Six companies to watch in 2011

• GraceKennedy

Don Wehby takes over as group chief executive officer in July, while Douglas Orane will assume the title of executive chairman until his retirement in late 2012, at age 65. The market is familiar with Wehby, but loves how Orane has run the diversified group of companies. The promotion will, therefore, be a new test for the younger man. Other leadership changes include the upcoming retirement of GK Foods CEO Erwin Burton on February 28 after 41 years with the conglomerate, and his immediate replacement by Michael Ranglin.

• Jamaica Broilers Group

The company's ethanol business began strong but has waned in the past year due to world market events, but Chris Levy is already looking toward the next horizon - Haiti - where a 9-10 million market waits. Haiti's lack of infrastructure, volatile population, and creaky governance structure are downside risks. But with recovery projects under way following the January 2010 earthquake, Levy sees this as the best time to enter the country to ride the upswing that he is certain will come. He is considering building out a poultry and feed business there, equivalent in structure to Broilers' home operation, but on a much smaller scale at the beginning.

• Carreras Limited

At J$8 billion-plus in annual taxes, the cigarette distributor pays over more money to the Government than most stock market companies produce in revenue. The fight over taxes on cigarettes is long-standing, but not one from which the finance ministry has shrunk. Carreras has ramped up the rhetoric, saying the constant increase in the special consumption tax has it concerned about the "long-term sustainability" of the company. In the short term, however, revenue and profit are up. A new man, Richard Pandohie, is now in charge, and he has vowed to continue the aggressive pushback. Pandohie also inherits the thorny problem of counterfeit and smuggled cigarettes - some by organised criminals - which, over time, have eroded a portion of Carreras' market share.

• FirstCaribbean Jamaica

Nigel Holness took over as CEO in September and immediately showed his mettle by attempting to go after market share with invitations to switch business to his bank. FirstCaribbean remains No 4 in the banking sector, where the top-two players have an approximate 70 per cent lock on the market.

• Pegasus Hotels of Jamaica

Kevin Hendrickson now has majority control of Pegasus, operator of The Jamaica Pegasus hotel, and has launched a takeover bid for the other minority shares. The offer is mandatory under stock market takeover rules when a single investor acquires more than 50 per cent of a stock. If Hendrickson acquires more than 90 per cent of the shares, he plans to delist the stock and take the company private.

• LIME Jamaica

Cable and Wireless Jamaica, which trades as LIME, appears to have found its mojo over the Christmas season, with the big launch of mobile TV and a promotion that was as hot and trendy as its top rivals'. The entry of investment banker Garry Sinclair as managing director last year seemed an odd fit, but it did shake up the establishment. Sinclair still has to prove himself capable of turning around the company from multibillion losses in the past three years.

lavern.clarke@gleanerjm.com