A greenhouse that represents a $100 million investment in Carroll County is bringing its first tomatoes to stores a little more than a year after the project was announced.
At Pluck’d, automated systems optimize water quality and fertilizer usage, while sensors continuously monitor the indoor growing conditions of rows upon rows of tomatoes.
The company’s pesticide-free, climate-controlled greenhouse, the first of two planned for the Southwest Virginia property, measures 32.5 acres, or about 1.4 million square feet.
“You go in it, you can’t even see the end,” the company’s Charlotte, North Carolina-based CEO Ben Alexander said in an interview, adding that the employees who work there “put in a lot of steps.”
The company chose Carroll County because of its favorable climate for the plants and their pollinators, Alexander said.
He said that the company’s processes represent a deliberate choice to prioritize quality over quantity.
“There’s this tendency for tomato suppliers to choose either yield or quality,” Alexander said. “Most people go for yield — get the numbers, get the volume. We have gone the opposite direction. We have gone for quality over anything.”’
Pluck’d tomatoes are now heading to Walmart, Weis Markets and other retailers.
The company hopes consumers will look to its quality even as inflation and tariffs have made Americans increasingly price-conscious about the cost of groceries.
Pluck’d suggests retail prices for its products of $4.99 for a 24-ounce package of “Preemos,” which consists of five or six tomatoes on the vine; $3.99 for a 12-ounce package of smaller cocktail tomatoes called “Plucculents;” and $4.99 for a 12-ounce package of snack-size “Plucklings.”
Pluck’d uses existing tomato varieties, but the company says its products are differentiated by its growing methods, quality control and some proprietary technology used to produce them.
A recent review of competitors’ prices at a Walmart store in Lynchburg showed tomatoes on the vine were $1.97 per pound, or about $2.96 for 24 ounces. NatureSweet Cherubs grape tomatoes ranged from $2.78 for a 10-ounce package to $5.98 for 24 ounces. Topline brand cocktail tomatoes were $2.98 per pound.
Alexander said the prices that Pluck’d suggests are “squarely in the ballpark” when compared to its rivals.
Pluck’d also says its domestically grown tomatoes have a longer shelf life because they get to stores faster than the imports that make up a majority of tomatoes sold in the United States.
About three-quarters of tomatoes sold in the U.S. are imported, and nearly 90% of those imports come from Mexico, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Part of the marketing for Pluck’d is to emphasize, as its packages state, that its tomatoes are “always grown in the USA.”
“I suppose there’s often this fixation on price,” Alexander said. “But with our products, you know, it lasts a whole week, maybe even 10 days longer, once you’ve bought it. So there’s this argument to say it’s not just about price, it’s about value. You’re getting a fresher product than you can otherwise buy.”
Growing its products domestically could offer Pluck’d a competitive advantage if rising fuel costs, the recently increased minimum wage in Mexico and recently increased import taxes weigh on the price of imported tomatoes.
Pluck’d development continues in phases
In early 2025, officials announced that United Kingdom-based Oasthouse Ventures would invest more than $100 million to bring Pluck’d to Virginia, supported by $800,000 in state grants. Alexander was a senior development manager for Oasthouse.
It joined a list of indoor farming — also known as controlled environment agriculture — companies in Virginia. Others include Red Sun Farms, which cut the ribbon on a tomato greenhouse in Dublin in 2014, and AeroFarms, which opened in Pittsylvania County in 2022 and recently said it would continue operating after warning of a potential shutdown for several months.
Pluck’d marks the first greenhouse investment in the United States backed by Oasthouse Ventures, but the company has developed others in the United Kingdom and Europe.
Today, Pluck’d operates as a separate company. It’s building out its facility in three phases at the Wildwood Commerce Park near Interstate 77.
The first phase is the 32.5-acre greenhouse that is operational and producing tomatoes after Pluck’d planted its first crop of tomato plants on Feb. 5. The company announced on April 16 that its products were available in some stores.
Alexander declined to provide details on the company’s annual production except to say that it will produce “millions of punnets,” referring to the containers that hold the tomatoes.
A February 2025 news release announcing the project said that it would produce and package 45 million pounds of tomatoes over three years.
The second phase, slated for next year, is another 32.5-acre greenhouse on the same property, which would bring the company to the 65 acres touted in its initial announcement.
The third phase, slated to begin next year, is to build infrastructure to heat the greenhouses by burning residuals from Virginia’s hardwoods industry.
“If we can decouple, or at least partially decouple, our energy supply from reliance on fossil fuels, I’d say that’s a bonus for the consumer because it affects price spikes by not being part of that,” Alexander said.
The greenhouse employs about 125 people. Once Pluck’d is fully built out, Alexander estimates it will employ about 270 people.
High-tech greenhouses have traditional jobs, including growers and crop workers, but also more technical positions, including climate-control technicians, pollination experts, and systems specialists to manage sensors and software.
Del. Wren Williams, R-Patrick County, whose district includes Carroll County, said Pluck’d will become one of Carroll County’s larger employers, providing stable, year-round jobs.
“When an international company with options across the Eastern Seaboard picks Carroll County, Virginia, it tells every other company watching that Southwest Virginia is serious,” Williams said in an email. “This won’t be the last investment of this kind if we keep building on it.”
Alexander hopes that the presence of Pluck’d will attract more greenhouses to Virginia, which in turn could boost the development of related industries providing lighting, fertilizer, seeds and more.
“The more we can build, the more attractive it becomes to the satellite industries to move in, and ultimately, Virginia would benefit as a result,” he said.
