The Larimar  Group‘s advent can be traced back from 1934 when Gaetano Carleo of Italian descent, started  one –man one bus operation - pioneering a route from Alexander township to Johannesburg. And that modest beginning was to have a huge impact on passenger transport in South Africa.

While growing his business in the bus industry, and establishing joint ventures with other bus operators, Carleo’s entrepreneurial nudge to establish himself in the industrial sector never abated.

In 1965 he moved out of the bus transport business and together with his family concentrated on upgrading and developing Africa Body & Coach.

In 1970 Carleo Enterprise was formed with the sole purpose of acquiring Putco, and that was realized the following year. With the acquisition of Putco, Carleo’s dream of having foothold in the public transport and industrial sectors was finally achieved.

The PUTCO company grew in leaps and bounds with operations in the Pretoria area ,Johannesburg and surrounding suburbs and at one stage even in Durban. In 1982 Putco established a Foundation with the purpose of contributing to communities afflicted by poverty and unemployment. The Foundation has through the years educated students and produced medical doctors and engineers.

Putco as a proud South African company moved with the times and with the ushering in of a new political dispensation, took up the challenge of transformation and empowerment in support of the Government to venture into BBBEE. Having been listed on the JSE for more than six decades the company had to delist . Minority shareholders were painstakingly convinced until 42.6% shares were acquired for 3300 of its workers, two black women groupings, people with disabilities, youth groupings and community groupings. The process concluded an empowerment deal that the Group is proud about. By this period the business operated in the transport sector with support companies vic. Dubigeon and Voms engaged in body building accident repair and unit refurbishment respectively for the Putco Holdings company.

The executives and directors of the Putco Holdings Group took a strategic decision to diversify the Group . This was prompted by the desire to free Dubigeon and Voms to account for themselves and become their own self- sustainable profit centers. Another reason to diversify was to take advantage of the wealth of experience existent within the Group and to venture in sectors where opportunities were abound. This strategy gave birth to venturing in business in many sectors of the economy and the decision to rename the Group away from the Putco name and to be more universal denoting the value that is encompassing of the bigger and robust LARIMAR GROUP.