HAMBURG--(BUSINESS WIRE)--This year the Dole Fresh Fruit Europe company celebrates 150 years of fruit trading in Hamburg. With numerous exciting activities, the company provides an insight into its work, its moving history, and also highlights the business location of Hamburg – the foundation stone of the company’s European business activities and still the head office of Dole Fresh Fruit Europe today.
The history of the Hamburg fruit-trading enterprise began in the year 1863, when the Hanseatic merchant Philipp Astheimer established a company for auctioning fruit and vegetables. Astheimer traded with oranges and lemons brought from Italy to Hamburg via sailing ships. Hamburg and the fruit trade – a perfect fit from the very outset.
The Hanseatic city stands for the virtues of the merchant. Here is where well-known employers from the aviation, coffee, and chemical industries concentrate their expertise. Philipp Astheimer and Dole add a further facet to the city: the fruit trade.
On the occasion of its anniversary, the company now celebrates Hamburg as a place to do business with a book that provides an insight into the inner workings of the fruit company. In Fruit Love – 150 Years of Fruit in Hamburg (limited edition of 1,500 copies), not only is the story told of a company that grew from a small trading venture to a fruit corporation, but the global production chain of this fruit trader is also explained in detail: On the banana’s own journey, the reader accompanies these fruits around the world – from the cultivation of the banana plants on Dole farms in Costa Rica and Ecuador to their transport on one of the company’s 14 container ships, to ripening of the fruits at the ripening center in Stelle, just outside of Hamburg, all the way through to the sale of the ripe fruit at Hamburg Fish Market.
The distinguishing feature of the company has also been the famous Dole sticker placed on the various fruits. For its 150th anniversary, Dole is now placing 50 million anniversary stickers on Dole bananas with a retro design. The “150 Years of Fruit in Hamburg” stickers will be found throughout all of Europe.
In celebration of the anniversary, the company has revised its corporate website at dole.de and dole.eu.
It now includes a wealth of information about its Hamburg location as well as a digital version of the anniversary book and a contest with ten trips to the Hanseatic city valued at EUR 1,000.
Dole Fresh Fruit Europe:
Dole Fresh Fruit Europe belongs to Dole Foods, one the world’s largest suppliers of fresh fruit and vegetables. Dole Europe imports a large selection of fresh fruit and vegetables from its own production and from independent producers from all over the world. Dole Europe offers dealers innovative solutions for products and services. The company focuses on three basic values: expertise, responsibility, and integrity. Further information can be obtained at: www.dole.eu
