News Briefs

In a bid to transform food systems on a global basis, several vertical farming organizations pledged their commitment to a vertical farming identity standard and industry manifesto. The manifesto was signed during this week’s Vertical Farming World Congress in Brussels, Germany.

The identity standard and manifesto highlight the urgency of deploying resilient, circular production methods for growing food for increasing global populations. Among other things, the statements emphasize the ways in which indoor farming localizes production and uses significantly less land and water to provide people with pesticide-free produce.

Participating companies also align with globally accepted frameworks like the Science Based Targets initiative, B Corp, or the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The 20 vertical farmers signing onto the industry standard and manifesto include 80 Acres Farms, AeroFarms, Bowery Farming, Crop One, CubicFarms, Elevate Farms, Fifth Season,  Fischer Farms, Freight Farms , Infarm, Infinite Acres, Jones Food Company, Kalera, La Grangette, Ljusgårda, N.THING, Plenty, Stacked Farm, Urban Crop Solutions, Urban Harvest, Vertical Future, YesHealth Group and ZipGrow Inc.

Several of the U.S. vertical farmers taking part in the commitment continue to strengthen their operations and presence in this country. This month, Plenty announced plans to build the largest indoor vertical farm in the world to date, with a $300 million site near Richmond, Va. Infarm, for its part, is working on a third growing center near Baltimore, while Bowery shared it wants to double its number of farms by 2023.

Food tech firm GrubMarket, which provides solutions for supply chain e-commerce, has officially acquired produce company JC Produce. Both businesses are based in California.

JC Produce, which sources fruits and vegetables from around the world, provides more than 30 product SKUs to retail, wholesale and foodservice operations throughout the U.S.  The company operates a warehouse facility spanning nearly 40,000 square feet.

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Following the acquisition, JC Produce will use GrubMarket’s software-as-a-service platform that aims to provide more seamless financial management, sales and online ordering features, inventory management, lot traceability, grower accounting, and automated routing and logistics. The company will also utilize GrubMarket's mobile e-commerce solution.

“We are excited to join the GrubMarket team, because our teams share the same underlying values, and we are similarly passionate about providing exceptional service to our customers,” said Jacky Chan, owner of JC Produce. “We are also eager to tap into a best-in-class grower network, and to leverage GrubMarket's unique and superior e-commerce and technology-enabled software platform, to bring more high-quality fresh produce to more customers across the country.”

Mike Xu, GrubMarket’s CEO, lauded the addition. “This acquisition enables GrubMarket to further strengthen our presence on the West Coast as well as our sourcing power worldwide. We are thrilled to welcome the JC Produce team to the GrubMarket family,” Xu declared.

Based in San Francisco, GrubMarket operates in Arizona, California, Connecticut, Georgia, Michigan, New York, New Jersey, Missouri, Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington and Canada’s British Columbia, with plans to expand to the rest of the U.S., Canada, and other parts of the world.

As grocers eye the upcoming holiday season, new research from Advantage Solutions shows that, following two unconventional years affected by autumn surges of COVID-19, many shoppers are getting back to pre-pandemic behaviors. For the first big fall holiday of Halloween, a quarter of survey respondents indicate that they will spend more on candy and treats this year and a third will shell out more for costumers and decorations.

According to Advantage Solutions’ poll of more than 1,000 consumers conducted earlier this month, 85% plan to buy Halloween candy, 54% expect to buy decorations and 71% of those with children say they will purchase costumes. Nearly half (48%) plan to spend more than $25 on candy for the Oct. 31 holiday and 47% will spend more than $25 on other Halloween-themed edible treats.

Similar to other consumer research conducted ahead of Halloween 2022, inflation is replacing the pandemic as an influencer of buying behavior. Price is the top factor impacting expected Halloween candy purchases, followed by type of candy and brand of candy, this survey found. More than half of grocery shoppers believe mass merchandisers have the best prices on Halloween candy and plan to shop that channel for candy and other food treats for Halloween. Grocery is the second most popular retail channel for such purchases.

Price-conscious consumers will be on the lookout for savings. The survey showed that 70% of consumers shopping for Halloween are influenced by on-package coupons, and nearly half are swayed by secondary displays.

Additional survey findings are available online.

Hannaford Supermarkets revealed plans to open a new store at the intersection of Payne Road and Route 114 in Scarborough, Maine – the second store for its home city. Hannaford will continue to operate the Oak Hill Hannaford Supermarket and Pharmacy at its existing location. 

The approximately 58,000-square-foot store at 417 Payne Road will offer the high-quality, fresh food and variety for which the grocer is known, including thousands of natural and organic products, as well as unique store-brand offerings such as Taste of Inspirations, Hannaford and Nature’s Promise. The new supermarket will also feature a full-service pharmacy; Hannaford To Go curbside pickup and delivery; and a vast selection of ready-to-cook and ready-to-eat items.

[Read more: "Hannaford Supermarkets Unveils Easy Meal Options in New York"]

“Growing our business in our own backyard is a huge point of pride. We look forward to making it even easier for Scarborough-area customers to do their grocery shopping for the week or pick up that one item they need,” said Todd Bullen, VP of operations for Hannaford. “We are proud to invest further in our state, bring new jobs to the area and strengthen our relationship with the community.”

Hannaford expects to begin construction in early 2023 and open the store in the summer of 2023. The store is expected to employ about 150 full- and part-time associates.

“The new store will be an active member of the Scarborough community, contributing to local nonprofit organizations, civic groups and hunger-relief efforts,” added Bullen.

The Payne Road Scarborough store will mark Hannaford’s 186th store when it opens, including 65 in Maine.

Hannaford operates in five Northeast states, employing nearly 30,000 associates. Parent company Ahold Delhaize USA, a division of Zaandam, Netherlands-based Ahold Delhaize, is No. 10 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2022 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America.

At a time when consumers are weighing purchases carefully and increasingly using digital tools, two tech companies are teaming up to enhance the online shopping experience. Marketing and insights platform AdAdapted and tech platform Flipp have entered into a new partnership to assist shoppers in finding and adding products to their lists while simultaneously helping CPGs bolster their reach.

Through this collaboration, AdAdapted's add-to-list technology will be utilized on Flipp’s shopping app platform. CPGs can advertise their branded products on the app, spurring shoppers to add items to their lists in a single click.

“In this inflationary environment, shoppers are increasingly using digital pre-shopping tools to decide what to buy — digital circular readership in the U.S. is at a four-year high,” explained Sam Rosenbaum, director, brand platform for Flipp. “By partnering with AdAdapted, we’re helping brands shape purchase decisions in this incredibly high-intent context while providing a non-disruptive, relevant experience for our users.”

Molly McFarland, AdAdapted’s co-founder and CRO, said the partnership is another solution for consumers in a continually-shifting marketplace. “Flipp is used by millions of shoppers every week to make better purchase decisions for their grocery lists, while saving time and money. We’re looking forward to bringing AdAdapted’s technology to the platform, helping CPG brands engage and influence shoppers where it matters most,” McFarland remarked.

This is the latest partnership between AdAdapted and industry providers and platforms. The company is also linked with apps including Tasty, Our Groceries, Buy Me A Pie, BigOven, Listonic and Prepear, among others. In August, AdAdapted introduced new shoppable video ads that help brands create e-commerce campaigns on the shopping list mobile ad platform.

Pop Up Grocer has revealed that its next location will be Denver, where the company will set up temporary shop on Friday, Sept. 30.

The location will remain in place at 2645 Walnut Street in the city’s RiNo neighborhood until Oct. 30, during which time it will showcase more than 100 brands, including national brands like Christie’s Chips, The Hampton Grocer and Courtside, in addition to several Colorado-based brands, among them Hazlo tequila mixer, Rowdy Mermaid kombucha and vegan Byte Bars. It will be open seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. 

“Denver is an active, wellness-minded city that has welcomed a lot of new residents in the last few years,” noted Emily Schildt, founder and CEO of New York-based Pop Up Grocer. “We’re thrilled to meet their enthusiasm for adventure with a like-minded array of products that are the perfect complement to their lifestyle.”

Other cities recently visited by Pop Up Grocer include Chicago and Washington, D.C.

In addition to its temporary stores, the recently rebranded company has revealed that it will soon open a permanent flagship location in the Big Apple.