Dole Food Financial Statement Analysis

Company Background

Dole Food Company, Inc. was founded in Hawaii in 1851. Currently, its executive office is in Westlake, California. Dole is the world’s leading producer and distributor of fresh fruits and vegetables. They provide nearly 200 different foods to over 100 countries. Dole’s success is largely due to a good reputation for having high quality fruits and vegetables. Dole is currently working on improving food safety even more, by increasing testing in the fields and also using radio-frequency identification to track leafy greens (in order to be able to know what to pull off the shelves if there’s any chance the goods are contaminated). Emphasizing a dedication to health among their consumers, Dole founded in the Dole Institute of Health in 2003 to educate the public on health benefits of a plant based diet. Naturally, the DIH also does research to find out more about the benefits of fresh fruits and vegetables. The company’s mission of helping others be healthy has remained constant since 1851; the only difference is that today Dole is delivering on a much wider scale in terms of their services and customer segments.

Dole's operations today are multinational, spanning 117,000 acres of farms and other holdings, including thousands of acres of farmland in Hawaii and peach orchards in California. Worldwide, the company owns more than 1 million sq. ft. of vegetable processing facilities. Its packaged food operations encompass nearly double that in square foot manufacturing space. Dole also operates the largest dedicated, refrigerated, containerized fleet in the world.

Industry Comparisons

Dole is a leading competitor in the consumer goods sector of the food industry, however the food industry is highly competitive. The nature of this industry, requires a lot of regulation from state and federal to foreign levels. This poses some pressure on Dole to abide by the regulations, which can impact their operations a great deal, or else be subject to fines....