery.

He approached Mr CG Smith, a sugar “tycoon”, in Durban and in 1906, the company was registered under the name “Illovo Sugar Estates Ltd”, with CG Smith and Edward Saunders as directors. William Pearce was made managing director.

In 1908, two additional directors were appointed, George Crookes and FF Crookes. CG Smith became chairman and remained on the board until 1933, when the Pearce family bought back control of the company.

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Illovo Sugar crushed for many growers in the region at the time. To bring in the cane from these growers, the company built a private narrow-gauge railway line in 1918. Oliver Pearce, William Pearce’s grandson, changed the face of the company when he joined it in 1948.

He became joint managing director of the Illovo Group. He was responsible for introducing many ideas and systems at Illovo, many of which were firsts in the sugar industry. He fitted all the estate’s vehicles with radios, introduced a punch-card system and put the field staff on motorbikes instead of horses.

He also introduced training for all staff even the tractor drivers.

“They thought we were crazy”, said Oliver.

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