Who Owns Fresh Express?

Fresh Express traces its origins to 1978, when Salinas Valley grower-processor Bruce Church Inc. launched a packaged salad concept under the Red Coach Foods name in Salinas, California. The product was among the first commercially successful bagged salads in the United States.

The Fresh Express name was adopted in 1987, and the brand rode the rapid growth of the packaged salad category through the late 1980s and 1990s as retailers built refrigerated produce sections. Fresh Express introduced several category staples, including preservative-free washing processes and the first national bagged salad lines sold at mass retail.

Ownership changed hands several times. Performance Food Group, a Virginia-based foodservice distributor, acquired Fresh Express in 2001 for approximately $300 million, folding it into its fresh-cut produce operations. Four years later, in June 2005, Chiquita Brands International bought the business for approximately $855 million, viewing packaged salads as a natural extension of its fresh produce distribution and retail relationships.

Under Chiquita, Fresh Express grew into one of the two largest bagged salad brands in US retail, competing with Dole's packaged salad line and with private-label programs supplied by growers such as Taylor Farms. The brand expanded from basic salad mixes into chopped kits, salad toppings, organic lines, and snack-size fresh offerings.

In January 2023, Fresh Express announced an agreement to acquire Dole's Fresh Vegetables Division for approximately $293 million. The deal was designed to combine two of the largest players in packaged salads and whole fresh vegetables, adding Dole's processing plants and roughly 3,000 employees to Fresh Express. The transaction drew antitrust scrutiny because of the combined share in packaged salads. In December 2024, Fresh Express completed the acquisition of McEntire Produce, a South Carolina-based fresh-cut processor serving retail and foodservice customers.