The Group began its operations several generations ago with the inception of a distribution house. In 1887 it became distributors for W.D. & H.O. Wills cigarettes for all the pre-partition Indian sub-continent including Burma and Ceylon. As the business progressed over the next few decades, the Group established offices in several major cities, including Karachi and Lahore. At the time of partition and the creation of Pakistan in 1947, the Group moved its Head Office to Karachi and became the premier and best-known distribution house in Pakistan, under the name of UDL's United Distributors (Pvt.) Limited.

For the decades following 1947, many multinational and several large Pakistani companies held accounts with UDL to service their sales and distribution functions.

In 1991, the owners of UDL decided on a separation of business and so International Brands (Pvt.) Limited was formed with a vision to reach the furthest areas of Pakistan through an unmatched distribution infrastructure. The new mission was also to diversify its business from just sales and distribution to manufacturing and marketing. In 1993 IBL, bought the local operations of G.D. Searle, an American pharmaceutical manufacturer and successfully manages that operations to date. Other new companies were established to manage IBL's businesses according to product lines and industries in a better and more organized way, and thus, IBL became the IBL Group.