Boasting of operations in Anguilla, Aruba, Barbados, Bonaire, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Montserrat, Roatan, St Kitts & Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent & the Grenadines Turks & Caicos, and Bermuda, Global Directories Ltd now has a battle on its hand for the Jamaican market as RedBk Jamaica Limited was on Thursday morning officially launched to corporate Jamaica.

According to the company website (http://www.jamaicayp.com/About/) “Global Directories Ltd through its subsidiary Caribbean Publishing Company, is an international directory publisher partnering with independent telephone companies and other companies to fulfill a common need. Our trademark is to provide high-quality, accurate, feature-rich publications tailored to each local market.”

Unconfirmed reports suggest that the Jamaican directory advertising and listing market is valued at close to JA$2-2.5 billion dollars annually and Global Directors intends to hold on to this market. Citing the case of what happened to Cable and Wireless when Digicel entered the market to challenge the incumbents nearly 100 year monopoly on the telephone market in Jamaica, it is clear that Global is taking nothing for granted.

The company advertising campaign increased in intensity this week in what can only be seen as a preemptive strike at RedBk the recently launched competitor directory (see related stories on this website). On Sunday the company published 3 consecutive page full page full colour advertisements, plus a small ¼ page placement in the Sunday observer. In the Sunday gleaner the company had one full page and two ¼ page placements. This followed full page placements in the Friday regular and business papers. This is also supported by radio and television commercial on national stations.

All in all Global is hell bent on defending what has been a virtual monopoly for 50 years. Through a subsidiary Caribbean Publishing Company, Global has been publishing telephone directories in the Caribbean for over 25 years and currently maintain permanent offices in eight Caribbean countries and have sales agents in an additional six countries.

Global Directories Ltd. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Media House Limited, a publicly traded company on the Bermuda Stock Exchange and has been publishing directories for over 40 years. Currently employing over 150 people in the Caribbean and the U.S. and publish 16 directories with a distribution of over 1.6 million copies in over 30 countries. BM