US (PA): BrightFarms to upgrade Bucks County greenhouse
The 56,000 square foot facility supplies fresh produce to BrightFarms’ retail partners: McCaffrey’s Market and the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company.
In its efforts to provide the highest quality produce to its customers, BrightFarms is committed to constant innovation and improvement. Having identified a region in Italy where farmers uniquely grow world-class baby greens, the BrightFarms team decided to bring back the region’s proven technologies and methods.
With this upgrade, BrightFarms is installing state-of-the-art growing systems and harvesting equipment. The objective of this upgrade is to more efficiently grow baby greens of superior quality. The new growing systems will improve quality by reducing handling and streamlining harvesting and post-harvesting. It will also allow BrightFarms to meet increasing demand by planting more densely in the same structure. In line with BrightFarms’ environmental mission, the system will also reduce water consumption.
“The new system will improve the quality and consistency of our growing operations,” said Paul Lightfoot, BrightFarms’ CEO. “It was a difficult decision to interrupt our year-round production schedule, but we look forward to delivering an even better product to our customers.”
“Sourcing great tasting and local produce from BrightFarms has been a great experience for our customers” stated Jim McCaffrey, owner and CEO of McCaffreys Market. “We eagerly look forward to selling produce from BrightFarms again after this upgrade project has been completed.”
BrightFarms expects to be back on retailer’s shelves in April 2014.