Jamaica Producers Group (JPG), the single-largest shareholder in merged company PanJam Group, is looking to leverage lands it owns in St Mary as part of a broader plan to gin up earnings of PanJam Group over the medium to long term.

The 3,500 acres of land owned by JPG is in part being used today for farming bananas and pineapples to be resold in its natural state or processed for value-added products under the St Mary’s brand. However, underutilised sections of the property are being pitched for the development of a beachfront property, a commercial development as well as concession arrangements in a new venture for both JPG and PanJam — alternative energy.

In addition to maximising the use of that property, the PanJam Group plans to acquire property on the west end of the island and is exploring real estate development in Kingston and St Andrew. JPG will benefit from these developments through its 34.5 per cent shareholding in PanJam Group.

“We are formulating plans for each of these assets and that plan will involve some commercial development. We intend to continue our lease arrangement with PanJam in agriculture. We intend to continue our concession arrangement in aggregates and we are looking at other concession arrangements in alternative energy in the future,” CEO of Jamaica Producers and Pan Jamaica Group Jeffrey Hall said at JP’s AGM on Friday.

“So the goal is to have those land and property assets perform for you,” he continued.

JP currently leases sections of the St Mary lands to PanJam’s subsidiary JP Farms.

The deal between and food and logistics conglomerate JP and investment and property conglomerate PanJam Investments Limited was finalised in April 2023. PanJam has acquired JP’s global food, beverage, shipping and logistics operations in what the entities have described as a “business combination”, that includes JP Farms.

Now, the focus of the merged entity is on global reach while increasing shareholder value. So far, PanJam Group has booked a gain of $1.3 billion associated with the transaction.

It expects to see growth in all four segments of its business — global services, specialty foods, financial services, and the property and infrastructure division. However, there is a heavy focus on the real estate side of business looking ahead, trailing off an increase of 175 per cent in property and infrastructure for financial year 2023 over 2022.

“We intend to continue that business, the flagship properties, in those critical clusters. The north, in and around Manor Park, New Kingston, downtown and we will also look at new opportunities to come in western Jamaica,” Hall said.

“Within that property infrastructure division, we take seriously the business of growing the infrastructure. And so we are at the final stages of commissioning 15 million gallons of per day water plant, extracting water from the Rio Cobre to ultimately solve the water challenges in Kingston and St Andrew,” he continued in referencing the PanJam operations.

JP’s announcement to maximise the potential of its vast real estate holdings comes amid the ‘offloading and onloading’ of business ventures as it creates a leaner group.

Just last week, the company announced the divestment of Grupo Alaska SA, a leading producer of ice and bottled water products in the Dominican Republic owned by Grupo Frontera, a 50/50 holding company held by Pan Jamaica and Norbrook Equity Partners Limited. Meanwhile, PanJam has acquired APA Processing BZ, SLU (‘APA’ 11.), a fresh juice processing facility located in Barcelona, Spain.

The business has said that the strategic acquisition will be integrated into the Group’s joint venture juice company, CoBeverage Lab SA, enhancing the Pan Jamaica Group’s capacity and reach within the European market.

The acquisition of APA Processing is expected to significantly bolster high-pressure processing capacity to the group’s Pan European juice group, The Juicy Group.

“The acquisition of APA by CoBeverage Lab is an important strategic move for our business in southern Europe. This acquisition allows us to leverage APA’s fresh juice processing capability to broaden our range of customers and geographical footprint in Europe,” Hall said.