$2.2M upgrade planned at Dole packaging plant
By Sean Hao
Advertiser Staff Writer
Dole Food Company Inc. said yesterday that it will spend about $2.2 million upgrading its pineapple packing plant in Central O'ahu. The goal is to increase efficiency and the level of quality of packed pineapple, said Brian Orlopp, general manager for Dole's Hawai'i operations.
The upgrade, which involves acquiring new equipment, comes amid growth in pineapple sales in Hawai'i.
After falling 5 percent in 2001, farm-level sales of pineapple rebounded 4 percent last year to $100.6 million. The gains were a result of a greater mix of sales from higher-value fresh pineapple products.
The industry is shifting production to increasingly popular, extra-sweet pineapples. Maui Land & Pineapple Co. now is shifting all of its Hawai'i production to its new premium Hawaiian Gold variety, while Dole is shifting production to its comparable Premium Select brand.
"We've got a lot of resources here and we want to make a go of it the best we can in Hawai'i," Orlopp said.
The Dole factory upgrade will have no impact on the company's employment level, which ranges between 250 to 300 people in Hawai'i, Orlopp said.
The company's packing plant is on Kamehameha Highway, across from the Dole Plantation Store.
In addition to the Pineapple Express Train, the Pineapple Garden Maze and the Pineapple Garden Tour, the store plans to open a restaurant. The company closed its Hawai'i cannery in the early 1990s.
Dole, which generated $4.4 billion in sales last year, typically has between 3,000 and 4,000 acres of pineapple planted at any time. Earlier this year Dole was taken private by David Murdock in a $2.5 billion deal, which propelled the billionaire into position as one of Hawai'i's biggest private landowners with more than 123,000 acres in the Islands.
Reach Sean Hao at shao@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8093.
