press releaseNovember 17th 2021

Infarm Appoints Suzy Monford As Retail Advisor For North America

FORMER KROGER EXECUTIVE SUPPORTS THE LEADING VERTICAL FARMING COMPANY’S RETAIL EXPANSION IN NORTH AMERICA.

Seattle, USA & Berlin, Germany, November 17, 2021 Infarm, the rapidly growing urban farming company with global and North American presence, has appointed Suzy Monford as Retail Advisor to support the company’s expansion road map in the U.S. and Canada. The company has a strong presence across Canada with Sobeys and is currently available in QFC (Kroger) stores in the Seattle region in the U.S.

In her role as Retail Advisor, Suzy will support the North American Executive team in further developing go-to-market strategies for the brand with regards to grocery clients, restaurants and e-commerce. She will assist the team in creating health- and wellness campaigns to increase public awareness about Infarm’s nutritious and tasty greens. In addition, she will lend her expertise to contribute to innovation in packaging, and store merchandising. Leveraging her background in the industry, Suzy will help forge partnerships with new retail partners and with industry associations.

Suzy Monford is the former CEO of PCC Community Markets in Seattle, the largest community owned grocer in the U.S. Prior to this role, she held several executive roles in the Kroger Corporation including Group Vice President of e-commerce and Group Vice President of fresh and new markets. Suzy Monford created and implemented go-to-market strategies for new ecommerce markets across the U.S., led branding and marketing for all fresh departments as well as product development, digital merchandising and innovation growth strategies.

She holds a B.A. in economics from the University of Texas at Austin, is a Certified Holistic Health Coach under the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, and an internationally certified group exercise instructor. In 2009, she founded her own retail consultant company Food Sport International and has been advising retail and food companies in the U.S., Canada and Australia.

Infarm, the data and technology driven global vertical farming company has long term agreements with major North American retailers Kroger, Sobeys, Safeway and Thrifty Foods since 2019 and 2020 respectively. The company’s expansion plan foresees establishing 100 growing locations worldwide by 2030.

In Canada, Infarm announced extending the existing partnership with retail giant Sobeys this summer. As part of this deal, Infarm is constructing new Infarm Growing Centers - 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 Center in North America with a growing capacity of 37,000 square feet.

In combination with existing Infarm Growing Centers in Vancouver and Victoria/Vancouver Island, the agreement allows the company to increase production volume in Canada more than sevenfold. The deal came in response to the increasing demand by Sobeys, Safeway and Thrifty Food for fresh Infarm produce, and will supply more than 1000 stores in the retailer’s network alone by 2023.

In the future, consumers can expect to select from a range of new Infarm produce including tomatoes, strawberries, peppers, mushrooms, convenient cut salads and even potted plants which will be added to the current selection of herbs, salads, leafy greens and microgreens.

Over the last couple of years, Infarm grew tremendously and is currently present in 11 countries including the U.S. and Canada as well as in several markets in Europe and in Japan. Infarm harvests 1,000,000 plants monthly and growing, while using 95% less land than soil-based agriculture, 95% less water, significantly less transport and no chemical pesticides. To date as part of its operations, Infarm has saved more than 16,000,000 gallons of water and 600,000 square feet of land as it creates a new standard in agriculture.

About Infarm
Infarm was founded in Berlin in 2013 by Osnat Michaeli and the brothers Erez and Guy Galonska. Passionate to become self-sufficient and eat better, they were growing their own food, enjoying all the flavor and nutrients, without the chemical pesticides and transport kilometers. With the aim to share the goodness of self-grown produce with everyone, they developed a smart modular farming system that allows distribution of vertical farms throughout the urban environment, growing fresh produce in practically any available space and fulfilling practically any market demand. Today, with cutting edge R&D, patented technologies and a leading multi-disciplinary team, Infarm is growing a worldwide farming network helping cities become self-sufficient in their food production, while significantly improving the safety, quality, and environmental footprint of our food.

With a multinational team of more than 1,000 people globally, Infarm has partnered with more than 30 major food retailers, including Aldi Süd, Amazon Fresh, Auchan, Casino, E.Leclerc, Edeka, Empire Company Ltd (Safeway, Sobeys, ThriftyFoods), Farmdrop, Intermarché, Irma, Kaufland, Kinokuniya, Kroger, Marks & Spencer, Metro, Migros, Selfridges, Selgros, Summit and Whole Foods Market. The company is present in Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, the United States and Switzerland and has deployed more than 1,300 farms in stores and Infarm Growing Centers, saved more than 60,000,000 liters of water and 60,000 square meters of land, while harvesting 1,000,000+ plants monthly and growing.

Press contact
Janina Baldin
Senior Media Relations Manager
press@infarm.com