BrightFarms expands with four new regional salad greenhouse hubs

BrightFarms, one of the USA's leaders in the indoor farming industry, is expanding with four new regional greenhouse hubs offering sustainably grown leafy greens to more people across the Eastern and Central USA. The new locations will begin shipping to retailers in 2024 to help fulfil increasing demand. This expansion and commitment to innovation is expected to set BrightFarms up for 10x revenue growth.

Construction is underway on the first regional hub in Yorkville, Illinois, and BrightFarms will break ground on similar facilities in Macon, Georgia and Lorena, Texas this summer, followed by another hub in the Northeast later this year. Each location is strategically positioned near a major metropolitan area, and has a combined up to 200-acre footprint with the ability to produce approximately 150 million pounds of leafy greens per year once complete. Each regional hub will also create more than 250 jobs in the agricultural sector – more than 1,000 total – at full scale.

“Today’s US salad supply chain is not sustainable, with over 95% of all leafy greens grown in two centralized, water-depleted regions on the West Coast. At BrightFarms, we’ve built a better solution,” said Steve Platt, CEO of BrightFarms. “We grow our greens where people consume them, 365 days per year. With our four new greenhouse hubs underway, we’re excited to deliver the freshest, cleanest and most responsibly grown produce to two-thirds of the USA in a way that benefits the health of our consumers and the planet, while also providing fair and equitable wages and benefits to agricultural workers who feed our country.”

To facilitate this expansion, BrightFarms is partnering with KUBO Group and Green Automation Group, leaders in greenhouse and automated growing system technologies, to build the most advanced indoor farms in the country, revolutionizing how leafy greens are grown in the USA.

KUBO’s cutting-edge Ultra-Clima technology delivers a climate control system that is stable and both efficient and sustainable, equaling higher produce yields, less variability, improved food safety and greater resource efficiency. BrightFarms also partnered with Green Automation Group on the design and implementation of its Mobile Gutter System (MGS) which will fully automate the growing and harvesting process, leading to record yields and improved food safety.

BrightFarms’ greenhouse model also puts sustainability initiatives at the forefront helping to further its commitment to the planet. By growing in a controlled automated environment, close to the point of consumption, BrightFarms’ greenhouses use less water, land and shipping fuel, and zero pesticides, compared to field-grown produce.

Cox Enterprises acquired BrightFarms in 2021. This acquisition marked the first purchase of an indoor agriculture technology company by a blue chip investor, ensuring that the brand’s rapid expansion is not just possible, but also signaling a significant shift in the growth of the CEA industry.

“Like Cox Enterprises, BrightFarms is committed to creating a better future,” added Steve Bradley, Vice President of Cleantech for Cox Enterprises. “This expansion of its greenhouses is another step towards investing and innovating controlled environment agriculture for the next generation. Cox is excited to partner in efforts to push the boundaries of possibility for indoor farming and help build a multibillion-dollar business.”