South Carolina Foodservice Distributor Launches Vertical Farm
Columbia, S.C.-based Senn Brothers Produce recently launched its own vertical farming operation and introduced its indoor-grown private-label brand, Sennsational Fresh.
As the first wholesale produce distributor to operate a vertical farm, Senn Brothers has been in business 79 years and serves over 800 restaurants, school districts, military bases, and prisons across the Southeastern region, according to a news release.
The vertical farm creates more value add for its foodservice network and increases indoor-grown produce availability for end consumers, the release said.
“We’re forging a new way of how distributors can supply produce to their buyer networks,” Zach Senn, company manager, said in the release. “At Senn Brothers, we strive for diversity in what we offer and to provide consistency and value for our customers. The benefits of vertical farming allow us to control our supply and meet our food quality, food safety and distribution standards.
While the company has been sourcing indoor grown produce for the last few years, Senn said that operating its own farm gives the company the flexibility to customize products and packs for clients and deliver it quickly.
“Right now, we’re trialing new custom blends with restaurant owners,” he said.
The Sennsational Fresh product line currently features a variety of living lettuces, including green butter, green oak, red oak and red butter coming soon, grown with zero pesticides and packed with delicious flavor, nutrition and long-lasting freshness, according to the release.
The company says it has received positive feedback from its customers and distributor partner network, including Produce Alliance.
“Sennsational Fresh is a great way to truly take care of local business with local product,” Produce Alliance Vice President of Procurement Josh Blanton said in the release. “By Sennsational Fresh being centrally located in the Southeast, they are able to send fresh product quickly to their customers while having a small carbon footprint.”
To launch its vertical farm, Senn Brothers Produce partnered with agtech provider AmplifiedAg, which has a national network of farmers, nonprofits and agricultural researchers operating on its indoor farming modern container farm and software platform, the release said.
“Senn Brothers is a progressive food service leader and we’re excited to collaborate with them on an endeavor that we believe will help shape the future produce supply infrastructure,” AmplifiedAg CEO Don Taylor said in the release. “This is an exemplary achievement of how vertical farming can positively impact the supply chain by putting food production directly into the hands of distributors.”
In June 2023, AmplifiedAg assembled a four-container farm operation to launch Sennsational Fresh with consistent weekly harvests to match distribution cycles, the release said. Just 90 days after launch, Senn Brothers added three additional container farms and plans to scale continuously as the demand for their leafy greens increases and to trial new products, according to the release. The Sennsational Fresh farm is steps away from Senn Brothers’ distribution center where the lettuce is packaged and delivered to customers 24 hours after being harvested, the release said.
Each AmplifiedAg container farm has a fully automated environment with integrated hardware systems and a software platform that controls the water, temperature, air, light and other intricate environmental settings, the company says. The farm technology’s precision control produces 3,400 heads of lettuce every harvest that are consistent in quality, flavor and freshness, the release said.
The software platform also monitors food safety alerts and product distribution and manages harvest schedules and client orders that can easily integrate into Senn Brothers existing software programs for full supply chain traceability, according to the release.
“Senn Brothers now controls every aspect of their lettuce supply, and with farming directly correlated with their distribution they have a tremendous gross margin opportunity which can already be seen by their scaling capacity,” Taylor said.