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Gotham Greens goes west to unlock next growth chapter: ‘The indoor environment is relatively unexplored but offers fantastic opportunities’ By Mary Ellen Shoup Using funding from its recent $87m Series D capital raise, indoor agriculture company Gotham Greens has expanded operations to Northern California – its first West Coast greenhouse location – opening a 10-acre facility, which will bring its total annual production to 40 million heads of lettuce and herbs.
Expanding to Solano, California, where the greenhouse will be co-located with the University of California-Davis (UC Davis), is a significant milestone for the company that has thus far built greenhouses in its home state of New York, Rhode Island, Maryland, Illinois, and Colorado.
Maple Leaf Foods: ‘We unequivocally believe that the investments’ in plant-protein ‘will be rewarded’ Maple Leaf Foods will continue to invest heavily in plant-based protein, including renovating and relaunching two of North America’s “best-known and most-loved” brands Lightlife and Field Roast, although the division fell far short of company targets and competition increased during the company’s fourth quarter.
During fiscal 2020, Maple Leaf’s plant protein division drove revenue up 19.5% but it failed to meet the company’s 30% target increase due mainly to pandemic-related supply chain challenges, incremental costs and commercialization restrictions that hampered new product launches and limited food service, the company revealed late last week in its fourth quarter earnings report.
Forager Project has entered the burgeoning plant-based cheese category with a new line of organic products made from a base of cashews, starch, and coconut cream and oil, which it claims delivers the “cheesiest vegan cheese with the best melt and stretch.”
The
cheeses (SRP $5.99) will be available at retailers including Fresh Thyme, Sprouts, Central Markets, and Stop & Shop in the spring, said co-founder and CEO Stephen Williamson, who launched the first
Forager Project products (HPP veg-forward cold-pressed juices), in January 2013, and has since branched out into nut milks, smoothies, cashew-based yogurts, and ‘pressed vegetable’ chips made with pulp left over from juice pressing.