The company, which first operated as a small trading establishment, soon acquired wharfing facilities in order to facilitate its imports.

[1] It has expanded and diversified over the years,[2] changing from a privately owned enterprise to a public company listed on the stock exchanges of Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean.

Today, the GraceKennedy Group comprises a varied network of some 60 subsidiaries and associated companies located across the Caribbean and in North and Central America[2] and the United Kingdom.

Their operations span the food distribution, financial, insurance, remittance, hardware retailing and food-processing industries.

[3] In 1995, GraceKennedy developed its 2020 Vision, the objective being to transform from a Jamaican trading company to a global consumer group by the year 2020.