Infarm partners with Sobeys Inc. through expansion deal across Canada

Infarm and Sobeys Inc. have announced an agreement to accelerate the availability and distribution of fresh produce to an additional four of Canada’s 10 provinces by 2023.

As part of the deal, Infarm will construct new Infarm Growing Centres – growth, production and distribution hubs with high-capacity vertical farms – at sites in Calgary, Halifax and Winnipeg, with Hamilton, Ontario, near Toronto planned to host the location for the largest Infarm Growing Centre in North America with a growing capacity of 37,000 ft2.

“We’re delighted with what has been an extremely positive and successful partnership with the Sobeys family of retailers,” said Erez Galonska, CEO, Infarm. “This expansion deal represents one of the largest rollouts of any vertical farming company in North America to date as we aim to offer local, high-quality produce to people everywhere.”

In combination with existing Infarm Growing Centres in Vancouver and Victoria/Vancouver Island, the agreement allows the company to increase production volume in Canada over sevenfold. The deal comes in response to the increasing demand by retailers, including Sobeys, Safeway and Thrifty Food for fresh Infarm produce, and will supply over 1000 stores in the retailer’s network alone.

“We are passionate about bringing Canadian families the best, freshest, most delicious produce every single day. The expansion of our exclusive partnership with Infarm demonstrates our commitment to delivering that in a technologically advanced and sustainable way,” said Niluka Kottegoda, Vice-President Customer Experience, Sobeys Inc. “We received overwhelmingly positive feedback from our customers and our store teams about the current Infarm product grown in our stores. We are thrilled to expand into the Infarm Growing Centres as they allow us to exponentially offer these great local products to a multitude of communities across Canada all year-round.”