Dole Strengthens Operating Efficiencies

Dole Fresh Vegetables, a division of Dole Food Company, forms a new long-term contract with CHEP, a pallet and container pooling company. Dole will continue to ship the majority of products on CHEP pallets from its 12 facilities in California, Arizona, North Carolina and Ohio to major supermarket retailers, club stores, foodservice distributors and wholesalers in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

 

Prior to joining the CHEP pallet program in 2006, Dole Fresh used limited-use pallets, and determined the practice to be inefficient and costly. During the past three years, the company has concluded that the CHEP solution is more cost effective and environment-friendly than alternatives.

 

"Dole takes its corporate social responsibilities very seriously and routinely deploys solutions like the CHEP pallet pool to reduce the impact our operations have on the environment. We also appreciate the supply chain benefits CHEP delivers to us and our customers," says Bruce Hungate, director of purchasing at Dole Fresh Vegetables.

 

Based on third-party Life-Cycle Inventory Analysis findings, through its use of the CHEP pooling system as opposed to limited-use whitewood pallets, Dole Fresh will reduce solid waste generation by more than 18 million pounds this year, decrease greenhouse gas emissions by 58 percent and save enough energy to power about 1,500 homes with electricity.