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Last month Frank James was named as Group CEO of Caribbean conglomerate GraceKennedy, thus succeeding Don Wehby who held the role since 2011.

Earlier this week he presided over his first investor briefing as CEO and acquitted himself well.

He takes on the top job at a time when GraceKennedy is going from strength to strength with all its businesses posting billions of dollars in revenue. Its 2030 vision sees it becoming the number one recognised Caribbean brand in the world with 70 per cent of its revenue and profits generated outside of Jamaica.

Strong financial footing 

For 2024, all the Group’s key indicators registered as positive. It posted revenues of J$167 billion, up by 7.8 per cent or J$12 billion of which J$9 billion came from the Food Division and J$3 billion from the Financial Services Division.

Profit Before Other Income, a key indicator of operating performance, was up by $8 billion or 6 per cent. Grace is seeing improved margins on the Food Division side while logging improvements in operational efficiency. What has aided performance is inflation abating both in Jamaica and globally, which has led to more stable prices.

Its banking arm, First Global, has grown its loan portfolio.

Profit Before Tax for the financial year 2024 was up by 8.6 per cent to $12.3 billion. This makes it a historic year in that it is the first time GraceKennedy has achieved the $12 billion profit mark.

Profit After Tax grew by just under 6 per cent.

Many of Jamaica’s more notable listed companies have struggled with dividend payments – Not GraceKennedy. For the year under review, Dividend payments were up by $198 million, just over 9 per cent. Over the last five years, the Group has been consistently paying dividends which have been increasing year-over-year. This is due to improving profitability and having sufficient cash reserves from which to distribute dividends from.

Grace will be paying an interim dividend on the 7th of April, 2025, which will be 55 cents per stock unit, which translates to just over $540 million in dividends.

Three out of four revenue segments have shown growth with a marginal decline of 2.5 percent on the Money Services side due to a reduction in the flow of remittances.

Stockholders equity jumped by 10 per cent as a result of additional profits and the increase in properties held by the Group.

Having built an impressive score on this wicket, Frank James is all set to go and build an even more impressive innings.

GraceKennedy is a great Jamaican company that came out of the Caribbean. People of the region must rally behind it given the prevailing protectionist mindset of the world’s largest economy. Jamaica and the Caribbean must show confidence in its own excellence and place faith in its own tastes, products and services. GraceKennedy is 103 years old and has stood the test of time. Rather than buy Goya and other brands, choose Grace and count on quality. 

The theme for 2025 is “Unlocking value, unleashing greatness” which will see James getting his teams to deliver their best in an effort to drive its businesses.

“It’s about who we are and what we stand for. We feel there is greatness in our people and they will help us unlock value for our shareholders and stakeholders. Revenue growth continues to be an area of focus. The aim is to accelerate revenue growth. Last year we grew by 8 per cent and this year we are going to do better than that. How so? By investing in our Grace brands. We have to grow them both domestically and internationally. Yes, we will be deepening our expansion in Jamaica. We expanded our Points of Sales by over 1000 last year and we will increase that this year. We will be looking to enter new international markets and we have new product innovations that are going to drive that,” said James at the briefing which took place at GraceKennedy’s downtown Kingston headquarters. 

The Group is actively looking to grow its critical mass via mergers and acquisitions and over recent years it has stepped up doing so. Already this year it completed the acquisition of Catherine Peak and now has a 100 per cent ownership of that brand, securing the remaining 30 per cent. This has solidified its position in the spring water market.

James explained: “Our 876 brand and Catherine’s Peak are aimed at different segments of the market. With our acquisition of Unibev, we now own our own beverage factory and we continue to grow as the leading spring water player in Jamaica.”

GraceKennedy is working with its investment bankers to look for opportunities in Europe, North America and the Caribbean in line with its 2030 vision.

Focus on Innovation

The new CEO is keen to drive Grace’s businesses through innovation and technology. In this regard he is not letting the grass grow under his feet. Grace has already unveiled a number of alternative packaging with its products. This Easter will see its new easy-open can Tastee Cheese.

The Group is pushing ahead with the digital transformation of its financial services and sees this move as a big game changer.

“Our GK One App will be launched in other Caribbean countries on a phased basis. This year it will enter three new markets, namely Trinidad & Tobago, Cayman and Guyana, with its remittance functionality. The great thing about our GK One App is that it allows us to enter non-English territories as well because it is multi-lingual. We already have provisional approval from the regulators.

“We are currently testing the new functionalities of the GK One App, which is going to allow remittance senders to transfer funds directly to a GK One user’s mobile wallet. This can be all done on your mobile phone with the “ Shelly” card.  This will be rolled out before the first half of this year. There will be plenty of new features on the app to drive growth in the digital space. This is going to transform how we do business.

“The GK One App is not limited to just remittances. One can do banking, insurance and engage with all our financial services on one platform.

“While we are transforming our business and remittance arms using digital technology, we are also changing our retail space. We have partnered with  Unicomer’s Courts. Both our HiLo and First Global outlets will have a Western Union window where one can do transactions in a convenient, accessible way. This also helps us manage the cost of delivery of the service.”

Manufacturing

Manufacturing remains a core part of Grace’s business, and it will continue to drive growth, particularly with exports. 

“We have not achieved our target of 50 per cent in exports but that’s not because that has slowed down  but rather our domestic business has moved aggressively. We have to thank our Jamaican consumers for supporting the Grace brand. Unibev’s acquisition was primarily for the domestic market. However, this year we will be exporting Catherine’s Peak Water to Cayman initially and then into other markets.

“We will be revisiting our targets around exports. A key element of our manufacturing business is ESG  and sustainability initiatives. We are looking at how we can preserve the environment and reduce the use of virgin plastics. The goal is a 25 per cent reduction in the use of virgin plastics in our water products.

Logistics and Supply Chains 

Logistics and supply chains across the world went through upheaval during and post COVID period. With the global economy now entering uncertainty,  logistics and supply chains have become even more complicated. 

“Grace has to factor these monumental changes and is making significant investments in that area. We want to use logistics and supply chains as a competitive advantage for the Group. I can announce that we are actively expanding the distribution centre because of the growth of the business we have seen over the last few years. Last year we expanded by another ten new dock doors. This year we will be adding new cold storage and our ambient storage availability.

“Over the next few years we have a road map on how we are going to be expanding our storage and warehouse capabilities to meet the growth in the business as we get to our 2030 goal.

“There has been a lot of discussion about the current trade environment with all the talk about tariffs. Grace has been proactive on that and on how we are going to deliver on our objectives, whatever scenario plays out in the global trading environment. This includes onboarding alternative suppliers, looking at opportunities for near-shoring. We see what is happening with South-South trade and will be taking advantage of opportunities there. It is important that we manage our inventory very carefully in order to meet our needs while managing our costs and ensuring competitive pricing.

Operational efficiency 

So how will GraceKennedy bolster its revenues and strengthen its bottom line? 

“We are going to be growing revenue by doing it profitably. That means more of every dollar of revenue we bring into the business has to fall into the bottom line. A big part of that is investment in technology. On the financial side we have invested in the Oracle VRB system and we expect to see the benefits from that this year.

“Then there is the SAP S/4 Hana on the food business side. Those technological improvements together with the changes made with our energy usage and other operational efficiencies will drive a better performing bottom line and we will be measuring that through our PBT to sales.”

Highly engaged team

Frank James is fortunate to have a gifted executive team including, Steven Whittingham (CEO of GKFG), Andrew Messado (Group CFO), Andrew Leo-Rhynie ( Head of Mergers& Acquisitions), Tamara Gloves-Hucey (GM, Key Insurance) Radcliffe Daley (CEO, First Global Bank) Suzanne Nam ( Head of Corporate Communications), Gail Moss-Solomon (General Legal Counsel), Andrea Coy ( CEO of Grace Foods).

Across the business lines there appears to be a motivated and driven workforce. The global benchmark for employee engagement is 67 per cent. When Grace started measuring this engagement back in 2022 it was at 67 per cent. In 2023, Grace saw it move to 73.4 per cent. At the end of last year it climbed to 75 per cent 

James proudly proclaimed: “ We continue to invest in our teams and in succession management in order to drive employee engagement throughout the Group. It is a very important metric for us and one we take very seriously.

“Our 2030 vision sees GraceKennedy growing its revenues to US$2.1 billion. We celebrated US$1 billion in 2023. We now have 5 years to double that and triple our profit figure from where it is now. We intend to list on the Caribbean and international stock markets.  We are currently working on the restructuring of our balance sheet. Here we have engaged PriceWaterhouseCoopers to help us with that.  We see a number of M&A opportunities this year and going forward we will  make even more moves there as we look to meet our 2030 objectives.”