Dole plc: A Shining Light Company

By Colin Craig, MBA, CSRIC®

When you last visited your local grocery store, what fresh fruits and vegetables ended up in your cart? If you are like me, a successful grocery run might result in a fridge or pantry restocked with some familiar staples: bananas, apples, clementines, carrots, spinach, lettuce, and cucumbers (hold off on the mushrooms, please)! I’m thankful to God that He faithfully provides for my physical need for food vis-à-vis my local grocery store. However, food doesn’t just magically appear on those grocery store shelves; rather, through business, our physical needs for sustenance are met. Today, we’ll take a look at one such company – Dole plc – meeting the physical need of food for millions of people around the world.

A Global Supplier of Fresh Produce

I really enjoy a good pineapple or orange, but as far as I’m aware, my home state of Pennsylvania is not really known for growing either of these tropical fruits. Rather, chances are, those juicy fruits made their way to me via a sophisticated supply chain from a produce company, such as Dole plc. That produce in your fridge may have traveled upon one of Dole’s 13 vessels across the ocean, stopped by way of their 162 distribution and manufacturing hubs, or spent time in one of their twelve cold storage facilities.¹

Impressive, but where exactly is that fruit or vegetable coming from, you might ask? As shown in the graphic below², Dole utilizes a multi-continental sourcing model, connecting consumers with various farms throughout Central America, South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.

With over 110,000 company-owned acres of production plus a network of 3^rd party sources, Dole’s business model requires a sophisticated supply chain to get produce from the farm to your table.³ To put this in perspective, in their most recent Investor Report, Dole noted that they sell approximately 140 million boxes of bananas and approximately 30 million boxes of pineapples each year. Interestingly, Dole diversifies the sourcing of these two fruits with bananas coming from 7 countries and pineapples from 3 countries.⁴ Quite simply, it is hard to comprehend the sheer size of Dole’s operations.

Hawaiian pineapple farm

But despite the size, Dole prides itself in being “Local at Heart, Global by Nature” because of the company’s preference for integrating local growers into their supply chain when possible. Dole works “hand in glove with these growers across Europe and North America providing agronomic, technical, financial, commercial, marketing and promotional support to support farmers and placing their produce at the very heart of our product offering.”⁵ I, for one, like to know that my produce is supporting the farmers in my area when it is possible!

Demonstrating Creation Care

At Beacon Wealth Consultants, as you may recall from a prior video, we strive to invest in companies that we are proud to own – companies that we call Shining Light Companies. Included in the criteria that we look for in a Shining Light Company is a demonstration of care for God’s creation. These are companies that are managing natural resources in a way that sustains, protects, and enhances the lives of others, with business practices that are considered to be more sustainable than those of industry peers and/or are on the path to more sustainable practices. So, how does this play out for a large produce company like Dole?

While Dole has an entire page on their website devoted to sustainability, one aspect that I found particularly interesting is that even their cargo ships are becoming more environmentally friendly. Dole has 13 cargo ships, each capable of transporting an astonishing amount of produce – a single ship can transport 1 million bananas! Even though cargo ships are the most efficient transportation method per ton, Dole strives to continue making their ships more sustainable and efficient. Dole’s two newest ships – Dole Maya and Dole Aztec – use hydrodynamic efficient hulls and best-in-class main and auxiliary engines, resulting in a 52% reduction in SOx emissions (SOx, or Sulfur oxide, is emitted due to the presence of sulfur compounds in the marine fuel, and can oxidize to result in acid rain and harmful inorganic aerosol gases⁶). In addition, refrigerated containers on board have been upgraded, resulting in a reduction in energy usage, a decrease in the release of refrigerants and greenhouse gas emissions.⁷

Promoting Responsible Business Practices

In his excellent book Every Good Endeavor, pastor Tim Keller reminds us that “we are called to stand in for God here in the world, exercising stewardship over the rest of creation in his place… We share in doing these things that God has done in creation – bringing order out of chaos, creatively building a civilization out of the material of physical and human nature, caring for all that God has made.” As Christian investors, we seek to by intentionally investing in companies that are conducting business in ethical and responsible ways.

While no company is perfect, it is encouraging to see that Dole plc, one of our portfolio companies, has established publicly available goals to coalesce their business strategies around widely accepted responsible business practices. Some interesting examples include:⁸

Dole conducts supplier risk assessments to determine whether human right standards are being upheld across their supply chain.
The company established a goal to reduce water usage by 10% across all Dole-owned farms by 2030.
The company strives to help contribute to poverty reduction in households in its Latin America footprint, including countries such as Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica and Ecuador.
Dole implements health and safety training at the farm level and conducts company-wide surveys to assess employee satisfaction. Dole strives to improve satisfaction ratings over time.

Today, I am encouraged that we invest in businesses with real products, services, employees, customers, and suppliers. In other words, these businesses have a real impact on the world around them! While it can be easy to merely view these companies as tickers being traded on a stock exchange somewhere, we know there is more to the story.

My hope is that by sharing some of these Shining Light Company stories, like Dole plc, you will also be encouraged to see that your investment dollars can make a positive impact on the world. In the words of Keller, let’s continually be “exercising stewardship over the rest of creation in [God’s] place…” What an opportunity God has given us to steward His creation as His image bearers!

If you would like to learn more about our approach to stewardship and investing, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us today.

Colin Craig, MBA, CSRIC® is a Portfolio Analyst at Beacon Wealth Consultants where he serves as a member of the investment management team.

Sign up for our newsletter!

Get news, market commentaries, videos, and faith-based investing articles from Beacon Wealth Consultants in your inbox.

Citations

Blog

Dole plc: A Shining Light Company

A Global Supplier of Fresh Produce

Demonstrating Creation Care

Promoting Responsible Business Practices

Sign up for our newsletter!

Contact Info