The central Appalachian agri-tech company AppHarvest is looking at some changes. Just before the end of last year the company announced they had sold their indoor farm facility in Berea. It was sold to their partner company Mastronardi which is based in Canada. AppHarvest has leased back the facility and will continue growing various types of greens.
Travis Parman is the chief communications officer for AppHarvest, he explained why the company made this move.
“You can think of this in terms of, if you paid cash for your house then took out a mortgage on it to free up some additional operating cash to continue to do more development. That is essentially what we did. It is unusual for a business in our stage to sit on that much cash in an asset necessarily.”
Earlier this week AppHarvest announced that board member and indoor farming veteran Tony Martin will take over the role of Chief Operating Officer for the company.
Parman said Martin was previously with Windset Farms and brings a lot of experience to the central Appalachian company.
“and Tony while he was there, oversaw significant revenue growth and significant investment in expanding their operations. So, we’re fortunate to be able draw talent that has so much controlled environment agriculture specific experience.”
AppHarvest currently operates its 60-acre flagship farm in Morehead producing tomatoes, a 15-acre indoor farm for salad greens in Berea, a 30-acre farm for strawberries and cucumbers in Somerset, and a 60-acre farm in Richmond, that also grows tomatoes.
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