© Photo credit | Springworks Farm

Springworks Farm, the largest and first certified organic aquaponic farming operation in New England (and the subject of Produce Grower's August 2021 cover story), today announced that it is now the exclusive provider of whole head romaine lettuce to Hannaford Supermarkets in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts.

In contrast to lettuce grown in California, Arizona, and Mexico that spends up to six days in a truck, Springworks Farm’s certified organic lettuce travels just 34 miles from its aquaponic greenhouse facilities in Lisbon to Hannaford’s distribution center in South Portland. The savings of nearly 3,500 food miles means greater sustainability for the environment and a higher quality product for Hannaford consumers.

“Because our romaine lettuce arrives on Hannaford’s shelves in hours instead of days, consumers are getting a product that’s fresher and more nutritious,” Springworks Farm founder and president Trevor Kenkel explained. “Best of all, it’s certified organic.”

Springworks Farm is already Hannaford’s exclusive supplier of certified organic Green Leaf lettuce. The company also supplies all 184 Hannaford stores with Baby Romaine lettuce and Boston Bibb, plus an assortment of pre-cut products in select stores, including Single Cut Romaine, Single Cut Boston Bibb, and Salad Mix. Pre-cut products offer consumers greater convenience by eliminating prep work, in addition to their sustainability, taste, and nutrient benefits.

“By partnering with local farms like Springworks, Hannaford is doing the right thing for Maine’s economy and its residents,” Hannaford Produce Category Manager Mark Jewell said. “When we order from Springworks, we eliminate thousands of food miles while contributing to our company’s sustainability goals and supporting a local business. It’s a win for our company, but more importantly, it’s a win for our consumers who are getting a fresher, tastier, and certified organic product.”

This announcement comes three months after Springworks Farm opened its third 40,000 square foot greenhouse. In addition to delivering the necessary growing capacity for whole head romaine that is available exclusively at Hannaford, Greenhouse 3 is enabling the company to test new products and increase overall production.

“This launch comes at a particularly exciting time for Springworks Farm,” Vice President Sierra Kenkel said. “Three weeks ago, Trevor was one of seven business leaders recognized by Maine Biz on their Next List and two weeks ago, our company received the People’s United Bank Innovation & Technology Award from the Institute for Family-Owned Business. We’re extremely grateful for these honors and more motivated than ever to change the way lettuce is grown.”

Spring Born, a 2.5-acre organic greenhouse in Colorado, announced in a press release that it has added Danielle Davis as its new director of marketing and sales and Josh Budka as its new head grower. 

Davis, per the release,” is a food systems, marketing, and sales expert with more than a decade of experience within fresh produce, meat, and seafood” with experience at other CEA operations. Ludka, on the other hand, graduated Purdue University with a Horticulture Science degree and worked at various indoor farming operations and conducted research for universities and governmental agencies.

Spring Born’s initial retail and foodservice offerings are grown in organic peat (unique in the CEA industry) using 90% less water than large-scale outdoor farms. It is a fully automated and USDA-certified organic indoor farm in the Intermountain West and is wholly owned and operated by Charles Barr. It is not yet officially growing product in the greenhouse.

In a press release, indoor ag company Local Bounti announced a series of updates. 

Per the company’s announcement, Local Bounti has expanded its retail presence by beginning to work with Albertsons, one of the country’s largest grocery chains. The grower’s products will be sold in 84 stores in Utah, Idaho, Montana, Colorado and Oregon. That means the company has its products at over 500 retail locations. 

Additionally, Local Bounti announced that it has built out its main facility in Hamilton, Montana ahead of schedule. The company also acquired 20 acres of land near the location for a planned, but yet to be built, research and development facility. In the release, Local Bounti that is under contract for a facility in Nevada and that two other planned locations - one in Colorado, one in Pasco, Washington - are on track to be completed. 

2021, per the release, also saw the company release its spring mix, bringing its SKU number to eight. There are plans to add spinach, arugula and other products to the mix in the first half of 2022. 

Lastly, the company announced that it and partner Leo Holdings III is “pleased with the solid execution and significant progress achieved by Local Bounti since announcing the business combination and are thankful for the support of investors interested in the continued growth of Local Bounti. Both parties expect the planned business combination to close in the fourth quarter of 2021 to take Local Bounti public.” 

"We are exceptionally pleased with our execution on multiple fronts in rapidly building our business toward fast facility and revenue scale up," said Craig Hurlbert, co-CEO of Local Bounti. "I'm proud of our Local Bounti team in making this happen and it illustrates the strength in our business model and strategy, along with demonstrating the growing appetite our retailer and consumer customers have for longer lasting, sustainably grown fresh produce. Successful completion of these initiatives further paves the way toward our plans to have the best unit economics and growth trajectory of any company in the CEA space.  We also continued the forward progress with our planned business combination with Leo so we can continue our mission as a publicly traded company.”