Hold up, one of the biggest suppliers of food on the planet Earth has filed for an initial public offering on the US markets. It’s Dole plc, the combination of two food giants – America’s Dole Food Company and Ireland’s Total Produce.

• Dole Food and Total Produce announced plans to merge this February and said an IPO on the US markets was a condition of the merger. Now, it’s fulfilling that condition by filing to list on the New York Stock Exchange, whereas the merger will be completed later this month before the listing of the combined company.

• Together, Dole Food and Total Produce “Dole plc” represent a global food giant with sales of $9bn and gross profits of around $700mn last year. Judging by those figures, that’s a solid business prepared to hit the public markets.

• Dole Food on its own tried going public in 2017 and had already filed an S-1 before calling off the public listing a year later. It called it off after acquisition talks with a Belgian company fell apart.

• Interestingly, Dole traces its history to the 18th century when two missionaries set up a food company in Hawaii. That company was embedded in the history of Hawaii with connections to its ruling kingdom before the region became annexed to the US.

• Now, merging with Ireland’s Total Produce, the combined Dole plc will be the world’s largest food produce company, especially with bananas which the name Dole has been famous for. In fact, bananas alone make up 27% of the combined Dole plc’s products, while other fruits comprise 45% and fresh vegetables the remaining 28%.

• While the combined Dole is already enormous and stable, the company sees significant areas for growth in its berry and avocado businesses and also by expanding its fruits and vegetable business in Europe.

• Dole’s imminent listing will be a landmark one in the global food business. The combined company intends to list on the NYSE with the trading symbol “DOLE”.

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