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Castle & Cooke facts for kids
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| Industry | Real estate |
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| Founded | 1851 |
| Headquarters | |
Castle & Cooke, Inc. is a company based in Los Angeles, California. It was once part of the "Big Five companies" in Hawaii. These companies were very important to Hawaii's economy when it was a territory.
At one time, Castle & Cooke focused mostly on agriculture. Through mergers with the Dole Food Company, it became the world's largest producer of fruits and vegetables. In 1995, the company changed. Today, Castle & Cooke mainly works in real estate. This means they develop land for homes, shops, and other buildings.
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History of Castle & Cooke
Castle & Cooke started in 1851. It was a partnership between Samuel Northrup Castle and Amos Starr Cooke. They opened a department store that sold farm tools, sewing machines, and medicine.
Early Growth and Sugar Plantations
Joseph Ballard Atherton joined the company in 1858. He became a partner by 1865. Over the next few decades, Castle & Cooke invested a lot in Hawaii's sugar industry. They ran large sugar plantations in places like Kohala and Haiku.
Atherton became president after Cooke died in 1871 and Castle died in 1894. The company officially became a corporation then. After Atherton passed away, George Parmele Castle became president. He retired in 1916, and Edward Davies Tenney took over as chairman.
Expanding into Shipping and Fruit
In the 1910s, Castle & Cooke joined with three other Big Five companies. They invested in the Matson Navigation Company, a shipping business. Edward Davies Tenney also became president of Matson.
In 1931, Castle & Cooke bought a share of the Hawaiian Pineapple Company. This company later became known as the Dole Food Company. After Tenney's death, Alexander G. Budge became president in 1935. Castle & Cooke bought all the remaining shares of Dole in 1961.
Becoming a Giant in Produce
Between 1964 and 1968, Castle & Cooke bought the Standard Fruit Company. This added bananas and other tropical fruits to their pineapple business. In 1978, they bought Bud Antle Inc., a company that grew lettuce and celery in California. This company was later renamed Dole Fresh Vegetables in 1989.
Castle & Cooke owned Dole's large pineapple farms across Hawaii. This included a very big one on the island of Lanai. Castle & Cooke owned about 95 percent of Lanai island.
Changes and Focus on Real Estate
Over the years, Hawaii's farming industry became weaker. Castle & Cooke started to face financial problems. In 1985, the company merged with Flexi-Van Corporation, a transportation leasing company. In 1991, the combined company was renamed Dole Food Company.
In 1995, the real estate parts of Dole Food Company were separated. They became the "new" Castle & Cooke. David H. Murdock, who was Dole's CEO, bought the new Castle & Cooke. He is still the CEO of Castle & Cooke today.
In 2012, Oracle Corp. CEO Larry Ellison bought most of the island of Lanai from Castle & Cooke. He paid $300 million for it.
In 2016, a big housing project in central Oahu was approved by the Hawaii State Supreme Court. This project, called Koa Ridge, plans to build 3,500 homes. The project started construction in November 2017.