DOLE SUNSHINE COMPANY
The digital transformation of Dole Sunshine Company ’ s indirect procurement promises a more sustainable , visible and profitable value chain
“Sustainable procurement is a priority at this moment ”
NAISSA VON PEIN DIRECTOR , GLOBAL CATEGORY INDIRECT AND PROCUREMENT EXCELLENCE , DOLE SUNSHINE COMPANY
A new era is dawning at Dole Sunshine Company , a world-leading food and beverage company on a bold mission , representing the global interests and combined efforts of Dole Asia Holdings , Dole Food & Beverage Group and Dole Fresh Produce . The company ’ s extraordinary history of quality and innovation stretches back to 1899 , when James Dole , a newly minted Harvard graduate with a fascination for agriculture , began growing pineapples in Hawaii . In 2012 Dole Asia Holdings was established , as Itochu acquired the Dole global packaged foods and Asian fresh produce business .
Flash forward more than 120 years and Dole remains a byword for pineapples , bananas , and packaged fruit products , and retains a high reputation for freshness and quality . From the perspective of a company as old as Dole , the world is changing rapidly , but Dole is up to the challenge to catch up by focusing on developing formal standard procurement and sourcing processes , while driving digitalisation . In June 2020 , Naissa von Pein joined the company to spearhead a programme dedicated to those objectives . The Global Director for Indirect Categories and Procurement Excellence is leading a fundamental overhaul of indirect sourcing practices , while building Dole ’ s procurement centre of excellence , tasks which she says are “ quite different in their scope of work , but complementary due to the nature of indirects being very fragmented and locally managed . Fragmentation of information being the greatest challenge to a strategic procurement approach .”
“ We are going through a period of evolution at Dole , which is a company that in the past has been traditional with a decentralised structure and limited visibility
50 October 2021