Sustainable food producer OneFarm files administration notice
Fri, 15 Sep 2023 | ADMINISTRATION
OneFarm Limited, a sustainable fresh food producer, has filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators. The company, which is based in Woking, Surrey, is the UK subsidiary of Dutch group OneFarm and has plans to develop a 6,400 sq metre vertical farm in Suffolk.
According to industry publication The Grocer, public and private investors have provided £7.5 million in funding for the project, which now faces serious uncertainty. The company was loaned £2.5 million by New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership and had also raised £3.8 million from over 2,000 investors on crowdfunding platform Abundance.
The farm was expected to be able to grow up to 415 tonnes of food per year during its initial phase, ramping up to over 1,000 tonnes in a proposed expansion. It was announced in May 2022, to be delivered alongside infrastructure supplier IGS, and was planned to be fully operational as the first UK OneFarm hub in early 2023.
However, the site was reportedly not operational in February 2023, when the New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership and local council were given a “first glimpse” of the facility. The company had also announced plans to create up to 25 indoor vertical farms in the UK.
Despite these ambitions, the firm now looks set to enter administration, with its Dutch parent company having filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators with the courts and law firm Freeths having been engaged to oversee the process.
In its accounts for the year ending August 31 2022, the firm reported fixed assets of £2.1 million and current assets of £2.5 million. At the time, the company had net liabilities of more than £1.85 million.
Read about the struggles that UK food companies are facing
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