This article details Pinkfarm, a new company focused on vertical farming in Switzerland. The interview is with Christian Gerig, founder of Pinkfarm.
What is the origin story of Pink Farm?
Pinkfarm was founded by five founders/families in 2021. The founders are united by the vision to reduce water consumption and protect water for future generations. I personally like to work in an indoor farm as this is the way for me to have access to fresh raw material all year round.
In spring 2022 we started to produce fresh Basil, Peppermint and Sage for the SPAR Group and Migros. After one year we stopped this business in early 2022 after we realized that the margin is not enough. Since last summer we make essence from our fresh plants (lemongrass, rosemary, strawberry, balm…).
In our farm we grow about 20’000 plants in 990 ZipGrow Towers on an area of 500 m2.
What are some of the biggest challenges facing Pink Farm in the future?
The biggest challenge for us is to develop our local, german speaking community as we want to do B2C and sell our products through live shopping show to our customers directly. Our next Live shopping experience: https://pinkfarm.ch/streams/e912cc41-ade6-11ed-bae9-c3a2c51b9b8a/
What is unique about Pink Farm compared to competitors? How do you measure the impact of your company so far? (Revenue, Employees, Customer Quantity, Production Volume) etc?
I guess we are the only vertical farm that is making essence and fermented extracts in-house. Also quite unique is our approach to inform, entertain and sell through live shopping shows.
Today we run our farm we 2-3 people (including extraction and sales).
Total turnover in 2022 was <200’000 CHF/USD as we had to change the business model. We hope to reach brea-even in late 2023.
The output in our farm per day is about 15 kg fresh plants. From this we can produce around 20-30 Liter of essence per day.
What have you learned that you wish you knew when you joined or started the company?
The output of an indoor farm is quite stable. The demand from the retailers is not stable, sometimes the demand is very high, sometimes the demand is low for several days or weeks (seasons). Stay away from retailers. Focus on B2C.
You should not focus on increasing your productivity in the first two years. You better focus on product development, distribution and community building.
How can people connect with you or learn more about Pink Farm?
Follow us on Instagram (@pinkfarm.ch) or interact with us in one of our live shopping shows. We stream right from the farm and you always get the best price in our shows: www.pinkfarm.ch/streams
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