[EDITOR’S NOTE: A Friday news release said that the Pittsylvania facility would remain operational, despite its announcement earlier this week.]
AeroFarms in the Danville-Pittsylvania area will close its doors Friday after the company’s largest investor pulled funding due to a restructuring, according to a Dec. 11 letter to the state.
AeroFarms, an indoor farming company that grows leafy and microgreens, will terminate all 173 positions at its Ringgold facility, located in the Cane Creek Centre, an industrial park in Pittsylvania County. According to the letter, 127 of those employees are Virginia residents.
Headquartered in New Jersey, AeroFarms opened its Ringgold location in 2022, becoming part of a larger interest in controlled-environment agriculture in the Danville-Pittsylvania region. At the time, it was the world’s largest indoor farming operation, representing a $42 million investment.
The company’s largest investor had an “unannounced restructuring and change in priorities,” says the letter to the Virginia Department of Workforce Development and Advancement, written by Carlos Nunez, AeroFarms’ vice president of human resources.
The letter was written to comply with the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, which requires employers to give advance notice of mass layoffs.
AeroFarms attempted to negotiate an extension with its investor or secure funding from other current investors, new investors and financial institutions, Nunez wrote in the WARN letter.
“Unfortunately, the companies’ efforts to obtain additional capital have failed and they have come to the conclusion that they cannot continue operations until they are able to obtain new funding from other sources,” he wrote.
Because the company’s primary investor withdrew funding unexpectedly, AeroFarms was unable to give its employees the 60-day notice of termination that is often required, the letter says.
They were notified electronically on Dec. 11, and as soon as possible via mail, that their employment would be terminated Dec. 19.
All employment terminations are expected to be permanent, the letter says. A few terminated employees may stay on to help wind down the facility’s operations, but the company has not identified those individuals yet.
The announcement, and particularly the short notice, came as a surprise and disappointment, said Danville City Manager Ken Larking.
“I’m concerned about the people impacted,” Larking said. “This is not how things should ever happen, ideally. Companies come and go, these things happen, that’s just the way the world works, but I’ve not experienced a situation where people have had this little notice.”
Larking said the 127 Virginia employees are likely residents of Danville, Pittsylvania and other nearby localities. The city and county are working to line up some resources for terminated employees, he said.
“I’ve been told that Virginia Career Works might be going on site, or is at least being connected to the employees to see if they can help them get connected to other opportunities,” Larking said.
The approximately 140,000-square-foot facility in Pittsylvania was the company’s second commercial indoor farm, with the first in Ithaca, New York.
The Virginia operation distributed its leafy greens and microgreens, grown entirely indoors, primarily to the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast region.
In June 2023, AeroFarms filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It emerged from Chapter 11 about three months later, in September 2023.
AeroFarms continued to produce its greens, which sold at retail locations like Walmart, Harris Teeter and Whole Foods.
Larking said there was no indication that the company could be closing.
“This is all very much a surprise to me and our community,” he said.