Irving dynasty on the verge of splitting companies: Globe report

SAINT JOHN — New Brunswick’s powerful Irving family, which owns dozens of companies in Canada — including a handful of trucking fleets — may be mulling a breakup of all their assets, reports the Globe & Mail.

The newspaper, quoting sources close to the three principle owners — brothers J.K., Arthur and Jack — reports that the family is on the verge of splitting up its $6 billion business empire because of a “succession impasse” among family members.

For starters, the oil-energy business, managed by Arthur and his sons, would break away from the forestry division, run by J.K. and his children.

Irving’s Sunbury fleet has been at the forefront
of long combination vehicle testing in Atlantic Canada.

At a presentation yesterday in Toronto, where the family was inducted into the Canadian Business Hall of Fame, J. K. Irving confirmed to the Globe that the structure of the family business “is evolving.”

A source told the newspaper that the family began moving toward a business breakup a few years ago, when tensions began to mount over succession and strategic planning. “Unscrambling the eggs is very complicated,” the source commented.

The Irvings’ business interests include Irving oil, forestry companies, retail, newspapers, and trucking carriers. Transport firms under the corporate family umbrella include Midland Transport, Sunbury Transport, RST Industries, and JDI Logistics. NB Southern Railway and some marine shipping companies are also owned by the Irving Group.

On the trucking side, Irving’s transport providers are some of the most pioneering in the country. Sunbury, for example, has been at the forefront of testing long combination vehicles (LCVs) in the Atlantic Provinces, while RST has been championing fuel-saving, new generation, wide-base single tires for years.

Meanwhile, joining the three Irving brothers in the Canadian Business Hall of Fame, was the late John (Bud) McCaig, founder of Alberta-based bulk transport giant Trimac, one of Canada’s top five largest for-hire trucking companies.