GraceKennedy

Further Growth of the Group

The expansive moves of the 1960s continued for a few more years after 1972. In early
April 1973, Carlton Alexander advised the Board of Grace, Kennedy that the plant, brand
name and formulae of Cameo Products were available for $35,000 and ought to be
acquired for inclusion in Grace, Food Processors (Canning Division). With Luis Fred
Kennedy in the Chair, the Board agreed to the acquisition, subject to the satisfactory
working out of the details.

In the following months, a merger of Grace Food Processors (Canning) with DaCosta
Bros. Ltd., importers and wholesale provision merchants, was proposed. It was completed
in the same year.

The Board began negotiations in July with Mr. C. Mucklow who had offered Grace,
Kennedy his shareholdings in United Merchants Ltd., General Printing Equipment Ltd.
and Pilkington Glass (Jamaica) Ltd. By April 1974, Carlton Alexander was able to report
conclusions. With a long-term loan of $70,000 from Barclays Bank, Grace, Kennedy &
Co., Ltd. had purchased 40% of the issued shares of Pilkington Glass and would lend that
Company $40,000. Mr. Robert McDonnell would manage the Company and would soon
meet with representatives of Pilkington Glass Ltd. from London. Cecil de Cordova Ltd.
had purchased the 100% issued share capital of United Merchants Ltd., and was now
reorganizing that business. They had also acquired 50% of the issued shares of General
Printing Equipment and Supplies, Ltd. from Mr. Mucklow and would also acquire
another 10% from a shareholder in Miami. In July 1976, however, it was decided that this
Company should either be liquidated or that Grace, Kennedy & Co., Ltd. should sell its
60% of the equity to the overseas holders of the 40% which remained.

At the same meeting in July 1973, at which Mr. Mucklow's offer had been first discussed,
another offer had been put before the Board. MacIntosh Brothers were offering all or part
of their equity in Security Wire Woven Products Ltd. and Metal Fencing Ltd. The
MacIntoshes would be willing to take part payment in cash and the balance out of future
profits. The two concerns had shown good performance in recent years and, it seemed,
would fit nicely with the operations of Sheffield & Co., Ltd. It was decided to negotiate.
In October, agreement was reached. Grace, Kennedy & Co., Ltd. would acquire 100 per
cent of the two MacIntosh companies for $700,000 and the MacIntoshes would guarantee
$350,000 net profit for the two years ending on July 31, 1975.

In August 1973, consultants had recommended a merger of Cecil de Cordova, Ltd. and
Grace Agricultural and Industrial Company Ltd. (GAICO), which had been incorporated
in March 1968 to continue the trading operations of Grace Agricultural Co. That
Company had been much involved in the importation of fertilizers from Holland and
Germany and from the United States, as agents for W.R. Grace & Co., which produced
Urea, a 45 per cent nitrogen fertilizer, in Tennessee, and as distributors of locally
produced fertilizer. Until October 1973, Bryden & Evelyn Ltd. had been partners with
Grace, Kennedy & Co., Ltd in ownership of GAICO. In that month, Grace, Kennedy
bought out the Bryden & Evelyn holdings at $7 per share. In January 1974, the

reorganization of Cecil de Cordova and GAICO began. By late 1975 it was 'virtually
complete' and Carlton Alexander announced the appointments to the newly established
entity: Chairman, Simon Soutar; Managing Directors, Raymond Evans and Dr. Hugh
Payne. Special mention was made of others who had made notable contributions: Aubrey
Grant (retired), Philip Ho Fatt, Lee Moragh, Mable Tenn, and Mervyn Wright.

The Board decided in early September 1973, to examine an offer of sale to Grace,
Kennedy & Co., Ltd of H. Macaulay Orrett Ltd. That company was also acquired in the
same year.

November 1974 saw the announcement that the management of Sheffield & Co. Ltd. was
considering the purchase of Rapid Vulcanizing Company, Ltd. and the leasing of their
property at Newport East, The Gleaner of April 5, 1975 carried a long and interesting
account:

Grace, Kennedy and Company Ltd. has acquired the business of Rapid
Vulcanizing Company, Ltd. and will merge it with another of its companies,
Sheffield Limited, which is already in the hardware trade.

Negotiations, which have been going on for some time, reached conclusion on
April 1. Grace, Kennedy has acquired all the shareholding of Rapid Vulcanizing,
involving its stock and property at Newport East, including buildings, land and
pier....

Rapid Vulcanizing, built up by the Campbell family, had grown from a bicycle repair
shop at the corner of Duke and Harbour Streets into a major hardware-trading
establishment. Property owned by the Campbells at Duke Street and Cross Roads was not
included in the deal but, the Gleaner report continued the acquisition of the Newport East
property and business 'marks another move in the steady expansion of the Grace
"empire"'.

Seven months later, another purchase was made.

In November, Grace, Kennedy & Co., Ltd. were approached by Messrs. Richard Groves
and Paul Townsend to purchase 51 per cent of the small Caribbean Greetings Corporation
which they had formed to sell greeting cards. After negotiation, it was agreed that Grace,
Kennedy & Co., Ltd. would purchase the 100 per cent shareholding, that Richard Groves
and Paul Townsend would be employed by Grace, Kennedy, and that they would each
receive 5,900 employee stock units in the parent company. By the end of the year,
Caribbean Greetings had obtained licence from the huge American Greetings, Inc. of
Cleveland, Ohio, to publish, print and distribute their wider range of cards and other
paper products throughout the Caribbean.

Grace, Kennedy in the mid-1970s

By the early seventies, the Company's original operations as an importer-distributor had
begun to undergo rapid and fundamental change. Until then the distributive chain in

Jamaica (excluding Jamaica Nutritional Holdings which had recently entered the field)
had been importers distributing to wholesalers and wholesalers to retailers. As described
by Max Lambie in the Gleaner of May 19, 1991:

Once upon a time, there was a Chinese grocery to serve every block of the capital city.