Dole plc Announces Sale of its Fresh Vegetables Division to Fresh Express

Dole plc (NYSE: DOLE) (“Dole” or the “Group”) has today announced that certain of its subsidiaries have entered into a definitive agreement to sell Dole’s Fresh Vegetables Division to an affiliate of Fresh Express Incorporated (“Fresh Express”), a wholly owned subsidiary of Chiquita Holdings Limited (“Chiquita Holdings”), for gross proceeds of approximately $293 million in cash, subject to certain adjustments.

The Fresh Vegetables Division comprises operations related to the processing and sale of whole produce such as iceberg, romaine, leaf lettuces, cauliflower, broccoli, celery, asparagus, artichokes, green onions, sprouts, radishes, and cabbage, as well as salads and meal kits. In the financial year ended December 31, 2021, the Fresh Vegetables Division reported revenue of $1.28 billion. The business has agricultural operations and four processing plants across the United States and employs more than 3,000 people.

The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and the parties expect that the transaction will close after approval is obtained, subject to customary closing conditions.

Net proceeds from the sale are currently expected to be used primarily for debt reduction of Dole.

Commenting on the transaction, Carl McCann, Executive Chairman of Dole plc said:

“We are pleased to announce the sale of our Fresh Vegetables Division. Combining with Fresh Express will improve the offering and service to customers and consumers through increased investments in innovation, efficiencies, and food safety.

We would like to thank the dedicated employees of this business for their valuable contributions over the years.

We believe the sale of this division will strengthen our financial position and increase the Group’s focus on and investments in our core activities.”

Commenting further on the transaction, Jose Luis Cutrale Jr., Chiquita Holdings’ Chairman said:

“We are excited about the combination with Dole’s Fresh Vegetables Division.

With this transaction, we want to combine our best practises across food safety, freshness of produce, mechanisation, automation, and innovation to offer rapidly expanding choices of safer and healthier produce products to the consumer. This combination will ultimately help drive growth in the entire produce industry and support higher demand for our valued produce grower base in California, Arizona, Colorado, Florida and across the entire USA.