Dole Fresh UK (DFUK) is enjoying a strong revival on a firm, well thought out platform after a period of some significant change for the large-scale supplier. The last few years of flux have been challenging for the Dartford-based company, which has continued to evolve since its roots were laid down, back in 1929.
At that time, JP Fruit was the UK marketing and sales arm for Jamaican bananas within the JP Group. In 1992, Dole Food Company Inc first became involved with the company, buying a 40 per cent stake, before taking over the organisation completely in October 2006, renaming the company JP Fresh in the process. In 2008, ownership of JP Fresh and Dole France was passed to Compagnie Fruitiere (Dole Inc holds a 40 per cent stake in the group). It was then that the subject of a name change was raised. “We had a tough internal debate,” marketing director Giles Shapley tells FPJ. “The ownership has changed, but we still see ourselves as part of that bigger group of Dole companies as we retain very strong ties. Dole is a much stronger brand in the UK than Compagnie Fruitiere, so it made sense to keep the name.”
The continual structural change at the company left it with a year of transition in 2009 as DFUK built a strong platform to go forward. A tight-knit team at the top have been able to guide the company forward, with Shapley flanked by operations director Richard Jennings, group technical manager David Alder and commercial director Tony Frankham, while logistics director Steve Chaplin is the company’s reliable ear to the ground on the banana market. The appointment of former operations director Jean-Marie Graux into the position of managing director at the end of 2009 added extra impetus to DFUK and a raft of marketing and communications have been planned for 2010.
New trade advertising has been developed alongside changes in the company’s presentation to other businesses, including new rebranded lorries, a revamped website, internal newsletters and new customised sample boxes.
Integral to the revamp has been the rebranding of the company’s image. Along with the Dole and Compagnie Fruitiere logos, a ‘fruit mountain’ has been designed to aid Dole in one of its biggest challenges - being seen as more than a banana and pineapples supplier. Frankham says: “We can sometimes be seen as just a banana and pineapple specialist, so it is now important that we build market awareness of our involvement across the fruit range - from top fruit to citrus and from grapes to kiwifruit - and effectively communicate this to create new business development opportunities.”
Structurally, Dole’s operations are well placed to strengthen its standing in the UK. Its links with Compagnie Fruitiere and the traditional colonial links between the French company and ACP countries in Africa including Ghana, Cameroon and Ivory Coast have built on Dole’s links with South America and the Caribbean. “If there is a problem in one part of the world, then we have options in other areas to ensure constant supply,” says Frankham. In the UK too, the company has several options. Its ripening centres in Bolton and Dartford are complemented by premises at Paddock Wood in Kent and a two-decade relationship with Newmafruit working in the top-fruit sector. Some 79 per cent of its business is supplied to the multiples including Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s, Marks & Spencer, The Co-operative, Waitrose and Booths. In addition, a number of other big names litter Dole’s customer list including Bakkavör, Natures Way Foods, the Wellness Group and international rival Del Monte.
Change at the top of the company has also seen a change in the way that DFUK handles its supply. Traditionally, the firm had employed a one-desk-per-product strategy, but now it prefers to structure its buying across categories. Shapley says: “We found that this was too regimented and the cross-category approach is much more effective. The supermarket industry works through category management and if you look at fast-moving consumer goods companies, they operate so that everything is very straightforward for the supermarket. This is the model we have been working on for the last 18 months to ramp up category management. It is all about delivering the customer’s needs. It is also about continuous review of business opportunities and that strategy could never work without insight and data. That includes evaluation of our suppliers’ performance and help to add value to an incredibly deflated market. Sometimes you have to put aside commercial sensitivity; ask retailers for their numbers and look at what is going right and wrong at individual stores. We will go into the best and worst stores and find out what they are doing. When supermarkets have 20,000-30,000 products, they don’t have the time to study each product individually.”
Frankham adds: “Adding value to the product and tailoring the service are very important as the parts of our service that are useful for one customer are not necessarily for another. The sources, specifications and products do not tend to differ wildly so once you get past a price differential, the area where we can make a real difference is in our people.”
The company’s involvement in the NHS’s School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme has also played an integral part in recent business. Shapley says: “It is something we are very proud of as it’s a very clear area where eating fruit and veg is promoted. Anything that can drive consumption is a good thing, especially among young people.”
This vision has been carried forward by the company’s involvement in the Fruity Friday scheme. Working to raise money for the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF), Dole has written an open letter to other fresh produce companies to become involved with the scheme, which will see thousands go to work wearing yellow, as well as a number of fruity events. Dole is in talks to code the charity’s fundraising packs to allow the WCRF to receive information on who has contributed the most to Fruity Friday across the trade, in order to award a trophy to the most active produce company.
Shapley believes that more could have been done in the past across the industry to promote healthy eating as, aside from the Eat in Colour campaign, companies have tended to focus on their own business. Teresa Nightingale, general manager at the WCRF, says of the event: “Fruity Friday is a really fun way to get the simple health message out there that eating a diet high in fruit and vegetables can help to reduce our risk of cancer.
“Putting on a fun day like Fruity Friday is a great way for retailers to boost sales of fruits and vegetables by promoting to their customers that a healthy diet with at least five portions a day could decrease their risk of cancer. We have lots of materials in our downloadable fundraising pack, from collection boxes to posters, to help make your Fruity Friday a big success.”
DFUK’s managing director Jean-Marie Graux believes that corporate social responsibility (CSR) work is more than just gold plating for the sake of appearances. Dole Europe announced a raft of environmental initiatives at Fruit Logistica in Berlin in February as it looks to reduce its carbon footprint significantly in the long term - no mean feat given driving and shipping distances from source to shelf.
Sylvain Cuperlier, Dole’s director of worldwide CSR, has been specifically assigned to deal with CSR issues from his Paris office and deals directly with NGOs in tackling the complicated issues relating to workers’ rights, strikes and labour abuse that are often discussed in the Caribbean and South American banana industries. Graux says: “We can say with confidence that there is nothing hidden. We take our customers out to see the farms and believe strongly in working with people to improve all the time.”
The developments within the company and its outward projection in the coming year are set to be intriguing. With a host of changes in its corporate image, it is an interesting time for those working for and with DFUK and doubtless businesses throughout the fresh produce trade will be keeping an eye on this company.
DOLE HITS DARTFORD BULLSEYE
DFUK’s headquarters in Dartford, Kent, are flanked by its 57,000sqft ripening centre, which sees produce arriving via its Costa Rica-to-Southampton and Jamaica-to-Portsmouth routes daily.
The centre has no less than 56 ripening rooms with 44 rooms able to take one articulated lorry’s capacity of product, while 12 larger rooms are able to hold two lorry loads. The average ripening room will be set at around 14.3°C and ethylene levels will be at five per cent, a figure that is adjusted by a centralised computer system using the latest Proba software to mimic the conditions of the tropics.
Ripening manager Steve Carr has seen a huge amount of change both in terms of sourcing and logistics in the 26 years he has worked for the various incarnations of the company. He tells FPJ: “It has been a culture change as Jamaica was very involved in the business and vice versa. We now have similar relations with West Africa - it is about communications and making it happen.
“Keeping abreast of developments in regulations and changes in the industry is very important for us. The biggest challenge in the ripening centre is the consistency of quality, which changes seasonally.
“Although all the bananas are Cavendish, they are very different in size and quality. Different sources taste differently; the higher the altitude of the growing country, the less water in the fruit and so it is harder to ripen. Fruit grown at lower altitudes tends to be bigger.”
The centre has also made considerable strides in the fields of waste management, through Guy and Wright Ltd, which uses a multi-celled anaerobic digestion system that can each hold up to 400 tonnes of organic material. This means that it can produce a continuous supply of gas without having to shut down at any time to clean out waste products. The residue from the cells is fed through three established reed beds.
DFUK production manager Mahesh Desai says: “We have very little waste here as we have guys fixing the pallets and all our organic waste is recycled.
“We invite our customers to come and visit our operations at any time without appointment. We are a 24-hour operation and our standards are our own and very high, as we have a number of different retail customers all with their own high standards.”
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