Jamaican food and financial services conglomerate GraceKennedy Limited (GK) is growing its business dealings with Barbados as part of its Caribbean expansion strategy.
GK group chief executive officer (CEO) Frank James signalled this to investors last Tuesday when the Kingston-based company held an online briefing to report on its financial results for the nine months ended September 30.
GK and Barbados group Cave Shepherd & Company Limited own merchant bank SigniaGlobe Financial Group Inc., an enterprise which James said continued to perform well and was in expansion mode.
The CEO also shared that his group had started exporting its Caterine’s Peak water product to Barbados and was preparing to offer its Scotia Protector insurance product here.
“Signia has been doing really well, it’s part of that banking and investments growth that we showed . . . where our joint venture businesses and associated companies are doing well,” he noted.
“So Signia continues to do well, and we continue to support that business and I went and met with the Signia team earlier this year, and they have some exciting growth plans.
“As a publicly traded company, I can’t share with you yet about any potential investments, but . . . we have gone into Barbados this year with our Catherine’s Peak water and Barbados is one of the territories that we will be entering with our ScotiaProtect expansion.”
In April 2023, GK completed its acquisition of Scotia Insurance Caribbean Limited and rebranded the company as GK Life. It offers credit protection insurance via Scotia Protect.
“I’m very, very pleased to announce that we are going to be expanding that partnership with Scotiabank into three new territories, Bahamas, Barbados and Turks and Caicos, and that will happen in early 2026 pending regulatory approval,” he shared.
“This is a big move, and we’re very happy that we’ll be moving from one country to four countries by the beginning of 2026 with this partnership that continues to grow for us. So [I am] very excited about expanding that partnership into those territories.”
James explained that “we do not have GK General Insurance subsidiaries in those new markets that I mentioned, but we do have arrangements in those markets to be able to support that business through our GK General Insurance Company here in Jamaica”.
On Catherine’s Peak water exports, he said: “We have added Barbados, and we had already been exporting to Antigua, so we have Cayman, Barbados and Antigua in addition to Jamaica. And we expect . . . two additional territories before the end of the year.”
GK reported a revenue of $1.67 billion, a 5.93 per cent increase, for the nine months ended September 30.
Profit before tax at the end of that period was $111.5 million, compared with $120.6 million in the same time last year. Net profit attributable to stockholders was $76.2 million, a decline of 7.74 per cent.
GK officials said the full impact of Hurricane Melissa on its operations and financial performance was still being assessed. The group has launched a $2.5 million Hurricane Melissa relief programme in conjunction with several of its business partners. (SC)
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