Local Bounti names Anna Fabrega as CEO as company scales sustainable growing technologies

Local Bounti Corporation, a US indoor agriculture company combining the best aspects of vertical and greenhouse growing technologies, has announced that Anna Fabrega, former Freshly CEO and Amazon executive, will become CEO of Local Bounti on 5 June 2023. The company's current Co-CEOs and Co-Founders – Craig Hurlbert and Travis Joyner – will shift to new leadership roles as Senior Vice President of Strategy and Chief Technology Officer, respectively, and maintain their seats on the Company's Board of Directors.

Fabrega brings more than two decades of operations, consumer goods, and food production experience – and a track record of leading and scaling businesses – to Local Bounti. At Freshly, the direct-to-consumer fresh prepared food subscription service, Fabrega succeeded the company's founder as CEO. She led the rollout of new product lines to meet customer demand. Prior to Freshly, she spent nearly a decade at Amazon, most recently leading and scaling Amazon Go – the company's 'Just Walk Out' convenience stores and Amazon Kitchen, Amazon's private label fresh prepared foods operation – to dozens of locations across the USA. Before joining Amazon Go's founding team, Fabrega held leadership roles within Amazon, including overseeing the company's Sports and Outdoors ecommerce business. She has also led large-scale initiatives at Microsoft and Stripes Convenience Stores. Fabrega serves on the board of APEI, a for-profit higher education provider, and is on the board of trustees for the Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta, Georgia.

"We started Local Bounti with a vision to help solve global food shortages through a thoughtful and capital efficient approach that maximizes our unit-level economics through efficiencies driven by our Stack & Flow Technology," said Craig Hurlbert, Local Bounti Co-CEO. "With Anna as our new CEO, we are poised to expand our reach as we execute on our growth strategy."

"We are thrilled for Anna to join Local Bounti as our new CEO," added Travis Joyner, Local Bounti Co-CEO. "Her depth in the retail sector and direct experience scaling up operations is a perfect fit for our business," . "Anna has a keen understanding of how to execute in this operation's intensive and technologically complex environment, and we look forward to taking Local Bounti's product offering to the next level."

"I grew up in agriculture – my dad still runs a farm in Panama where he grows teak and coffee – and I believe food should be as local and sustainable as possible," Fabrega said. "Local Bounti represents the most innovative and promising approach to getting customers fresh, high-quality, flavorful food from our farms to store shelves. Craig and Travis have created a best-in-class model for sustainable agriculture. I see a huge opportunity for Local Bounti to expand its customer base and enhance penetration by offering more products in more locations – and do so in a way that's better for the planet."

Hurlbert and Joyner co-founded Local Bounti in 2018 in Hamilton, Montana. Local Bounti uses its patent pending Stack & Flow Technology to grow healthy food in an environmentally sustainable manner that increases harvest efficiency, limits water usage, relies on minimal pesticides, and reduces the carbon footprint of the production and distribution process. Local Bounti's indoor farming methods are better for the planet, using 90% less land and 90% less water than conventional farming methods.

The US market for fruit and vegetables has an estimated total addressable market of US$75 billion by 2025, according to a report published by S2G Ventures. Today, Local Bounti distributes food to more than 10,000 retail locations across 35 US states and Canadian provinces with nationally-recognized retailers. And Local Bounti is growing, with the current expansion of its Georgia facility and additional facilities under construction in Texas and Washington. The company produces more than 25 stock keeping units (SKUs), with a focus on lettuce, packaged salad, and cress; and it plans to expand into more SKUs and geographies.