MOREHEAD, Ky., Nov. 07, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — AppHarvest, Inc., a sustainable food company, public benefit corporation and Certified B Corp building some of the world’s largest high-tech indoor farms to grow affordable, nutritious fruits and vegetables at scale while providing good jobs in Appalachia, today announced its operating and financial results for the quarter ending September 30, 2022, showing strong progress on its strategy to quadruple its number of farms by year-end with the opening of the AppHarvest Berea and AppHarvest Somerset controlled environment agriculture (CEA) facilities and beginning commercial shipments of both salad greens and berries.
The four-farm network expected to open this year consists of 165 acres making AppHarvest one of the largest CEA producers.
“As we near completion of the AppHarvest four-farm network with a diversified set of crops against a backdrop of extreme weather that continues to demonstrate the need for controlled environment agriculture in the U.S. to support food security with a climate-resilient and more sustainable approach, I’m encouraged by the team’s progress to execute one of the largest CEA buildouts ever while ramping up production of our fruit and vegetable portfolio for more potential revenue-generating streams this upcoming year,” said AppHarvest Founder & CEO Jonathan Webb.
Third Quarter 2022 Results
For the third quarter 2022, net sales were $524,000 on 0.75 million pounds of tomatoes sold with a net sales price of 70 cents per pound versus net sales of $543,000 on 1.5 million pounds of tomatoes sold with a net sales price of 37 cents per pound in the third quarter of 2021.
The third quarter historically is the company’s lowest production period because of the annual summer refresh for the replanting of the Morehead farm to prepare for the next growing season. Despite the higher net price per pound in the third quarter of 2022, net sales were slightly lower than the third quarter 2021 due to lower yield related to the plant health issues disclosed earlier in the year.
In line with expectations while the company continues to rapidly expand its network to four farms, the company recorded a net loss of $24.0 million and non-GAAP Adjusted EBITDA loss of $12.0 million in the third quarter of 2022, compared to a prior year net loss of $17.3 million and non-GAAP Adjusted EBITDA loss of $16.5 million. See reconciliation of the non-GAAP measure at the end of this news release.
Leadership transitions
Tony Martin, a CEA industry veteran with prior experience as chief financial officer of Windset Farms, was recently appointed to the AppHarvest board of directors. The company expects to leverage Martin’s deep CEA expertise to provide valuable guidance in the areas of facilities, staffing and operations, to allow for streamlining within the organization. The general managers of each farm, with Martin’s counsel, will continue working to increase operational rigor and discipline. As the company announced last week, the team’s access to Martin enables David Lee to focus on his role as an AppHarvest board member and to step down from his role as president later this year.
Operations
Planting for the third growing season at Morehead is complete, and harvesting is expected to begin in early November. The crop currently is healthy, showing none of the plant health issues previously reported for the first quarter of 2022. The Morehead farm continues to make progress in improving quality, reducing distribution fees and expanding product variety that may command higher prices. Staffing efforts have increased across the farms, and lessons learned from Morehead are being actively applied to maximize labor efficiency, quality and produce yield as we ramp up operations at the three new facilities.
Development
On October 26, the company announced the start of commercial shipments from its new 15-acre Berea, Ky. salad greens farm featuring a “touchless growing system” with autonomous harvesting. The farm is opening on a phased approach, beginning with five acres and then bringing on additional productive acreage over time. When at capacity, AppHarvest Berea is expected to be able to harvest the equivalent of an estimated 10 miles of lettuce per day. Salad greens from AppHarvest Berea will be used in the new “Queen of Greens®” washed-and-ready-to-eat packaged salad brand.
The company also announced on November 3, the opening of its 30-acre Somerset, Ky., berry farm, where the team already has planted nearly one million strawberry plants for its upcoming season. The company confirmed it has begun commercial shipments of WOW Berries for its customer, Mastronardi Produce. AppHarvest Somerset will grow strawberries and is expected to alternate the crop seasonally with English cucumbers.
AppHarvest continues construction on its 60-acre Richmond, Ky. farm, which is expected to double the company’s capacity to grow tomatoes. Combined with the Morehead farm, the Richmond facility is expected to enable the company to grow nearly 1.5 million tomato plants per season. The AppHarvest Richmond farm also is expected to start operating before the end of 2022.
AppHarvest secures $30 million in non-dilutive capital
In conjunction with the opening of AppHarvest Berea, the company announced a new source of non-dilutive capital through a $30 million loan from Mastronardi Produce secured by the AppHarvest Berea farm. The secured financing is being delivered in two tranches of $15 million each, the first of which occurred on October 25 and the second is anticipated in the first half of the fourth quarter. The loan will incur an interest rate of 7.5% with interest paid in kind until the loan matures. Consistent with its strategy to secure attractive long-term financing for its assets, AppHarvest is evaluating a potential sale-leaseback financing for the Berea farm.
About AppHarvest
AppHarvest is a sustainable food company in Appalachia developing and operating some of the world’s largest high-tech indoor farms with robotics and artificial intelligence to build a reliable, climate-resilient food system. AppHarvest’s farms are designed to grow produce using sunshine, rainwater and up to 90% less water than open-field growing, all while producing yields up to 30 times that of traditional agriculture and preventing pollution from agricultural runoff. AppHarvest currently operates its flagship farm – about the size of 50 football fields – in Morehead, Ky., producing tomatoes. The company is developing a network of farms to produce a variety of vine crops, salad greens and berries. The four-farm network that is expected to be operational by the end of 2022 consists of 165 acres. For more information, visit https://www.appharvest.com/.
