J.D. Irving, Limited

J.D. Irving Limited (JDI) is a privately owned conglomerate company headquartered in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. It is a subsidiary of the parent company, Irving Group of Companies, along with Irving Oil Refinery, Canaport, Irving Tissue Irving Equipment, Kent Building Supplies, New Brunswick Railway, New Brunswick Southern Railway, Eastern Maine Railway, Maine Northern Railway, Brunswick News, Acadia Broadcasting, Irving Shipbuilding, Cavendish Farms. It is involved in many industries including forestry, forestry products, agriculture, food processing, transportation, and shipbuilding. JDI company forms, with Irving Oil, Ocean Capital Investments and Brunswick News, the bulk of the Irving Group of Companies, which groups the interests of the Irving family.

History

J.D. Irving Limited (JDI) traces its roots to a sawmill operated in Bouctouche, New Brunswick by its namesake, James Dergavel Irving. J.D. Irving's operations were entrusted to his children, one of whom, Kenneth Colin Irving, assumed majority ownership and used JDI as a springboard for expanding into pulp and paper and other forestry-related businesses between the 1920s and 1940s.

In the post-war years, JDI took control of pulp mills in Saint John and upstate New York, as well as sawmills throughout New Brunswick. During the 1950s, JDI took control of a shipyard in Saint John and started several trucking companies and heavy industry companies like Irving Equipment to satisfy the growing needs of the company.

From the 1960s-2000s, JDI expanded to become the largest forestry company in the Maritimes and northern Maine and the region's largest industrial player, with extensive land holdings, tree nurseries, pulp mills (plants producing kraft pulp, supercalendered paper, tissue products, and corrugated medium), sawmills, a retail chain of home improvement stores ( Kent Building Supplies), modular home construction ( Kent Homes), industrial construction, wallboard manufacturing, marine towing and dredging ( Atlantic Towing), prefabricated concrete (StresCon), steel fabrication (Ocean Steel), frozen food production (Cavendish Farms), fertilizer and agri-services ( Cavendish Agri-Services), railways (New Brunswick Southern Railway), and manufacturing of personal care products including tissue and paper towels ( Majesta and Royale) as well as diapers (Irving Personal Care).

In the 1970s and 1980s, JDI expanded into trucking with its Scot Truck subsidiary based in Debert, NS. Now called Midland Transport and based in Dieppe, NB, it is joined by sister companies Midland Courier (Dieppe), Sunbury Transport ( Fredericton) and RST Industries (Saint John).

JDI is also the largest shipbuilder in Canada with ownership of shipyards in Halifax, Liverpool, Shelburne, and Georgetown.

Incidents

As a large regional industrial conglomerate, J.D. Irving Ltd. subsidiaries have been the focus of several notable incidents:
* In 1970 an oil barge named '' Irving Whale'' sank in the Gulf of St. Lawrence causing periodic oil spills until it was raised by the federal government in 1996.
* In 2007 the Irving Pulp & Paper Ltd. mill at Reversing Falls accidentally released 680,000 litres of green liquid into the Saint John River; pleading guilty, the company received a fine of $50,000. In November 2008 Environment Canada investigators exercised a search warrant at Irving Pulp & Paper's head office to seek more information on this accidental spill.
* In November 2008 JDI Logistics and Atlantic Towing made the news over an accident involving the transport of 2 new turbines from Saint John Harbour to the nearby Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station. The JDI subsidiaries had been sub-contracted by Siemens AG, Turbine Replacement sub-contractor for the facility's owner NB Power. The 2 turbines were manufactured by Siemens AG in Scotland and were shipped to Saint John on a road transport vehicle aboard a cargo ship. The cargo was off-loaded from the ship onto a barge owned by Atlantic Towing Ltd., however the cargo shifted and the barge tipped, sending the turbines and the road transport vehicle into Saint John Harbour.
* In late November 2008 the Atlantic Towing Ltd. dredging barge ''Shovel Master'' was being towed by the company's tugboat ''Atlantic Larch'' from Saint John to Halifax for a refit when it foundered in heavy seas west of Yarmouth, NS. The barge crew of 3 was rescued by a CH-149 Cormorant search and rescue helicopter before the barge capsized. Several ATL tugboats and commercial divers responded and a tow line was secured to the capsized, yet floating, barge by the tugboat '' Atlantic Oak''. The barge was towed south of Yarmouth however it sank in , carrying of diesel fuel, as well as of hydraulic fluid and of waste oil.

Controversies

J.D. Irving’s ownership of most major media outlets in New Brunswick has led to ongoing concern regarding control of the media. A report from the Canadian Senate in 2006 on media control in Canada singled out New Brunswick because of the Irving companies' ownership of all English-language daily newspapers in the province, including the Telegraph-Journal. Senator Joan Fraser, author of the Senate report, stated, "We didn't find anywhere else in the developed world a situation like the situation in New Brunswick." The report went further, stating, "the Irvings' corporate interests form an industrial-media complex that dominates the province" to a degree "unique in developed countries." At the Senate hearing, journalists and academics cited Irving newspapers' lack of critical reporting on the family's influential businesses.

Divisions

The following is a list of divisions of J.D. Irving, Ltd.

Irving Forest Products & Services

* Irving Pulp & Paper Ltd.
* Irving Paper Ltd.
* Irving Tissue Co. Ltd.
* Lake Utopia Paper
* Irving Sawmill Division
* Irving Woodlands Division

Irving Transportation Services

* New Brunswick Railway Co. Ltd.
** New Brunswick Southern Railway Co. Ltd.
** Eastern Maine Railway Co. Ltd.
** Maine Northern Railway Co. Ltd.
* Midland Transport
* Midland Courier
* RST Industries
* Sunbury Transport
* Atlantic Towing
* Kent Line
* JDI Logistics
* Harbour Development

Irving Shipbuilding & Fabrication Services

* Saint John Shipbuilding
* Halifax Shipyard
* Shelburne Ship Repair
* Woodside Industries
* Fleetway Inc.

Oceanic Consulting Corporation

East Isle Shipyard

East Isle Shipyard is a shipbuilding facility in Georgetown, Prince Edward Island and owned by Irving. The small shipyard is located on Water Street with single slipway along Georgetown Harbour. It is the sole shipbuilding facility in the province.

It was founded as Bathurst Marine in Bathurst, New Brunswick in 1961 before moving to Georgetown in 1965. The facility has operated in various names but with current name since the 1990s.

The yard built trawlers in the 1960s, the diversified in the 1970s before it began to specialize in tugs in the 1990s.

In 2010 the shipyard laid off staff due to lack of orders.

Notable ships built here include:

* ''Atlantic Spruce'' fireboat tug (1995)
* Atlantic Oak tugboat (2004)
* Royal Canadian Navy's Glen class tugs:
** CFAV Glenevis (YTB 642) (1976)
** CFAV Glenbrook (YTB 643) (1976)
** CFAV Glenside (YTB 644) (1977)

Irving Retail & Distribution Services

* Chandler
* Kent Building Supplies
* Universal Truck & Trailer
* Shamrock Truss
* Atlas Structural Systems
* Cavendish Agri Services

Irving Consumer Products

* Irving Tissue (Royale, Scotties, private labels)
* Irving Personal Care (diapers, training pants)
* Cavendish Produce (fresh vegetables)
* Cavendish Farms (frozen potato processing)
** Indian River Farms
** Riverdale Foods

Construction & Equipment Division

* Irving Wallboard
* Gulf Operators
* Irving Equipment (crane rental, heavy lifting, specialized transportation, pile driving and project management services)
* CFM
* Kent Homes
* PumpsPlus Ltd

Specialty Printing

* Plasticraft

Personnel Services

* Protrans Personnel Services Inc.

Security Services

* Industrial Security Limited

Amateur Sports

* Moncton Wildcats

Brunswick News

* ''Telegraph-Journal'' ( Saint John NB)
* ''Times & Transcript'' ( Moncton NB)
* ''The Daily Gleaner'' ( Fredericton NB)
* ''The Tribune'' ( Campbellton NB
* ''La Voix du Restigouche'' ( Campbellton NB)
* '' The Bugle-Observer'' ( Woodstock NB)
* ''Le Journal Madawaska'' ( Edmundston NB)
* Victoria Star (Grand Falls NB)
*''L'Étoile'' (various editions)
** ''Édition provinciale''
** ''Édition La Cataracte'' ( Grand Falls NB)
** ''Édition Chaleur'' ( Bathurst NB)
** ''Édition Dieppe'' ( Dieppe NB)
** ''Édition Kent'' ( Bouctouche NB)
** ''Édition Péninsule'' ( Shippagan NB)
** ''Édition République'' ( Edmundston NB)
** ''Édition Restigouche'' ( Campbellton NB)
** ''Édition Shédiac'' ( Shediac NB)
* ''Kings County Record'' ( Sussex NB)
* ''Miramichi Leader'' ( Miramichi NB)
* ''The Northern Light'' ( Bathurst NB)
* ''Here'' ( Saint John NB, Moncton NB, Fredericton NB)
* ''Money Saver'' ( St. Stephen NB)

A selection of former subsidiaries

* Acadian Lines Ltd
* SMT (Eastern) Ltd. Bus Lines
* Saint John City Transit
* Hawk Communications
* Steel and Engine Products Ltd
* Pictou Shipyard
* Commercial Equipment Limited
* Maritime Tire
* MITI (AKA XWAVE)
* Barrington Industrial
* Lexitech
* Irving Industrial Rentals

Citations

References

*

External links

Official website

J.D. Irving, Equipment Division

{{Irving Group of Companies

Conglomerate companies of Canada
Food and drink companies of Canada
Pulp and paper companies of Canada
Transport companies of Canada
Companies based in Saint John, New Brunswick