Barbados Dairy Industries Limited

What it is

Barbados Dairy Industries Limited, known commercially as Pine Hill Dairy, is the only dairy processing plant in Barbados. Its principal activity is the manufacturing, processing, and distribution of dairy products, along with pasteurised fruit juices and malt drinks sold across Barbados and the wider Caribbean.

The company was founded in 1966 as a joint project between Northern Dairies of England, the New Zealand Dairy Board, a private enterprise in Barbados, and the Government of Barbados. It was incorporated under the laws of Barbados on 12 March 1964 and has been publicly listed on the Barbados Stock Exchange ever since.

Who owns it

In 1997 the company was acquired by Banks Holdings Limited (BHL), Barbados’ leading beverage conglomerate. BHL bought around 95% of the shares in Pine Hill Dairy, leaving a small free float on the BSE.

The exact free-float percentage is not published in the primary sources accessed.

Control of BHL itself then passed up a chain of global owners. In 2015, BHL’s parent was acquired by SLU Beverages, a company domiciled in St.

Lucia that is a subsidiary of Cervecería Nacional Dominicana, headquartered in the Dominican Republic; AB InBev was the ultimate parent. That changed dramatically in 2025: on 31 July 2025, KOSCAB Holdings Ltd — a Coca-Cola entity — acquired majority ownership of SLU Beverages, which had been a majority shareholder of BHL and therefore of Barbados Dairy Industries.

The deal, structured as a share purchase between AB InBev’s subsidiary Cervecería Nacional Dominicana and KOSCAB, was valued at a minimum of US$186 million; CND transferred its 61.83% of SLU on 31 July after receiving the first two payment tranches.

Who runs it

Not published: the named CEO, CFO, and individual board directors of Barbados Dairy Industries Limited are not disclosed in the primary sources accessed — the BSE’s BDI listing page, the 2024 financial statements abstract, and the BHL group website. BHL’s chairman Luis Alvarez and country manager Shafia London made the August 2025 ownership-change announcement on behalf of the group and its subsidiary Barbados Dairy Industries.

BDI’s own board composition, as required by the Barbados Companies Act, would appear in the full audited annual report filed with the BSE, which was not available as a freely accessible PDF at the time of writing.

The money, in plain words

Sales for the full year 2024 totalled US$52.29 million, a notable decrease from the US$61.25 million recorded in 2023 — a drop of roughly 14.6% (our calculation). Put differently, the company collected about BBD 104.6 million (US$52.3 million) from customers, compared with BBD 122.5 million (US$61.3 million) the year before.

The revenue fall drove an operating loss of US$3.56 million, a sharp contrast to the US$213,000 operating profit posted the previous year. The net loss for the year amounted to US$2.26 million (BBD 4.52 million (US$2 mn)), a substantial shift from the US$357,000 net profit recorded in 2023.

That gives a net loss margin of –4.3% — meaning for every dollar of sales, the company lost roughly 4.3 cents (our calculation).

Total shareholders’ equity — what owners would notionally be left with after all debts were settled — fell from US$37.43 million at end-2023 to US$34.92 million (BBD 69.84 million (US$35 mn)) at 31 December 2024. Return on equity was –6.5% (our calculation), meaning owners’ capital shrank rather than grew during the year.

Year-end cash stood at US$5.14 million (BBD 10.27 million), down from US$6.18 million at the start of the year.

What it is doing now

The company attributed the 2024 losses primarily to global supply-chain challenges in milk-powder availability and a decline in local raw-milk production caused by operational and environmental pressures at the farm level. The ownership change is the most immediate strategic development: BDI has officially joined the KOSCAB Holdings family and will come under the direction and management of KOSCAB alongside BHL, Banks Breweries, and Banks Distribution.

KOSCAB has signalled that Pine Hill — alongside Banks and other Caribbean brands — will be a core part of its regional beverage portfolio, which it intends to grow alongside Coca-Cola products. Whether the new owner injects capital to stabilise the dairy supply chain or restructures BDI’s product mix remains to be seen.

What to watch

• Raw-milk supply: Barbados has a shrinking dairy herd; BDI’s ability to source local milk cheaply is the single biggest swing factor in its cost base and margins.
• KOSCAB integration: The Coca-Cola affiliate now controls the indirect parent; how it allocates investment between brewing, bottling, and dairy will determine BDI’s capital access.
• Disclosure: The full 2024 audited annual report, once filed on the BSE, will reveal board composition, exact debt levels, and whether a dividend was maintained — none of which appeared in the financial-statement abstract available at time of writing.
• Milk-powder costs: As an island economy, BDI is exposed to global dairy commodity prices; any easing of the post-pandemic supply-chain squeeze would directly lift margins.

This is news, not investment advice.