J. D. Irving

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J.D. Irving Limited is a privately owned conglomerate company headquartered in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. Its activities include many industries: forestry, Paper products, Agriculture, food processing, transportation, shipbuilding... The company forms with Irving Oil the bulk of the Irving Group of companies, wich regroups the interests of the Irving family.

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 which, 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-1940s.

Pulp and Paper Mill owned by JDI in Saint John, N.B.

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.

From the 1960s-2000s, JDI expanded to become the largest forestry concern 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, coated paper, tissue, and corrugating medium), sawmills, a retail chain of home improvement stores (Kent Building Supplies), modular home construction, industrial construction, shipbuilding and repair, dredging, steel fabrication, food services and agri-services (Cavendish Farms and Cavendish Agri-Services), railways (New Brunswick Southern Railway), and manufacturing of personal care products including tissue, diapers and paper towels. JDI also controls the largest print media company in New Brunswick, Brunswick News.

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