SEAGRAM TO BUY DOLE JUICE ASSETS

NEW YORK -- Seagram Co. here, owner of Tropicana Products, plans to purchase Dole Food Co.'s worldwide juice business, Dole and Seagram announced.

ole will license the Dole brand name to Tropicana. Seagram will also acquire manufacturing facilities in the United States and Europe and interests in joint ventures in Japan and China. The purchase price is $285 million.

Dole's canned pineapple juice business is not included in the deal. However, the agreement does include a long-term supply contract for pineapple juice concentrate for the blended pineapple juice beverages being acquired.

Tropicana Products, one of the largest juice and juice beverage businesses in the world and the leading producer and marketer of ready-to-serve orange juice in the United States, has annual global sales of $1.5 billion. Dole has annual sales of about $320 million. In the United States, Dole markets juices under the Dole, Juice Bowl and Looza trademarks; in Europe, under the Fruvita, Dole, Juice Bowl and Looza brand names, and in Asia under Dole fruit juices.

"Seagram is committed to the global fruit juice business," said Edgar Bronfman Jr., Seagram's president and chief executive officer, in a statement. "This acquisition, when combined with our expanding Tropicana business, will broaden our participation in this growing category."

Ellen Marram, president of Seagram Beverage Group, a unit of Seagram, said, "Tropicana is a very strong fruit juice brand in many countries. The Dole juice business will help us diversify our portfolio by adding a major fruit brand name."

Some brands of Seagram Beverage Group include: Tropicana Pure Premium Original Orange Juice, Tropicana Pure Premium Grovestand Orange Juice, Tropicana Pure Premium Grapefruit Juice, Season's Best, Tropicana Twister and other fruit juices and beverages, Seagram's Coolers, Seagram's Seltzers and Seagram's Mixers.

The transaction, which is pending review by government antitrust officials, is expected to be completed during the first quarter of this year.

"Seagram's and Tropicana's extensive distribution network make them the ideal partners to increase the worldwide presence of the Dole brand name," said David H. Murdock, Dole's chairman and chief executive officer. "The sale of Dole's juice business to Seagram will create an outstanding opportunity for our companies."