Dole Food Co Inc

Dole Food Co Inc was founded in Hawaii in 1851. It is a producer and marketer of fruit and vegetables, including an expanding line of value-added products. It markets packaged and frozen food. In the primary markets it serves to hold the number 1 or number 2 market share position in the key product categories, including bananas, packaged salads and packaged fruit. It provides wholesale, retail and institutional customers around the world with food products that bear the DOLE (r) trademarks. It currently sources its fresh fruits and vegetables from other countries and distributes products in more than 90 countries. It has three business segments namely fresh fruit, fresh vegetables and packaged foods. The fresh fruit segment contains several operating divisions that produce and market fresh fruit to wholesale, retail and institutional customers worldwide. The fresh vegetables segment contains two operating divisions that produce and market commodity vegetables and packaged vegetables and salads to wholesale, retail and institutional customers, mainly in North America, Europe and Asia. The packaged foods segment contains several operating divisions that produce and market packaged foods including fruit, juices and snack foods. Fresh fruit business segment has four operating divisions: bananas, European ripening and distribution, fresh pineapples and Dole Chile. It is the producer of bananas, growing and selling approximately 156 million boxes of bananas annually. Its European ripening and distribution business distributes DOLE and non-DOLE fresh produce in Europe. This business operates seven ripening and distribution centers in eight countries, predominantly in Western Europe. It sources its pineapples mainly from Dole-operated farms and independent growers in Latin America, Hawaii, the Philippines and Thailand. Fresh vegetables business segment operates through two divisions: commodity vegetables and value-added. It sources, harvests, cools, distributes and markets more than 20 different types of fresh and fresh-cut vegetables, including iceberg lettuce, red and green leaf lettuce, romaine lettuce, butter lettuce, celery, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, brussels sprouts, green onions, asparagus, snow peas and artichokes, as well as fresh strawberries. Its value-added vegetable products include packaged salads and packaged fresh-cut vegetables. Its packaged foods segment produces canned pineapple, canned pineapple juice, fruit juice concentrate, fruit in plastic cups, jars and pouches and fruit parfaits. The Company sells and distributes its fruit and vegetable products through a network of fresh produce operations in North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America. Its large, international competitors are Chiquita Brands International, Inc., Fresh Del Monte Produce, Inc. and Del Monte Foods.