GraceKennedy Ltd paid $3.15 billion to acquire the remaining 50 per cent of Dairy Industries Jamaica Limited from New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra Co-operative Group, according to notes in the company’s audited December financial statements.
The deal was announced in late December but the purchase price was not revealed until the release of its audited financials last week. It values the cheese maker at $6.3 billion roughly US$40 million.
The transaction, completed on 27 January 2026, brings GraceKennedy’s total shareholding in DIJL to 100 per cent “for a purchase consideration of $3.15 billion”. GraceKennedy previously held an equal stake under a 50-50 joint venture with Fonterra that dates to 1996.
“The company is the owner of the Tastee Cheese brand, and “the only manufacturing entity in Jamaica and the Caribbean that produces processed cheese in a can” stated the audited financial notes. That’s a product that has become a fixture of Jamaican households, especially during Easter in pairing with bun.
In announcing the deal, GK indicated that Dairy Industries delivered consistent growth and profitability over the years, supported by a strong culture of innovation, an expanded product portfolio, and growing its export markets. It added that full ownership would allow the company to “scale the business further and deepen [its] leadership in the dairy segment”.
Net assets for DIJL increased to $5.08 billion as at December 31, 2025, up from $4.53 billion at the end of 2024.
Beyond its flagship Tastee Cheese brand, DIJL produces cheese spreads, yoghurt, vacuum-packed cheese and powdered milk, distributing across Jamaica and the wider Caribbean region, including through companies within the GraceKennedy Group.
The world cheese market is projected to grow from US$163.8 billion in 2025 to US$210.2 billion by 2030, a compound annual growth rate of 4.9 per cent, according to Mordor Intelligence.
DIJL was founded in 1964 and has operated for more than six decades as a cornerstone of Jamaica’s food manufacturing sector. Then four years after its founding, and entered Jamaica’s processed-cheese market under the Tastee banner.
Tastee Cheese occupies a place in Jamaican culture that few food products anywhere can claim. Its most enduring association is with Easter: the tradition of pairing a thick slice of the processed cheddar with a Jamaican spiced bun – itself a Caribbean descendant of the British hot cross bun, enriched with molasses, raisins, cinnamon and nutmeg–has been observed by Jamaican families for generations. The spiced bun’s origins trace to British colonial rule in the mid-1600s, when the custom of eating crossed buns on Good Friday arrived on the island. Locals steadily reshaped the recipe into something distinctly their own, and at some point Tastee Cheese became the inseparable companion, its salty tang cutting through the bun’s dense sweetness in what food writers have called one of the Caribbean’s most satisfying flavour pairings.
GraceKennedy, operates various companies in food and financial services. The group made revenue of $177.8 billion in 2025 or some 6.0 per cent more than a year earlier. However, profitability came under pressure, weighed by elevated insurance claims and a temporary shutdown of the Grace Food Processors meats plant in Westmoreland following Hurricane Melissa.
business@gleanerjm.com
