Dole Food Co

Dole Food Co. is the world's largest producer of fruits and vegetables, and 1998 has been a stark reminder to Dole and its investors that the world is full of surprises. First it was El Nino, whose heavy rains led to excess world banana production in the spring. That drove down prices, eroded the first-quarter profit of Dole--the leader in banana production--and sent its stock tumbling.

Dole Food Co. could surely make a case that its dismal performance of late, in which its stock has dropped more than 35% in the last quarter, is the result of some circumstances beyond its control. Dole is the world's largest producer of fresh fruits and vegetables, with $4.4 billion in 1998 revenue.

Dole Food Co., the nation's largest fresh-fruit and vegetable producer, said Tuesday that it has hired Goldman Sachs & Co. to explore options, including a possible sale, to help boost its sagging share price. The Westlake Village-based global food giant has seen its bottom line suffer as a result of a European quota on bananas that caused a price-depressing worldwide glut.

Dole Food Co. in Thousand Oaks has declared its regular quarterly dividend of 10 cents per share. The dividend is payable June 11 to shareholders of record May 21. Dole, with 1997 revenues of $4.3 billion, is the world's largest producer and marketer of fresh fruit and vegetables and also markets packaged foods.

Dole Food Co., a giant food production and real estate concern that recently relocated from Los Angeles to Westlake Village, reported a sharp drop in third-quarter earnings due to lower prices and increased costs at its banana operations. Dole's profit for the quarter ended Oct. 5 was $25.8 million, down 41% from $44 million in the year-earlier quarter. Revenues edged up 2% to $898.3 million from $879 million.

Castle & Cooke Inc., a Los Angeles-based food and real estate company, will not be able to spin off its Dole Food Co. on schedule because of a delay in government approval and a tightening of credit in the real estate market, company officials said Tuesday. The company's directors decided that current credit conditions would make it difficult for Castle & Cooke's development operations to obtain bank financing if the separation occurred on schedule by the end of June.

Dole Food Co. Inc., based in Westlake Village, has purchased 35% of Jamaica Fruit Distributors Ltd., a leading fruit distribution company in the United Kingdom with 1993 sales of $225 million. The acquisition is part of Dole's effort to boost its fruit business overseas. The company said that with the addition of Jamaica Producers, Dole and its affiliates' sales in Europe will exceed $1 billion. Dole Food, with 1993 revenues of $3.

Dole Food Co. plans to build a 525,000-square-foot corporate headquarters in Westlake Village by the end of 1995, a project hailed by city officials as a welcome addition to the city's growing business center. Construction of the $88-million business complex at Lindero Canyon Road west of Valley Oaks Memorial Park is expected to begin later this summer, with the first three buildings scheduled for completion by December, 1995, said Westlake Village Planning Director Bob Theobald.

In the eyes of Swedish documentary filmmaker Fredrik Gertten, his documentary "Bananas!" is a balanced, nuanced depiction of a trial pitting Nicaraguan banana plantation workers and a prominent L.A. attorney against a powerful multinational agribusiness. "It is a classical David-Goliath story," the director said in a phone interview last week. In the eyes of Dole Food Co.