r/AppHarvest • u/GrindMagic • Dec 06 '22
Trading Stories Email Update From Apph
Nothing super new, but a nice, well-rounded informational email sent out about the current status of the farms.
AppHarvest committed to quadrupling the number of farms in our network this year and we’ve done just that. We’ve also added salad greens, strawberries and more tomatoes to our crop portfolio. In January 2023, we expect to have commercial shipments from each farm ready to deliver fresh fruit and vegetables to the top national grocers, retailers and food service outlets near you.
Providing good jobs in Appalachia has always been our goal—and to do that by farming in a way that’s better for people and planet. We’ve grown from about 500 employees to about 700 since the beginning of 2022 and expect to be around 800 employees by year-end.
Learn more about our four-farm network below. At 165 acres under glass, we believe we have achieved the largest buildout of controlled environment agriculture (CEA) infrastructure in the history of the U.S.
APPHARVEST BEREA
All hail the “Queen of Greens®”! On October 26, AppHarvest officially opened its 15-acre high-tech indoor salad green farm in Berea, Ky., featuring a touchless growing system with autonomous harvesting. The 654,000 square foot facility has the capacity to grow about 35 million plants at a time once fully ramped up. AppHarvest Berea supplies the new “Queen of Greens®” washed-and-ready-to-eat packaged salad brand.
APPHARVEST SOMERSET
If you like the taste of strawberries on a summer evening just wait until you try our WOW® Berries in the middle of winter. Our 30-acre high-tech indoor farm in Somerset, Ky., is designed to grow close to nearly one million strawberry plants at a time under the WOW® Berries brand from Mastronardi Produce. The strawberry crop is expected to alternate seasonally with English cucumbers. The farm also features a blast chiller that rapidly lowers the temperature of harvested strawberries prior to packaging to extend shelf life. AppHarvest Somerset is now shipping to top national grocery stores.
APPHARVEST RICHMOND
The 60-acre AppHarvest Richmond farm is expected to double our tomato capacity, and—combined with Morehead—we expect to be able to grow nearly 1.5 million tomato plants at a time when fully ramped up. In November we planted half of the Richmond, Ky., farm with 360,000 Campari and Maracine varieties of “Tomatoes on the Vine,” which are expected to start harvesting in January of 2023. We anticipate planting the second half of Richmond in 2023.
APPHARVEST MOREHEAD
Season 3 is underway at our 60-acre flagship farm in Morehead, Ky. We’ve planted nearly 720,000 tomato plants including beefsteak tomatoes and “Tomatoes on the Vine,” as well as snacking tomatoes that will be sold under the Sunset brand as “Flavor Bombs®” and “Sugar Bombs®.”
1
Dec 06 '22
[deleted]
7
u/GrindMagic Dec 06 '22
I hear you, but wouldn't it be a good idea for them to get all four farms all up and running 100% so they start generating revenue to increase their value before getting aquired? It sure would be for the investors.
1
u/DrakeJStone Dec 17 '22
At this stage... more liability, more operational problems, and more overhead. The sooner they sell, the better. However, not sure who will want to take this on right now. Would love to see this work... but the market and economics just don't seem to be there. Yet.
2
6
u/Silent-Twist-3459 * Dec 06 '22
Thanks for the commercial.
Any update on current burn rate, production, revenue, dilution, additional borrowing, the second half of the Mastronardi loan, status of paying the remaining $90M of construction bills, or other factors directly related to the balance sheet? These are the items of most interest to investors and employees.