Jamaica

COCA-COLA PURCHASE. Facey Commodity has neared an agreement to buy Caribbean Bottlers Ltd, the owner of Coca-Cola, and a wide range of other drinks brands in Jamaica, reports The Jamaica Observer (June 27, 2002). Facey was acquired jointly a few years ago by the Seprod Group and Desmond Blade's Musson. Seprod's involvement in this venture represents a deepening of its distributive trade, and a return to agri-processing, an industry from which it has been retreating over the past dozen years. The Spanish Town Road Caribbean Bottlers (Jamaica) Ltd began operation in its present form when Coca Cola made the direct investment in Jamaica in 1997. Since then, the company has built a wholesale distributorship of over 8,000 with a range of products --Diet Coke, Sprite, Diet Sprite, Fanta Grape, Fanta Passion Fruit and Cannings Kola Champaign. Coca-Cola has always been a second brand in Jamaica to Pepsi, which also made a direct investment in Jamaica when it bought the Desnoes and Geddes soft drinks line a few years ago. It manufactures Pepsi, and the other former D&G brands from that plant on Spanish Town Road. The acquisition of Caribbean Bottlers Ltd would represent the largest investment by Seprod since the Facey Commodity deal. The company has about 240 workers.

1,600 NEW HOMES IN MONTEGO BAY. Gore Developments has launched a J$4 billion project to construct 1,600 houses in Montego Bay over the next four years -- a move that will essentially create a new village...