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Irving Group of Companies

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The Irving Group of Companies is an informal name given to those companies owned and controlled by the Irving family of New Brunswick—descendants of Canadian industrialist K.C. Irving: his sons James K. (1928–2024), Arthur (1930–2024), and John (1932–2010), and their respective children.

Ownership structure

Many of the components of the Irving Group of Companies were established or acquired by K.C. Irving during his period of active entrepreneurship between the 1920s and the 1970s. Following his retirement to Bermuda in the 1970s, the conglomerate was operated by his three sons in much the same manner and remained relatively intact and maintained a strong vertical integration. The companies were divided into similar divisions, each controlled by one of K.C. Irving's sons and their respective children.

  • James K. Irving (1928-2024) (also known as "J.K.") – ownership and responsibility for J.D. Irving, Limited and its subsidiaries. This conglomerate has interests in several industries including forestry, integrated forest products, building supplies, frozen food, transportation, shipping lines, and shipbuilding.
  • Arthur Irving (1930–2024) (also known as "Art") - ownership and responsibility for Irving Oil and its subsidiaries. This conglomerate has ownership of its retail stores, oil refineries, oil tankers and distribution terminals and facilities.
  • John E. Irving (1932–2010) (also known as "Jack") – This conglomerate has ownership of Ocean Capital, which includes companies such as Commercial Properties, OSCO Construction Group, Source Atlantic and Acadia Broadcasting, Limited.

J.D. Irving, Limited

Main article: J. D. Irving

J.D. Irving, Limited is a holding company that primarily covers the Group's pulp and paper, transportation, and shipbuilding.

Agriculture and food

[1]

Construction and equipment

[6]

  • CFM Service (amalgamation of Custom Fabricators & Machinists, Atlantic Quality & Technical Services, and Atlantic NDT Inc.)[7]
  • Gulf Operators
  • Irving Equipment (crane rental, heavy lifting, specialized transportation, pile driving and project management services)
  • Atlantic Wallboard
  • Kent Homes
  • Kent Mobile Shelters
  • Grandview Civil Contractors
  • Pumps Plus

Forestry and forest products

JDI's Pulp & Paper Division, Sawmills and Woodlands Division includes the following forestry and forest product companies:[8]

Irving Consumer Products

Irving Consumer Products includes several brand-name and private-label tissue products.[9]

Irving Consumer Products operates 5 tissue manufacturing plants: 3 in Canada (Saint John and Dieppe, New Brunswick, and Toronto, Ontario) and 2 in the United States (Fort Edward, New York and Macon, Georgia).[10]

JDI Integrated Logistics

JDI Integrated Logistics (formerly Irving Transportation Services) is the transportation and logistics division of the company, which owns several railroad networks in Maine and New Brunswick, as well as major trucking companies.[11]

Retail and distribution

Irving Retail Services includes several retailer services and business-to-business suppliers.[13]

  • Chandler Sales
  • Kent Building Supplies
  • Universal Truck & Trailer (UTT) — Atlantic Canada's largest heavy duty and truck and trailer dealer
  • Plasticraft Digital & Specialty Printing — full-service specialty and digital print provider
  • Atlas Structural Systems — manufacturer of pre-engineered structural systems
  • Industrial Commercial Supplies (ICS) — retailer of commercial and industrial building materials
  • Maritime Home Improvement
  • Bayside Distribution

Shipbuilding and industrial fabrication

Main article: Irving Shipbuilding
JDI's Shipbuilding & Industrial Fabrication companies and facilities include:

Other subsidiaries

Former subsidiaries

Brunswick News

Main article: Brunswick News

Until 2022, J.D. Irving owned Brunswick News, the largest newspaper publisher in New Brunswick and owner of the province's three major newspapers. On 17 February 2022 Postmedia Network announced that it was buying BNI from the Irving company.[18]

Irving Oil, Limited

Main article: Irving Oil

Former

  • Canaport LNG — deepwater liquified natural gas terminal; Irving Oil sold its share to Repsol YPF in 2021.[23][24] IO was formerly a 25% partner, with 75% held by Repsol YPF.

Ocean Capital

A selection of the 17 radio stations owned and operated by Acadia Broadcasting

Criticisms

Lack of transparency

Irving companies are private companies; as a result, there is less public information available as there would be for publicly traded corporations. This lack of transparency has led to significant criticism regarding Irving business activities.[25]

Vertical integration

Irving companies are often criticized for their vertical integration.[25] Examples of vertical integration within the "Irving Group of Companies" (as the Irving family refers to their holdings) include the acquisition or formation of businesses along the entire chain of production, from the Irving refinery (an Irving Oil subsidiary) and its retail outlets, to the transportation subsidiaries of J.D. Irving (RST, Midland, NB Southern, Sunbury), to various construction and engineering companies that assist in building, maintaining and expanding the conglomerate's facilities.

Further examples of vertical integration within the conglomerate include Industrial Security Ltd. (ISL), the wholly owned security company that guards facilities, as well as industrial suppliers such as Thornes, Universal Sales and Commercial Equipment Ltd. which provide specialty goods and services to its companies. J.D. Irving, the sister firm to Irving Oil, is a dominant forestry company in northeastern North America, growing trees, harvesting trees and producing lumber, pulp and paper, and various enhanced value products such as glossy paper grades, tissue, and personal care products.

Provincial media monopoly

The Dominion newspaper, an independent Canadian newspaper, has criticized Irving's ownership of Brunswick News, which published most newspapers in New Brunswick, as well as the newspapers' journalistic integrity, particularly when reporting on companies controlled by the Irving family such as Irving Oil.[26][27][28] Canadian Business magazine wrote in a profile of the Irving Group in 2008, "A Senate committee that recently probed media ownership in Canada expressed concerns about the family’s near-monopoly over the province’s print media and "the implications of a dominant media force linked to a dominant industrial base." While a Brunswick News official denied any pro-Irving bias in the papers’ coverage, the committee’s 2006 report cited other witnesses who feared that Irving journalists exercise restraint and self-edit when writing about the family — "unconscious loyalty to the parental control," as one put it."

Political patronage

In 2003, there were accusations of Irving family political patronage, notably involving Allan Rock and Claudette Bradshaw of the Liberal Party of Canada.[29] In 2016, the National Observer released an eight-part investigation on the family called House of Irving. It looked at many parts of the businesses including the expansion into Maine, its media monopoly, how they intimidate their critics and issues within the family.[30]

Ecological degradation

The J. D. Irving paper mill in Saint John.
The J. D. Irving pulp & paper mill in Saint John.

Irving-owned facilities have been shown to emit a mixture of carcinogens, including benzene and lead. In 2009, the Conservation Council of New Brunswick produced a study which found that rates of lung cancer were 40 to 50 percent higher in Saint John than in Fredericton and Moncton – New Brunswick’s other major cities.[31][32] In 2018 the Irving Pulp and Paper Ltd. pleaded guilty to three charges under the federal Fisheries Act related to numerous "significant" instances of effluent discharges from its pulp mill in west Saint John into the St. John River over a two-year period.[33] This was the fourth time that this fine was issued in a period of two years.[34]

References

  1. ^ "Food". www.jdirving.com. Retrieved 2023-10-17.
  2. ^ "Cavendish Farms". cavendishfarms.com. Retrieved 2023-10-17.
  3. ^ https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-land-ownership-corporate-review-1.5038754 [bare URL]
  4. ^ Strategy Staff (December 12, 1994). "Corner store chain developing private label". Retrieved 2023-10-17.
  5. ^ "Juniper Farms". www.jdirving.com. Retrieved 2023-10-17.
  6. ^ "Construction & Equipment". www.jdirving.com. Retrieved 2023-10-17.
  7. ^ "About CFM Service". cfmservice.ca. Retrieved 2023-10-17.
  8. ^ "Forestry & Forest Product". www.jdirving.com. Retrieved 2023-10-17.
  9. ^ a b "Consumer Products". www.jdirving.com. Retrieved 2023-10-17.
  10. ^ "About Us | Irving Consumer Products". www.irvingconsumerproducts.com. Retrieved 2023-10-17.
  11. ^ "Transportation & Logistics". www.jdirving.com. Retrieved 2023-10-17.
  12. ^ "Midland". www.jdirving.com. Retrieved 2023-10-17.
  13. ^ "Retail and Distribution". www.jdirving.com. Retrieved 2023-10-17.
  14. ^ "Facilities". Irving Shipbuilding. Retrieved 2023-10-17.
  15. ^ "Home". protrans.ca. Retrieved 2023-10-17.
  16. ^ https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/moncton-taxpayers-subsidize-irving-through-wildcats-lease-1.2423282 [bare URL]
  17. ^ https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/irving-sells-shelburne-ship-repair-to-mersey-seafoods-1.6380310 [bare URL]
  18. ^ Ibrahim, Hadeel (18 February 2022). "Telegraph-Journal, other Irving-owned N.B. newspapers to be sold to Postmedia". CBC News. Retrieved 18 February 2022.
  19. ^ a b "Operations | Irving Oil". www.irvingoil.com. Retrieved 2023-10-17.
  20. ^ https://www.irvingoil.com/sites/default/files/2019-06/SE18-002_Sell-Sheet-FBO.pdf [bare URL PDF]
  21. ^ https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/irving-oil-eyes-regional-transmission-grid-1.885091 [bare URL]
  22. ^ "Canaport | Irving Oil". www.irvingoil.com. Retrieved 2023-10-17.
  23. ^ https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/irving-oil-divestiture-canaport-lng-repsol-saint-john-1.6130856 [bare URL]
  24. ^ "Irving Oil announces divestiture of Canaport LNG ownership interest | Irving Oil". www.irvingoil.com. Retrieved 2023-10-17.
  25. ^ a b Woodard, Colin (23 November 2014). "Commentary: A rare look at the Irving family". Portland Press Herald. MaineToday Media. Retrieved 9 October 2022.
  26. ^ Steuter, Erin (November 10, 2003). "Freedom of the Press is for Those Who Own One". The Dominion. Retrieved May 3, 2014.
  27. ^ "Feds must examine Irving media empire: Fraser". CBC News. 12 October 2007. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
  28. ^ "Rich 100: Inside Irving - Canadian Business - Your Source For Business News". 2008-12-22. Retrieved 2016-07-15.
  29. ^ "Rock disregarded ethics ruling to advance Irvings' cause". National Post. October 20, 2003.
  30. ^ "House of Irving". National Observer. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
  31. ^ What have the Irvings done to New Brunswick? Bruce Livesey, June 6th 2016, Canada's National Observer https://www.nationalobserver.com/2016/06/06/news/what-have-irvings-done-new-brunswick
  32. ^ Cancer in New Brunswick Communities: Investigating the environmental connection, Inka Milewski and Lily Liu, Conservation Council of New Brunswick Inc.https://www.preventcancernow.ca/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/ccnb2009.pdf
  33. ^ Irving Pulp and Paper pleads guilty to pollution charges, faces $3.5M penalty, CBC, October 9, 2019, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/irving-pulp-paper-guilty-pollution-1.4855226
  34. ^ There’s a Mysterious New Sickness in Canada and the Government is Keeping It a Secret, Jared A. Brock, January 14th 2022, https://survivingtomorrow.org/theres-a-mysterious-new-sickness-in-canada-and-the-government-is-keeping-it-a-secret-88dd505d0ca0
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