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US: “We Are Increasing Any Kind of Digital Experience.”
As the situation around COVID-19 worsens in the USA, Freight Farms has still been able to continue its momentum in a meaningful way
As the situation around COVID-19 worsened in the USA, Freight Farms has still been able to continue its momentum in a meaningful way. With the company’s team working remotely during this crisis, demand for Freight Farms’ Greenery has continued to grow, resulting in the team exceeding its sales goals for the first and second quarter of the year. Brad McNamara, President of Freight Farms mentions: “There are a lot of people coming to us seeing the urgency of the food supply.”
The company’s customers are also responding to the crisis in various ways. Many of Freight Farms’ small business customers have been able to quickly pivot from supplying restaurants and foodservice to consumers in their communities directly via CSA, delivery, and drive-through models. CEO Rick Vanzura says that there has been a lot of discussion on how countries' food supply chains were or weren’t prepared for COVID-19. “The situation has spotlighted urgent supply chain challenges faced around the world, and we want to help provide solutions wherever we can.”
The Freight Farms Greenery cultivation area
Business past weeks
Caroline Katsiroubas, Director of Marketing & Community Relations states, “There has been an increase in consumers researching how to grow their own food that’s highlighting a heightened interest in local sourcing and the need to shorten supply chains. People are also searching for food production technology – we’ve seen a significant increase in visits to our website, as well as in inbound inquiries.” The company receives many messages of people that are interested to create a reliable source of food for their communities. “Our small business customers sell their produce directly to consumers in their local communities, as well as to local restaurants and foodservice groups.
Those who relied heavily on restaurant and foodservice sales prior to the pandemic have been nimbly pivoting their business models to reach consumers in their local communities directly through contactless CSAs, drive-through farm stands, and delivery models. And the communities have very receptive – they want access to fresh produce without having to go to the grocery store right now, they want to support local business, and they like knowing their food has been in contact with fewer people – just them and their farmers.”
At the moment Freight Farms is scheduling live videos for social media and online webinar presentations to highlight Freight Farms’ customers. There will continue to be webinars for customers to share their experience and learn new farming and business tactics. “We are increasing digital experiences for our existing farmers and those interested in learning more about our farming technology.”
The leafy green machine, succeeded by the Greenery
Freight Farms supporting farmers
McNamara: “We are working on initiatives to support our community of farmers around the globe and domestically. We’re offering free access to our IoT platform Farmhand Connect to support their remote access to their farm operations. We’re also helping to connect farmers in our network who have extra produce to nonprofit organizations seeking donations.” Freight Farms is also supporting its customers by ensuring access to its service and technical teams. “We’ve increased our customer service and engineering support,” Vanzura mentions. We also have an online platform where our farmers share tips and tricks, and we are helping facilitate that conversation, even more, to promote best practices to respond to this crisis.” “For some of them, it’s pivoting to a more B2C model and we want to help them achieve that,” Katsiroubas notes.
Freight Farms' Greenery Farmhand
Locals are helping out
Katsiroubas: “Some of our institutional customers, like schools which are of course now closed, are donating the produce they’ve been growing for the dining hall to food banks or nonprofit organizations that are lacking fresh produce. Our customers at Saint Joseph's College have been continued growing despite the COVID-19 to deliver their supply to the local elderly population in the community.” “Our customers have the power to grow food in minimal time and pivot supply to where it needs to be in the community. I am so proud of our community of farmers as they’re using our technology to do what they can to help others in this time of crisis,” McNamara notes.
A St. Joseph's student farmer
Pushing forward developments
McNamara states that the company’s resources are ramped up, for the current situation and for continued product development. “Fortunately, our supply chain is in good shape, so we are in a good position not only to support the current network, but also the new farmers coming on board in the upcoming months.” Freight Farms recently hired automation and robotics specialist Jake Felser, as the new head of engineering. “Having Jake onboard has been great. We have a dream team pushing development forward, especially from an automation perspective. We are moving forward constantly and have never been better positioned.”
Freight Farms Greenery calendula
Crispr tomatoes
“We’re always pushing forward on collaborative research, and recently worked with Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory as they explored how seed genetics and vertical farming can work together for efficiencies in food production, especially in confined environments. Our farm was used to create optimal growing conditions to unlock unique characteristics of their gene-edited tomato seeds,” McNamara states. The launch of the Greenery last year has proven to be more powerful with 70% more linear growing room in the same 320 sq. footprint as its flagship farm. “The interior flexibility of the Greenery supports efficient growth of more than 500 varieties of crops, and farmers are able to increase yield overall. With our integrated IoT platform farmhand, these farms will only continue to be more efficient.”
Freight Farms Greenery stacked crane lot
Investment
In February the company raised $15 million in their series B funding led by Ospraie Ag Science. McNamara says, “Ospraie Ag Science is a great investor and focused on agricultural and environmental sciences. It’s important for us to have our mission in line with whomever we work with on the investment side. We are using the funding to push ongoing technology development for our growing customer community.” “The partnership with Sodexo was a milestone moment for the company. By being a key player in their foodservice program, integration of our Greenery farms onto more campuses across the country will accelerate.” “It’s an important time to invest in agtech and to empower food production on a local level everywhere.”
For more information:
Freight Farms
www.freightfarms.com
Publication date: Wed 29 Apr 2020
Author: Rebekka Boekhout
© HortiDaily.com
Gordon Food Service and Square Roots to Bring Local Food to Cities Across North America
The strategic partnership will see new campuses of Square Roots’ indoor farms built on or near Gordon Food Service distribution centers and retail stores across the continent, enabling year-round growing of premium quality herbs, greens, and more, which will then be available to Gordon Food Service customers.
March 6, 2019
BROOKLYN, NY
Gordon Food Service has linked up with Square Roots, a leader in urban indoor farming, to provide customers across North America with locally-grown food. The strategic partnership will see new campuses of Square Roots’ indoor farms built on or near Gordon Food Service distribution centers and retail stores across the continent, enabling year-round growing of premium quality herbs, greens, and more, which will then be available to Gordon Food Service customers.
Rich Wolowski, CEO, Gordon Food Service
“Customers want an assortment of fresh, locally-grown food all year round,” stated Rich Wolowski, CEO of Gordon Food Service, in a recent press release. “We are on a path to do that at scale with Square Roots and are excited to be the first in the industry to offer this unique solution to our customers.”
Gordon Food Service has linked up with Square Roots, a leader in urban indoor farming, to provide customers across North America with locally-grown food
The press release noted that this partnership enables Gordon Food Service to bring a modern offering to meet growing customer demand for local food across North America. It also signifies the first significant expansionto new locations for Square Roots.
Tobias Peggs, Co-Founder and CEO, Square Roots“
This partnership means we will grow delicious, local real food at huge scale,” said Tobias Peggs, Co-Founder and CEO of Square Roots. “We’re so happy to be working with a mission-aligned partner in Gordon Food Service—leveraging technology to bring real food to a huge number of people across the country, while delivering real social impact by empowering thousands of young people to become our country’s future farmers.”
Customers can scan a QR code on packaging to trace how their food was grown and who grew it
Square Roots utilizes a high-tech farming platform with its Next-Gen Farmer Training Program to train young people to become future leaders in the food industry. In addition to this tech, the company's Transparency Timeline enables customers to trace exactly how their food was grown and who grew it, simply by scanning a QR code on its packaging. Two winning tech solutions, if you ask me!
Stick with us here at AndNowUKnow for the latest in new partnerships.
Gordon Food Service Square Roots
Distribution Gordon Food Service New Partnership Square Roots Locally-Grown Rich Wolowski Tobias Peggs
COMPANIES IN THIS STORY
Gordon Food Service
Gordon Food Service is the largest privately-held, family-managed broadline foodservice distributor in North America-and...
Key Leadership Additions at Fluence Bioengineering to Accelerate Global Growth
Austin, Texas – March 5, 2019 – To further scale its solutions and services, Fluence Bioengineering announces key hires underscoring the company’s commitment to support the global horticulture industry. These appointments of industry veterans include professionals outside of the horticulture industry, enabling Fluence to expand its portfolio and commit the company to an aggressive growth trajectory.
“Innovations pioneered by Fluence are enabling growers to produce more and virtually eliminate seasonality. These appointments ensure our solutions and support teams are immediately accessible to a global audience,” said Dave Cohen, chief executive officer, Fluence Bioengineering.
Lorrie Schultz, senior vice president of marketing. In this role, Lorrie will lead global marketing efforts across Fluence to elevate the global brand, enhance customer engagement and extend demographic reach. Lorrie was formerly senior vice president of marketing at Q2 Software where she enabled the marketing department to scale and develop their brand. She is a tech veteran from Dell, where she held numerous global marketing roles in consumer, retail, small business, enterprise and customer experience.
“I am keen on collaborating with our growers to discuss the challenges they face today, as I believe communities are built around how they source and consume food and medicine,” said Lorrie Schultz. “Our mission is to enable growers to cultivate better plants and I am deeply interested in conveying this message to the global marketplace and I am excited to be a part of this team.”
Timo Bongartz, general manager, EMEA. Timo has led the development of global horticulture strategy at OSRAM, since 2015. He will be responsible for the expansion of Fluence in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He will manage leadership as well as sales goals for each country.
Greg Hovagim, global director of controllers, dimmers, and IoT solutions. Greg brings experience encompassing work from across the commercial and defense sectors. Previously, he oversaw rapid prototype development projects as well as large-scale defense projects. At Fluence, he will manage the dimming & controls technologies for Fluence LED lighting solutions and development of innovative customer solutions.
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About Fluence Bioengineering
Fluence Bioengineering Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of OSRAM, creates the most powerful and energy-efficient LED lighting solutions for commercial crop production and research applications. Fluence is the leading LED lighting supplier in the global cannabis market and is committed to solving the looming food crisis by enabling more efficient crop production with the world’s top vertical farms and greenhouse produce growers. All Fluence lighting solutions are designed and built at the company’s
Headquarters in Austin, Texas, U.S.A., with European sales and support based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://fluence.science