Indoor farming company AeroFarms, which earlier this week said that it would close its Pittsylvania County facility and lay off all 173 employees, on Friday reversed course and now says the plant will remain open.
AeroFarms, located in an industrial park that is jointly owned by the city of Danville and Pittsylvania County, will stay open, the release said — although it didn’t say whether all employees will keep their jobs.
The New Jersey-based company had announced its closure in a letter to Danville’s mayor and in a letter to the Virginia Department of Workforce Development and Advancement earlier this week. It cited a loss of funding from the company’s largest investor, which had had an “unannounced restructuring and change in priorities.”
“Since then, the company’s circumstances have evolved rapidly,” the Friday news release says. “An existing stakeholder has agreed to provide funding to AeroFarms, enabling the company to continue operations and explore strategic alternatives.”
The release doesn’t provide much more information, other than saying that the company is “committed to its mission” of growing leafy and microgreens indoors. As of Friday afternoon, a spokesperson had not responded to a question asking whether all employees will keep their jobs.
When AeroFarms opened in Pittsylvania in 2022, it was the world’s largest indoor farming operation, representing a $42 million investment.
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 greens, 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. The company continued to produce its greens, which sold at retail locations like Walmart, Harris Teeter and Whole Foods.
The Tuesday announcement about its closure came as a surprise to Danville and Pittsylvania, and to its employees, who were not given the 60-day notice of termination that is often required, said Danville City Manager Ken Larking.
The letter to the state was written to comply with the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, which requires employers to give advance notice of mass layoffs.
The letter said that the company had attempted to negotiate an extension with its investor or secure funding from other current investors, new investors and financial institutions, but that it had been unsuccessful.