Total Produce completes sale of Nordic salad business

Fruit and veg company has sold Saba Fresh Cuts to an Oslo-headquartered company

Total Produce chairman Carl McCann. Photograph: Alan Betson
Total Produce chairman Carl McCann. Photograph: Alan Betson

Irish fruit and veg producer Total Produce sold two production facilities, it said on Tuesday – a condition of its purchase of a 45 per cent stake in US-based Dole Foods.

Total Produce, completed the sale of its Nordic salad business to Bama International, a subsidiary of Norway's largest distributor of fruit and veg, Bama Gruppen.

The two facilities in question – one of which was in Helsingborg, Sweden, and the other in Espoo, Finland – specialised in washed and ready-to-eat salads.

The sale of Saba Fresh Cuts AB was a condition of the European Commission's approval of Total Produce's acquisition of a stake in Dole, which closed in July 2018.

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The purchase of the stake in Dole cost the Irish company $300 million (€262 million). Total Produce is expected to exercise its right to purchase all the shares in US-based Dole Food Company within five years.

Peter Hamilton

Peter Hamilton

Peter Hamilton is a contributor to The Irish Times specialising in business