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MacLeod Ale Brewing Co. To Abruptly Cease Operations – TheFullPint.com

(Van Nuys, CA) The Los Angeles brewing scene has been dealt an unexpected blow as valley favorite MacLeod Ale Brewing alerted their fans on Facebook that their original location in Van Nuys, CA and their brand new location in Highland Park will be halting operations once they have sold through their current inventory of beer.

This shocked many of the loyal fans of MacLeod, and it was noted that only fourteen days ago, MacLeod was advertising job openings for their new pizza venture in Highland Park. Below is a memo MacLeod has sent out to members of the Los Angeles Brewers Guild. We wish the best for the entire staff at MacLeod on their next ventures.

Hi Everyone,

Some of you have seen our posts today on Instagram. Unfortunately, today we had to lay off our entire staff and close down both locations. We will be open for beer sales only [draft and cans] in the Van Nuys taproom.

Im a direct and open person, so I just want to let you know what is going on. Very simply:

1] Were over budget in several categories2] We have too much debt due to expansion3] Sudden crash of sales [down 15% in Oct, 21% in November! Bad timing!]4] Our 2nd location opened too late and is underperforming.

Over the years Ive been able to scrounge up money here and there to keep things going, but I finally came to the end of the road and we only have enough money for one final payroll, this Friday.

We are exploring all options at this time. Perhaps theres a buyer? Maybe declare bankruptcy? Reorganize with a new team? Who knows, but were open to any and all conversations.

We also have some cool equipment for sale, more on that shortly.

Love to you all,

Jennifer

MacLeod Ale Brewing Co.14741 Calvert StreetVan Nuys, CA 91411

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Herschel Supply Co. opens first U.S. store with more on the way – Modern Retail

This week, the company is opening its first permanent U.S. store in New York Citys Flatiron District the first in a series of new locations. Herschel Supply plans to go from the current four stores all located in Canada to 12-plus stores in North America by the end of 2023. The majority of the new locations will focus on major U.S. cities, where Herschel already has a robust customer base. This phase marks the start of an ambitious physical retail expansion, as the company tries to grow its DTC business to account for a bigger portion of revenue.

Niko George, the newly-hired director of global retail at Herschel Supply, said that 80% of Herschels revenue comes from wholesale while 20% comes from its DTC website and stores. We want that to be more balanced over the next few years, George said. We already have a robust presence at major retailers across North America, but we want to create a halo effect in our biggest markets through our own stores.

George said Herschel decided to move forward with new store openings now after the companys digital direct-to-consumer sales grew in double digits over 2020 and 2021. Also overseeing this new phase of growth is CEO Jon Hoerauf, a former executive at outdoor brands The North Face and Arcteryx, who joined Herschel last year.

Previously, Herschel tested temporary pop-ups in major cities like New York and Los Angeles. According to the company, its new U.S. stores are designed to act act a destination for the brands biggest fans, offering exclusive events and programs shoppers cant find at Herschels retail partners.

Investing in brick-and-mortar will also help us share resources across our DTC channel, especially marketing and fulfillment, George added. The company plans to roll out buy online, pickup in-store in the coming year.

Some of the cities George said Herschel eventually hopes to open stores in includeChicago, Washington D.C., Boston and Seattle.

Because customers already have many other channels to buy from us, we want to differentiate these spaces through workshops, panels and other unique events, George said. He added that the retail teams strategy is to tap local artists and vendors to help make each store more localized. For instance, the new New York City store will feature an artist-in-residence program, with a dedicated gallery wall and lounge space to feature the work of these local artists.

The new Flatiron location, located at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 19th Street, features 2,500 square feet of sales floor space. George said that bags are still the brands bread and butter and will be the main focus of all stores. However, growing Herschel categories like travel accessories, luggage and apparel will also take up floor space. We just launched a workwear line that we want to highlight through our own store displays, George said.

Retail consultant Rebekah Kondrat said that this is a tricky time for brands to open standalone stores, and many are trying to take advantage of any leftover pandemic-era real estate deals. Real estate has come back up, and in some cases like big cities, lease rates are even higher than 2019 levels, Kondrat said.

The key is in utilizing the square footage as more than just a marketing play, she added. Thats where unique features, like exclusive SKUs and educational product testing, can come in handy to entice customers to visit a brands standalone store. If youre building these community hubs for customers, its important to know who theyre for and what makes them worthwhile, Kondrat said.

For Herschel, the goal of the new retail footprint is to get more customers thinking about shopping from the companys owned channels, George said. Whether its through unique seasonal campaigns, or offering product demos and expertise that customers cant get anywhere else, he said.

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Herschel Supply Co. opens first U.S. store with more on the way - Modern Retail

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‘A few of us noticed the propeller has stopped’: Air NZ flight lands with one working engine in Auckland – Stuff

Scott Hammond/Stuff

Fire and Emergency NZ responded to reports of a plane engine fire at Auckland International Airport at 1.20pm on Friday. (File photo)/

Blenheim mum Sonal Shouler was on a flight to a family wedding in Auckland with her husband and their 5-year old daughter on Friday afternoon when she noticed something was wrong.

"A few of us noticed the propeller has stopped. It happened as we were about to decend. Aanya [her daughter] and I were sitting opposite the wing, near the propeller.

"The air host quickly came to do a visual check and spoke with pilot. They quickly explained to us what was happening and glided into Auckland airport.

"It was tense, people were worried but everyone kept calm. Aanya and a few of the kids were scared so everyone kept a brave face, and the air host did a fantastic job at keeping everyone calm," Shouler said.

READ MORE:* Loud bang as Air NZ plane loses engine during flight from Wellington to Tauranga* Airforce Orion plane lands at Whenuapai air base with one engine out* Calm crew averted disaster after propeller fell off plane

Air New Zealand said the captain of Flight NZ5200 from Blenheim to Auckland on Friday afternoon observed the flare from the right-hand engine on approach into Auckland.

As standard operating procedure emergency services were alerted to be on standby as a precaution, they said.

"The landing was very smooth despite only have one engine.

"The air host was amazing. He was very calm and collected, smiled the whole time and kept everyone calm and kept the kids from getting too scared.

"He said it was the first time in 12 years he has ever experienced it," said Shouler.

The aircraft had landed safely, and all customers were disembarking.

Police have been assisting Fire and Emergency NZ with the situation.

It came after the fire light turned on in an Air Force aircraft on Thursday, and emergency services were called to Whenuapai Airport.

There was no fire and an investigation has been launched into what may have occurred.

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'A few of us noticed the propeller has stopped': Air NZ flight lands with one working engine in Auckland - Stuff

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Forrest Co. Health Department to temporarily relocate to former HPD building on Klondyke Street – HubcitySPOKES.com

Now that the Hattiesburg Police Department has vacated its temporary spot at 300 Klondyke Street for its permanent home at the Hattiesburg Public Safety Complex, the Klondyke Street building will soon have a new temporary tenant: the Forrest County Health Department.

On November 8, Hattiesburg City Council members approved a lease agreement with Forrest County officials for the use of a portion of that property for a term beginning November 1 through June 30, 2025. The department will locate there while the current health department on Old Highway 42 undergoes renovations.

It will be at least for the next 12 to 18 months, possibly 24, depending on what their renovation schedule ends up being, said Ann Jones, who serves as chief administrative officer for the City of Hattiesburg. While (the departments) permanent facility is being renovated, theyll be temporarily be located there at 300 Klondyke.

Forrest County has to complete a few minor adjustments just to the floor plan for a few exam rooms, and they should move in fairly quickly after that. I dont have an exact date, but I do know they have started making those minor renovations.

Under the agreement, Forrest County will pay the City of Hattiesburg a rate of $2,550 per month, which includes the current pro-rata cost of property insurance and utilities, such as gas and electric.

Its a fantastic location, right there in the heart of the community, Jones said. Its a space that had recently been vacated, and so it was just a hand in a glove, the way that partnership worked out.

Back in May, members of the Forrest County Board of Supervisors announced they would be enhancing the services at the health department, with the help of funds from the American Rescue Plan Act. That plan, which was instituted in 2021, is a $1.9 trillion economic stimulus bill designed to speed up the nations recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The improvements include, but will not be limited to, a drive-through vaccination center, additional exam rooms, extra space and more advanced technology.

TheForrest County Health Departmentserves some of the most underserved people in our community, as far as when it comes to health care, said David Hogan, president of the Forrest County Board of Supervisors, in a previous story. So (the board) is partnering with the state to make renovations and enhancements to our health department.

Were renovating the existing facility, adding a new facility on the front of the building, and a vaccination center in the rear of the building. (There also will be) additional parking."

The department, which is located at 5008 Old Highway 42, offers services such as pregnancy testing, immunizations for children, STD testing, birth control and the treatment of certain ailments. The improvement project is expected to cost approximately $2 million: $1 million from the Mississippi Department of Health and $1 million from Forrest Countys ARPA funds.

I think itll be a great benefit to the community, Hogan said. As I said, the Forrest County Health Department serves some of the most underserved people of our community, and to have a new facility to better serve those people will be a great enhancement.

It will benefit the health of our entire community.

Once the health department moves back into its permanent location, the Klondyke Street building will be available for other use.

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Here’s why the same 6 universities always come out on top – World Economic Forum

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The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

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Here's why the same 6 universities always come out on top - World Economic Forum

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Impacts of the US southeast wood pellet industry on local forest carbon stocks | Scientific Reports – Nature.com

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Impacts of the US southeast wood pellet industry on local forest carbon stocks | Scientific Reports - Nature.com

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$11M soap retailer plows ahead with post-Ian recovery – Business Observer

This is the first of an occasional series on lessons business leaders are learning during Hurricane Ian recovery.

The first six weeks post-Hurricane Ian have been a whirlwind of meetings, tasks, more meetings and more things to do for Naples Soap Co. founder and CEO Deanna Wallin. The one thing she hasnt had time for? To go home, she says and crawl into a ball and cry.

I dont have the luxury for negative emotions right now, says Wallin, speaking 44 days after Ian. The hurricane damaged four of the skin and hair care retailers 10 Florida locations, denting 40% of its brick-and-mortar sales for a time. Naples Soap Co. makes more than 300 bath, body and personal care products sold in its own stores and its own website, boutiques, Amazon and more. The publicly-traded company was founded in 2009.

All I can do is stay positive, Wallin adds. The people in this company are looking to me to set the tone.

Beyond buoyancy, that tone is one of steadfast resolve to have all four closed stores fully reopened by early 2023. The four damaged locations are: downtown Fort Myers; Tin City in Naples; Sanibel Island; and Fifth Avenue South in Naples. Fifth Avenue has already reopened, and Wallin hopes to reopen Tin City by Thanksgiving and Fort Myers within a few weeks. The Sanibel location was hit particularly hard, Wallin says, recalling a visit she took there, via a boat ride from a vendor, soon after Ian. At 2075 Periwinkle Way, Sanibel took on seven to nine feet of storm surge. Sludge, Wallin says, was everywhere. It took my breath away. I could hardly speak the rest of the afternoon, she says. Thats how traumatized I was.

The Sanibel location for Naples Soap Co. took on significant damage from Ian. (Courtesy photo)

The companys Fort Myers warehouse/office was also damaged, which prompted it to speed up a planned move into a new facility nearby and do it in 72 hours. The new space, on Jetport Loop just north of Southwest Florida International Airport, is 19,000-square-feet. Despite the uncertainty of closed stores, Wallin didnt let go of any staff from the 67-employee Naples Soap Co. payroll, instead shifting them to other jobs, including warehousing and inventory.

Wallin, meanwhile, has labored to make the road back more methodical than urgent three-day moves. Wallin describes it as an assess, triage and step-by-step process, down to the to-do list she created on a whiteboard. It included: mold remediation/repairs; landlord discussions; keeping sales staff engaged and employed as well as caring for their mental health/welfare; community outreach; crisis communication management; dealing with insurance adjusters; and replacing lost inventory.

Through early November, Wallin had spent between $200,000 and $300,000 on inventory and getting stores ready to open. And on those out-of-pocket costs, she says, were not done yet. She calls the process of getting insurance a hurry-up-and-wait chronic nightmare, though she has received some funds from FEMA.

One other challenge to compound the crisis is the timing, during October, which tends to be a slower month. That means Wallin has less cash on hand just as the holiday season comes into play. Thats a monster monster problem, she says. This is our biggest season.

The Naples Soap Co. location on Sanibel Island remains closed post-Ian. (Courtesy photo)

The companys third quarter earnings report, which doesnt include Octobers closed stores, showed a slight year-over-year increase: quarterly sales rose 2% over September 2021, according to the report, released Nov. 14. And sales for the first nine months of the year were $8.08 million, up 7% from $7.52 million in the first nine months of 2021. Sales from stores, excluding online, increased 12% over the same period, according to the report. The company posted $10.9 million in revenue in 2021.

Taken in total, the sales that fuel the company, Wallin realizes, will only come from being back to 100% full operations. The biggest business lesson shes learned in the process to get there, she says, is hands-down, communicate. You have to communicate with your landlord, your employees, your vendors. Even at times like this, people have to know whats going on.

Next? Be task-driven. Its all about being organized. You have to be able to delegate and hold people accountable to themselves and a deadline. Have quick meetings as often as possible, she adds, to make sure everyone is on the same page.

In the backdrop of the comeback, Count Wallin as one of the many Southwest Florida residents who say Ian was a never-have-I-ever kind of storm.

Im 53 years old and Ive never seen anything like this. I dont think my brain has fully absorbed everything, she says. Theres some days where Im just numb. But the only way out is through. There is no stopping. I love what I do, so Im just gonna keep going.

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$11M soap retailer plows ahead with post-Ian recovery - Business Observer

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Scott Gould, VP of Business Operations at Element Critical – Spiceworks News and Insights

Hybrid or remote work may have been born out of necessity, but the work model has made an indelible imprint and becomes part of the corporate culture. Scott Gould, VP of business operations at Element Critical, shares how enterprises can tackle the challenges and reap the benefits of a hybrid workforce.

According to Pew Research Center, 59% of employees work from home all or most of the time. As employees continue to assert their choice to work from home, remote work is yet another force that is concurrently pushing organizations to increase digital business transformation efforts.

Ladders CEO, Marc Cenedella, has suggested that this massive shift from office to remote work is Americas most significant societal change since the end of World War II. Whether businesses embrace the shift by going fully remote or balancing a hybrid model, the emerging extended enterprise offers an array of possibilities for employers and employees alike.

Businesses must overcome some challenges to leverage these benefits. Challenges can range from how to deliver both real-time and enriching interactions for geographically distributed employees to fostering IT security amid changing circumstances. Here are a few examples of obstacles businesses must address and the benefits they hope to achieve.

See More: Why Colocation Is the Best Bet for Reliable and Cost-Effective Data Storage

Just as remote work is expanding the workplace landscape, the IT infrastructure supporting businesses and employees has undergone concurrent transformational shifts. The former centralized computing strategy where businesses hosted their IT stack in a single location has also gone hybrid.

Since the dawn of digital business, organizations have needed a place to store data, applications, and computing. This IT infrastructure, referred to as a data center, can be housed onsite at the headquarters, in branch offices, hosted in a colocation data center, or in the cloud. In the past, many businesses were supported by a single IT compute/storage environment. Businesses now have IT resources spread across a variety of data center environments. Even companies implementing a cloud-only strategy at the onset of the pandemic are repatriating data or evolving into a hybrid cloud strategy.

Hybrid cloud strategies are defined by the simultaneous utilization of public clouds and colocation or on-premises data centers. Often, hybrid cloud strategies are pursued because they allow organizations to utilize the public clouds scalability while keeping highly sensitive data secure on a private network.

Alternatively, multi-cloud strategies are when an organization utilizes a combination of cloud providers which can be two or more public clouds, two or more private clouds (colocation or on-premises), or a combination of public, private, and edge clouds to distribute applications and services. This allows businesses to utilize the cloud services they need while leveraging the stability and durability of colocation to support foundational IT architectures.

IT leaders realize a cloud-only strategy is expensive and insufficient to meet all the needs of todays businesses. The rising tide of companies pulling workloads out of the cloud is motivated to do so for various reasons, including uptime concerns that affect brand protection, unsanctioned use of the public cloud, information security concerns, application lifecycle considerations, governance requirements, and data sovereignty.

Under a hybrid cloud solution, colocation data centers in key locations can offer the best environment to ensure high-quality connectivity between onsite/edge infrastructure and private and public clouds while addressing some of the top cloud computing challenges.

Highly connected colocation providers, with private network solutions and direct cloud connections, enable businesses to take advantage of what the cloud offers, such as speed and flexibility, while at the same time enjoying the benefits of greater uptime, resilience, control, and the additional security of the colocation data centers.

The new modern workplace requires bandwidth, security, and flexibility wherever employees and infrastructure reside. The bottom line is that building a workplace that meets employees connectivity and productivity requirements for real-time or asynchronous engagement ultimately means investing in digital technologies.

For some companies achieving these results may mean infusing native data center software & applications, including SaaS options, into their modern IT solution. Such adjustments will improve how employees work remotely, work internally, and deliver external services to the customer. Companies can also invest in tools to reduce security risks, such as adding two-factor authentication and encryption to devices, so confidential information is only available via virtual private networks and encrypted end-to-end systems.

For most companies, the bottom line is that having employees work outside the office goes beyond freeing up office space. This is just the first step toward the evolution of their IT strategy.

A remote business workforce built upon a Hybrid IT environment allows businesses to hire highly-skilled, technical leaders able to throttle their business solutions into high gear without being geographically limited to local-only staffing.

The pandemic certainly showed CIOs and IT leaders that modern business continuity requires IT departments and infrastructure built for adaptability. Emerging technology and connectivity tools can transform commerce and our lifestyles, even changing the paradigms of how and where we work. Yet they also need to be built upon increasingly connected data center architectures.

How are you ensuring that your IT infrastructure is adaptable and can support the demands of hybrid work? Share with us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

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Scott Gould, VP of Business Operations at Element Critical - Spiceworks News and Insights

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Co-Location Plays A Big Role In Hybrid Cloud, Too – The Next Platform

In the ongoing discussions about the still-evolving world of hybrid cloud, the focus tends to be on what enterprises are doing within their own on-premises datacenters and private clouds and their work with public cloud players like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.

Lost at times among this hybrid cloud talk is the growing complementary role of co-location facilities, those sites that can provide organizations with a cloud-like experience that can be less costly than a public cloud and offer strong security, high performance, and low latency. In addition, their varied locations can address local regulatory needs as well as enterprise demands as they move more of their compute and storage out to the edge to be nearer to where the data is being created.

VMware and co-location giant Equinix see an opportunity to address those needs. The two companies have been partnering since 2013 making VMware technology available in Equinix datacenters around the world. The companies have more than 3,000 joint customers, with many who are looking for ways to bring the performance and access they have in their distributed multicloud world but in an as-a-service manner, according to Zachary Smith, global head of edge infrastructure services at Equinix.

To this end, the two companies at the VMware Explore 2022 Europe show in Barcelona on Tuesday unveiled VMware Cloud on Equinix Metal, combining VMwares expansive cloud offerings and Equinix bare metal-as-a-service, one of several cloud-related announcements VMware is making at the event.

The goal here is to bring cloud-style experiences to the metro-location reach of Equinix, Smith said in a briefing with journalists and analysts. We are hearing from enterprises that they want to have access to those locations across the world with that latency-sensitive, high-performance workload but with the ease and consumptive model of VMware Cloud. Were helping to move that workload to the edge, where thousands of enterprises and service providers are connecting. This is where people can really access that mission-critical data-heavy workload in our metro locations and interconnected across to their cloud workloads, to their on-prem, and to the rest of their ecosystem partners, and to do so with an operating model that theyre very comfortable with.

The offering will preserve the single-tenant and location-specific assurance organizations are used to in their own datacenters but in a fully managed environment, he said.

Equinix, with its more than 240 highly interconnected datacenters (via the companys Platform Equinix) in 71 markets around the world, is a top player along with the likes of Digital Realty and DigitalBridge, in a global co-location market that could grow from more than $46 billion two years ago to almost $203 billion by 2030.

Its growth strategy has been fueled in part by an aggressive acquisition strategy that includes its $3.8 billion acquisition of Telecity and $3.6 billion for 24 Verizon datacenters, both in 2016. Four years later, the company bought bare-metal automation specialist Packet for $335 million, giving Equinix a path to the edge through Packets capabilities to automate single-tenant hardware.

The Packet technology and the investment Equinix has put into it over the past two-plus years was key to what Equinix and VMware are offering now, Smith said.

A DNA that Packet brought was a high amount of automation around physical infrastructure, which really unlocked this ability for us to create experience, he said. VMware Cloud has done such a great job at creating a first-class, trusted, works-everywhere experience that requires a significant amount of infrastructure substrate, at least from the way we wanted to craft this experience. That DNA and programmability around a physical datacenter has allowed us to take this step.

Expanding the partnership with Equinix made sense for VMware, a company with deep roots in the datacenter but which has aggressively been pushing out to the cloud and, more recently, the edge, with the goal of being the essential technology vendor in an increasingly distributed IT world.

In the on-prem world, customers enjoy a lot more security and data sovereignty, Narayan Bharadwaj, vice president of cloud solutions at VMware, said during the briefing. They have a lot of control and they continue to run a lot of data-intensive, latency-sensitive applications in that particular world. They also enjoy the flexibility, agility and some of the innovation that the public cloud offers. The ask from customers and many of our partners is, How do we bring this all together? How do we create that on-demand model that the public cloud really pioneered, but then build that in with the performance, data-latency sensitive and the enterprise assurance that all our customers look for?

VMware for several years has been building its cloud capabilities through such foundational offerings as vSphere, vSAN storage, NSX networking, the Aria cloud management portfolio, and its two-year-old Project Monterrey, a suite for managing virtual machines and containers in a hybrid cloud environment. It also has developed relationships with the hyperscale cloud providers, particularly AWS but also Azure and Google. The partnership with AWS has been a cornerstone of VMwares cloud ambitions and the Equinix bare metal-as-a-service deal expands what VMware can do, Bharadwaj said.

There are many use cases that customers think through for different types of applications that demands different locations and different providers and hardware types, he said. From a solution standpoint, VMware is presenting a very consistent solution that customers do enjoy today on VMware Cloud on AWS. It has its own differentiators in that model, in its choice of hardware, different locations, etc. With the Equinix relationship, it has other types of differentiation that are very, very unique. We have seen customers because its the VMware technology that allows for that going to the public cloud, coming back on-prem for some workloads [and to] co-location as well. As long as its on the VMware stack with the hardware compatibility, all of the hard engineering that we have done under the covers, we see customers adopting all kinds of distributed strategies. Its really application-driven.

The companies said the use cases for the joint VMware-Equinix service range from smart cities and video analytics to financial market trading, point-of-sale in retail, and workloads using artificial intelligence in the datacenter and at the edge. It also will help enterprises trying to find an as-a-service home for mission-critical workloads, Smith said.

They need really high-performing infrastructure connected to private networks as well as public clouds so that they can move these mission-critical data-heavy workloads into a cloud-first operating model, he said. They have network requirements. Almost everything that we see is around, How do we make better performance? How do we not backhaul as much traffic? How do we get the right data for our machine learning algorithms or for our high-intensity data apps? Bringing that compute capability and control plane of VMware Cloud to the edge allows customers to benefit from a much greater TCO and higher performance throughout their application stack.

The offering will see the VMware Cloud stack delivered as a service throughout Equinixs Business Exchange (IBX) datacenter platform and providing low-latency access to public and private clouds and IT and network providers through the private Equinix Fabric interconnection.

Enterprises will pay VMware for its cloud software-as-a-service and Equinix for the bare metal-as-a-service capacity.

All this comes amid the ongoing bid by Broadcom to buy VMware for about $61 billion, a move that VMware shareholders late last week approved, pushing the deal forward.

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Co-Location Plays A Big Role In Hybrid Cloud, Too - The Next Platform

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Square Roots teams up with UNFI to expand access to locally-grown leafy greens: ‘We have the shortest supply chain possible’ – FoodNavigator-USA.com

Scheduled to open in 2023, the new 20,000-square-foot Square Roots farm will be able to produce up to three million retail packages of salad mixes, microgreens, and herbs per year, serving retailers and consumers in the Twin Cities metro areas in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

The new farm will look similar to Square Roots other indoor farming locations throughout the Midwest, using the company's same ultra-efficient hydroponic system, which uses significantly less water and land than conventional field farms. Inside its farms, Square Roots farmers use the companys proprietary software to manage every aspect of growing, from planning production tasks to monitoring plant health.

"In essence, we'll have grow zones where the plants are growing. Inside there you have controlled climates that are optimized for the plant growth and there'll be additional infrastructure on site that provides all the additional space that you need to run a food-safe and people-safe commercial scale operation (i.e. packing rooms. cold storage, bio-security)," Square Roots CEO Tobias Peggs told FoodNavigator-USA.

"The whole thing soup-to-nuts will be monitored and operated in part with the Square Roots operating systems software that we built. The whole idea really is through a combination of that hardware and software and then workflows through which you train the farmers is that we're able to get almost manufacturing-like levels of predictability and consistency out of this farm."

The agreement with UNFI includes plans for additional farms located on-site at other select UNFI distribution centers.

With the intent of reducing the number of 'food miles' fresh produce travels to reach the end consumer, indoor farms such as Square Roots have the potential to transform the current fresh food supply chain, noted Dorn Wenninger, senior vice president of produce at UNFI.

"Every day from the time you harvest until the consumer gets it in their home you're stealing days of freshness. Our goal at UNFI is how do we give those days of freshness back to the consumer," Wenninger told FoodNavigator-USA.

Square Roots produce harvested at the UNFI distribution center will reach stores within hours from the time that it's harvested creating a shorter, stronger supply chain.

"The last 24 months have taught us that we've seen empty shelves across the grocery store and we continue to today in certain categories. The shorter one's supply chain is the better surety of supply that you have. So you couldn't get any shorter [with the Square Roots and UNFI co-located]."

However, Wenninger noted the importance of strategically locating indoor farms, such as Square Roots, to have a maximum market impact.

"It's a fine line between what is the critical mass to allow the investment vs. the demand. While it's intellectually interesting to think about growing food at your local retail store, the reality is that local retail store is just one store," said Wenninger.

Whereas, Square Roots' co-location in Prescott, Wisc., where UNFI has two large distribution centers, will service hundreds of retail stores within a few-hours drive.

"You're achieving both of the best worlds where you have close proximity but you're also able to leverage the scale in producing 52 weeks, 365 days of the year while having access to a market where you can have efficient economies of scale yet still have the freshness aspect," added Wenninger.

Wenninger also noted the larger looming environmental picture which has impacted the supply of fresh produce.

"Right now, the United States is facing shortages on certain lettuces because of weather conditions and the costs are record high. One thing about CEA is that the farms produce the same amount every day. We're not concerned about the weather, we're not concerned about trucks because we have the shortest supply chain possible," said Wenninger.

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Square Roots teams up with UNFI to expand access to locally-grown leafy greens: 'We have the shortest supply chain possible' - FoodNavigator-USA.com

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