In 1924 Léonus Bénard , son of small planters from Rivière Saint-Louis, founded the society L. Bénard . Little by little he extended his farm in this part of the island and soon bought the Gol sugar factory. 25 years later, he set up a new company named "Les Etablissements L. Bénard ", consisting of 4.300 hectares of land and three factories: Pierrefonds, Les Casernes in Saint-Pierre and of course the GOL. The GOL had become the property of several families before being bought by Mr Bénard.

Between 1960 and 1970 several modifications occured, among them the process of merging the three sugar mills into one implanted in GOL. The L. Bénard Sucrerie-Distillerie du GOL is then founded in order to operate the GOL factory.

Creation of “ la Sucrière de la Réunion”

In 1994, a merger took place between L. Bénard Sucrerie - Distillerie du GOL and Sucrière du NORD-EST. The new society was named "SUCRIERE DE LA REUNION". It is a subsidiary of GROUPE QUARTIER FRANÇAIS and the owner of the GOL factory. In 1995 the BEAUFONDS factory is closed down. The GOL sugar factory raised its capacity and reached an average crushing of 385 tonnes of sugar cane per hour.

A new energy source

1996 is another turning point for the Sucrière de la Réunion with the creation of the Compagnie Thermique du GOL. This station produces steam from bagasse during the sugar cane harvest and from coal during the rest of the year. It provides the sugar factory with energy.

The Gol factory: a few figures

• More than 1000 tonnes of sugar are manufactured per day, that is 45 tonnes per hour.

• About 14 000 hectares of sugar cane, that is 1 million tonnes per year are processed by the sugar factory.

• A « cachalot » supplies the factory with cane every 4 minutes.

• 190 people work at the factory between two harvests and 200 more workers are employed for the harvests.