Dole plc Dole is a global leader in fresh fruits and vegetables.
The company offers over 300 products that are grown and sourced, both locally and globally, from over 100 countries worldwide. With operations in 30 countries, these products are distributed and marketed in over 85 countries, across retail, wholesale and foodservice channels, under the company’s business-to-business and business-to-consumer brands, the most notable being the company’s iconic DOLE brand. The company’s most signific...
Dole plc Dole is a global leader in fresh fruits and vegetables.
The company offers over 300 products that are grown and sourced, both locally and globally, from over 100 countries worldwide. With operations in 30 countries, these products are distributed and marketed in over 85 countries, across retail, wholesale and foodservice channels, under the company’s business-to-business and business-to-consumer brands, the most notable being the company’s iconic DOLE brand. The company’s most significant products hold leading positions in their respective product categories and market territories, and the company is one of the world’s largest producers and distributors of fresh bananas and pineapples, one of the largest global exporters of grapes and have a strong presence in growing categories, such as berries, avocados and organic produce.
The company’s vertically-integrated business model is supported by a valuable and extensive infrastructure and asset base, including approximately 110,000 acres of farms and other land holdings around the world. In addition, the company owns a fleet of refrigerated container carriers and pallet-friendly conventional refrigerated ships; and has an extensive portfolio of various business facilities, including packing houses, manufacturing plants and cold storage and distribution facilities. In addition to the company’s owned asset base, the company has developed long-standing relationships with independent growers across the globe, including international partnerships, joint ventures and other investments, which provide the company additional operational flexibility and extended range and availability throughout the year.
The company is an enthusiastic advocate of a healthy lifestyle and supporting consumers in making healthier choices by consuming more fruits and vegetables. The company is committed to continuously improving farming and supply chain practices and the way the company operates its business to make a positive impact on society and the environment through the company’s activities.
On January 30, 2023, the company entered into the Fresh Express Agreement with Fresh Express to sell the company’s Fresh Vegetables division for approximately $293.0 million in cash, subject to certain adjustments set forth in the Fresh Express Agreement. On March 27, 2024, Dole and Fresh Express agreed to terminate the Fresh Express Agreement, and Dole announced that it is in the process of pursuing alternative transactions through which it will exit the Fresh Vegetables business.
As a result of the decision to exit the business, the Fresh Vegetables division’s results are reported separately as discontinued operations.
The company is one of the global leaders in bananas and pineapples, one of the largest global exporters of grapes and are continuing to actively build on the company’s developing positions in avocados and berries.
The company’s product and service portfolio includes an extensive variety of fruits, vegetables and other produce-related items, health and consumer goods and logistics services, the most notable being the company’s commercial cargo business.
Segments and Products
For the company’s fiscal year ended December 31, 2024, accounting for the anticipated exit from the Fresh Vegetables division, which comprises substantially all of the assets and all of the liabilities of the former Fresh Vegetables reportable segment, Dole has the following three segments – Fresh Fruit, Diversified Fresh Produce – Europe, the Middle East and Africa (‘Diversified Fresh Produce – EMEA’) and Diversified Fresh Produce – Americas and the Rest of the World (‘Diversified Fresh Produce – Americas & ROW’).
Fresh Fruit. The Fresh Fruit reportable segment is a market-leading and vertically-integrated producer and distributor of multiple varieties of bananas, pineapples and plantains which are sourced from local growers or Dole-owned and leased farms, predominately located in Latin America, and sold throughout North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia. This segment also operates a commercial cargo business, which offers available capacity to transport third party cargo on company-owned vessels that are primarily used internally for transporting bananas and pineapples between Latin America, North America and Europe.
Diversified Fresh Produce – EMEA. The Diversified Fresh Produce – EMEA reportable segment includes Dole’s Irish, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, U.K., Swedish, Danish, South African, Czech, Slovakian, Polish, German and Brazilian businesses, the majority of which sell a variety of imported and local fresh fruits and vegetables through retail, wholesale, e-commerce and, in some instances, food service channels across the European marketplace. Within many territories in Europe, the company operates a partnership model with the company’s grocery retail customers, offering holistic fresh produce management solutions and, in some cases, managing entire categories within their stores.
Diversified Fresh Produce – Americas & ROW. The Diversified Fresh Produce – Americas & ROW reportable segment includes Dole’s U.S., Canadian, Mexican, Chilean, Peruvian, and Argentinian businesses, all of which market globally and locally sourced fresh produce, including avocados, kiwis, apples, berries and cherries. These businesses can vary in nature from primary production to wholesale operations, retail-orientated marketers and specialist businesses dedicated to specific lines or categories. A shared commitment to quality and a customer-centric approach to commercial relationships unite these businesses.
Principal Properties
The company has a highly diverse footprint of tangible fixed assets around the world. The company owns and leases farms, warehouses, coolers, packhouses, processing facilities, port facilities and office space, primarily focused in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and vessels calling at ports primarily in the Americas and Europe. This diversification of assets includes the additional benefit of redundancies. For example, if a particular farm is unable to produce or a particular facility is unable to process, the company is able to adjust its supply chain to procure fruit or process product at different facilities within the company’s network.
The following is a summary of the company’s primary assets as of December 31, 2024 and includes assets related to the Fresh Vegetables division that will be disposed of in conjunction with the company’s plan to exit the business.
North America
Canada
The company has four distribution facilities: two in Ontario, one in British Columbia and one in Alberta, consisting of offices, warehousing and cold storage, packing, ripening rooms and transportation brokerage services. The company also has additional regional sales and administrative offices in Ontario. All facilities are leased except for a 65,000 square foot (‘sqft’) wholesale facility in Ontario owned by one of the company’s JV partners.
The U.S.
The company owns approximately 6,601 acres of agricultural and production land across the U.S. Of the company’s owned acreage, approximately 5,014 acres is in Oahu, Hawaii, where the company produces pineapples, coffee and cacao. The company utilizes approximately 62% of its total owned acreage in Hawaii, and the rest is actively marketed for sale.
The company owns four value-added salad plants, which sit on the majority of the company’s owned acres dedicated to its Fresh Vegetables division. The four plants are located in Bessemer City, North Carolina; Yuma, Arizona; Soledad, California and Springfield, Ohio (combined 1,082,000 sqft total). The company also owns three coolers (246,000 sqft total), some small farm acreages, greenhouses and office space dedicated to the company’s Fresh Vegetables division in California. The company’s remaining owned acres in the U.S. are dedicated to the company’s avocado and berry operations.
The company also leases approximately 8,880 acres of agricultural land, all of which are dedicated to supporting the company’s fresh-packed and value-added businesses.
The company has port terminal operations in California, Texas, Mississippi, Delaware and Florida, where the company conducts its logistics and shipping operations. All operations are either leased or operated on the basis of throughput rates agreements with terminal owners and operators.
The company has two additional facilities in California dedicated to packing, warehousing and cold storage (225,000 sqft total). The largest facility is leased, while the company owns a facility in Temecula, California.
The company’s main office properties across the U.S. are all leased and consist of the company’s North American corporate and North American fruit sales office in Charlotte, North Carolina and regional main offices in California and Pennsylvania for the company’s Fresh Vegetables and Diversified Fresh Produce – Americas & ROW businesses.
South and Central America
The company has operations across South and Central America. The company owns approximately 55,649 acres in Costa Rica, primarily used for banana and pineapple production, 35,227 acres in Honduras, primarily used for banana and pineapple production, approximately 8,752 acres in Ecuador, primarily used for banana production, and approximately 4,204 acres in Guatemala with a JV partner used for banana production. The company also leases a combined 4,780 acres through wholly-owned subsidiaries and JV partners in Central America, again used for banana and pineapple production. The company operates a large number of supporting packhouses and cold storage facilities throughout the region to support the company’s tropical fruit businesses.
The company’s vessels operate out of terminals in Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras, Guatemala and Colombia. In Ecuador, the company owns and operates a port, while in the other locations, the company operates under a combination of leases and throughput rates with port operators and owners.
In Chile, the company owns approximately 2,760 acres and lease a further 3,700 acres of land dedicated to diversified produce production; in Peru, the company owns approximately 329 acres and lease approximately 250 acres of land used for diversified produce production; in Brazil, the company leases 735 acres of land used for mango and grape production; and in Mexico, the company leases 309 acres of land in connection with the company’s berry operations.
The company also operates fourteen pack houses in Chile, nine of which have cold storage facilities, one packhouse in Argentina with a cold storage facility, two packhouses in Peru, one of which is through a JV partner and two packhouses and one warehouse in Brazil to assist the company’s operations. The company’s largest facility in Chile (approximately 520,000 sqft) is located in San Fernando and is primarily used for apples and pears.
Europe - Eurozone
Ireland
The company has facilities across the Republic of Ireland, including the company’s corporate head office in Dublin and other facilities, including greenhouses, warehousing and ancillary offices spread across the country. The company’s main operating facility is the combination of two leased buildings, totaling approximately 115,000 sqft of space, and encompasses warehouses, a packhouse and offices in Swords, Co. Dublin.
Spain & Portugal
The company has 27 facilities in Spain and two in Portugal totaling almost 800,000 sqft of office, warehousing, ripening and wholesale market space. The main operations in these countries are in Madrid (approximately 118,000 sqft), Barcelona (approximately 85,000 sqft) and Alicante (approximately 47,000 sqft), where the Spanish head office is located. Three of the facilities are owned, and all remaining facilities are leased.
The Netherlands
The company operates out of a number of facilities across the Netherlands, with large warehousing (including ripening facilities) and office spaces in Bleiswijk, Poeldijk and Venlo, and smaller office and warehousing spaces in Zeewolde and Dronten. The company also operates a packing and cold storage facility with offices for berries in Helenaveen. The facilities in Poeldijk are owned and all other facilities are leased.
Other Eurozone
In France, the company operates three facilities that consist of administration offices and ripening and distribution facilities. The company operates additional ripening facilities in Stelle, Germany and Calcio and Guidonia, Italy, the largest of which is Calcio at approximately 81,000 sqft. The company also has sales and administration offices across the Eurozone, including in Calcio, Italy; Athens, Greece and Hamburg, Germany, and operate out of a small port terminal office in Antwerp, Belgium in the support of the company’s shipping operation.
Non-Eurozone
The main non-Eurozone countries the company operates in are as follows:
Sweden
The company primarily operates from owned offices and warehouses in Helsingborg, which include automated packing and sorting facilities and ripening rooms (approximately 254,000 sqft). The company operates other smaller facilities across Sweden in the company’s produce business, including production and processing plants and other ripening rooms, warehousing and office space, while for the company’s third party logistics business, the company operates a number of leased warehouses that are subleased to customers.
Denmark
The main Danish facility is an owned facility located in Køge (approximately 143,000 sqft) and consists of a warehouse, picking and packing area, office space and avocado and mango ripening facilities. There is a second owned facility in Aarhus that is approximately 50,000 sqft and used for banana ripening and cross docking.
The U.K.
Across the U.K. the company operates from 31 locations covering offices, warehousing, and packing facilities with a mixture of owned and leased facilities. The largest facilities are in Spalding (60,000 sqft owned packing and warehouse facility) and Bristol (56,000 sqft of warehouse facilities part owned and part leased within a wholesale marketplace where the company is a significant shareholder.)
The Czech Republic
The headquarters for the company’s Czech operations are based in Brno (215,000 sqft owned facility), which includes office space, warehouses, banana ripening rooms, cold storage and logistics. There are five other locations which include warehouses and leased and owned farmland, primarily used for vegetables (976 acres). The company’s Czech operating company also has a 120,000 sqft leased facility in Bratislava in Slovakia that is used for general wholesaling.
Rest of World
The company has facilities spread across the rest of the world, with some locations owned directly and others owned through the company’s JV partners and equity method investments. This includes 1,504 acres of owned and 2,855 acres of leased vineyards and orchards, as well as two warehouse and packing facilities (210,000 sqft total) in South Africa, and certain sales offices in Dubai, Australia and Hong Kong.
The company also owns a fleet of nine self-sustained refrigerated container carriers and four pallet-friendly conventional refrigerated ships with container-carrying capacity on deck. The company operates all of the vessels itself and additionally operates an additional charter vessel. The nine container vessels operate on four services from Central and South America to the eastern coast of the U.S. (two services), the U.S. gulf region and the U.S. west coast, while the four owned, pallet-friendly vessels and one charter operate a single service between Central and South America, Puerto Rico and Belgium. The company also leases or owns a fleet of 19,365 reefer containers, 1,072 dry containers, approximately 5,740 chassis and 4,881 gensets that support the company’s shipping operations.
Seasonality
In the company’s Diversified Fresh Produce – Americas & ROW reportable segment, the company typically sees the strongest results from October to May, during the peak production and selling seasons for seasonal products sourced from key growing regions, such as Chile and Peru. In the company’s Diversified Fresh Produce – EMEA reportable segment, the company typically sees its strongest performance in the second and third quarters of the fiscal year due to the company’s presence in key European markets for locally-sourced products and in production countries that are strongest in winter sourcing periods.
On the other hand, in Fresh Fruit, while production is continuous throughout the year, peak production typically occurs in the second half of the year (year ended December 2024) and peak demand typically occurs in the first half of the year due to slightly lower competition from seasonal fruits in the company’s key sales markets.
Overall, due to the relative size of the company’s external reportable segments, the company typically experiences the strongest performance in the second quarter, when Fresh Fruit and Diversified Fresh Produce – EMEA are at relative peaks and before Diversified Fresh Produce – Americas & ROW slows down for its winter months. The fourth quarter is typically the quarter with the lowest operating income, due to the relative troughs in demand and activity experienced by the Fresh Fruit and Diversified Fresh Produce – EMEA reportable segments.
Government Regulations
In the U.S., an important regulatory body related to the company’s business is the Food and Drug Administration.
Research and Development
The company’s research and development costs amounted to $8.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2024.
History
Dole plc was incorporated in Ireland in 2017.
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