Courtesy Garage, through the Goddards Group of companies, and Grace Kennedy of Jamaica have sealed an agreement to start a new Nissan distributorship in the $100 million Jamaica market.

With the full backing of the Nissan parent company in Japan, which has been impressed with the performance of the brand in Barbados, Courtesy Garage effectively assumed responsibility for the distributorship for Jamaica in October.

The Nissan dealership in Jamaica was previously managed by Pacific Motors but has been dormant for the past eight years.

The new company is essentially a joint-venture between the Goddards Group and Grace Kennedy, who are both investing funds, and is scheduled to be up and running by April 2001.

A site in the old Kingston area is being refurbished and under the arrangement, Courtesy Garage will provide management and operations expertise for the company which will boast a modern showroom and carry the full range of Nissan vehicles.

Jamaica represents the fourth country in the region where Courtesy Garage will have ultimate responsibility for overseeing the Nissan franchise. Apart from Barbados, subsidiary dealerships are already in St. Lucia and St. Vincent.

This foray into the Jamaican market, of 2.8 million people, was the kind of expansion which general manager of Courtesy Garage, Nicholas Mackie, viewed as challenging in a dynamic industry.

Over the past two years Mackie and his team succeded in turning around the Wildey-based Courtesy Garage which made a profit in 1999 for the first time in seven years. Another encouraging performance is expected in 2000.

For us, Jamaica is a strategic market for the future. We view it as a platform for jumping off into the regional automotive business and possibly beyond,Mackie told the Business Authority.

Simpson Motors and Automotive Art are two other Barbadian companies competing in the regional automotive industry and Mackie believed such expansion would be positive for Barbados.

"I think it is important for Barbadian companies to look to reinvest outside of Barbados and look for areas of growth. There are opportunities in the wider Caribbean and local companies must think beyond the limitations of Barbados.

"That is the way we are thinking and this kind of expansion will also create employment opportunities for skilled Barbadians," he added.

The Jamaican automobile industry is said to be worth around US $100 million annually and Nissan controls 20 percent of the market.

For Grace Kennedy, the partnership also represents a totally new area of investment for the highly diversified Jamaican conglomerate which operated companies in several areas - such as manufacturing, travel and tours and information technology.

For the six-month period which ended in June 2000, Grace Kennedy reported revenues of Jamaica $7 billion, $48 million more than for the previous six-month period.

Of late, the parent company which is expected to be listed on the NSADAQ stock market by 2002, has also been shedding a number of loss-making subsidiaries while seeking new areas of investment.

According to Mackie, market research in Jamaica showed that even after eight years of no representation the Nissan brand was still strong and recognisable in critical segments of the market.

Expectations are that the new venture would do well since the market is a sizeable one and the two partners, the Goddards Group and Grace Kennedy, have a long history of performance and successful track records.