VANCOUVER, British Columbia, October 24, 2022 – CubicFarm® Systems Corp. (“CubicFarms” or the “Company”) (TSX:CUB), announces key leadership changes and appoints John de Jonge as Interim Chief Executive Officer of CubicFarms and President of HydroGreen following the departure of prior Interim Chief Executive Officer Edoardo De Martin at CubicFarms and of former President Dan Schmidt at HydroGreen.
Highlights:
- John de Jonge is appointed as Interim Chief Executive Officer of CubicFarms to lead the Company, effective immediately.
- Edoardo De Martin will remain in an advisory role through to the end of January 2023.
- John de Jonge is appointed President of HydroGreen following the departure of President Dan Schmidt.
CubicFarms Management Transition
Mr. de Jonge has been in the industry for over two decades, having served as a senior leader in multiple agricultural businesses, including the owner of Artex Barns Inc. through to its successful sale in 2021. He is widely respected among members of the North American farming and dairy communities, having been an instrumental part in the invention and development of the Comfort Zone FreeStall System and Big-Box dairy design.
As a former board member of CubicFarms, Mr. de Jonge was integral to the original acquisition of HydroGreen for the Company in 2019 and has agreed to return to lead the Company during its transition to focus on accelerating the growth of the Company’s Feed Division.
Mr. de Jonge stated, “We have the right technology, resources, and talent for future growth in our selected markets. I look forward to working with the team to build on the foundation that has been laid, leading the Company to profitable success, especially with the exceptional HydroGreen platform.”
“John de Jonge is the right person to carry the Company forward with his extensive expertise in manufacturing, agriculture, and dairy operations. I look forward to watching the Company’s continued success under John’s leadership,” said Edoardo De Martin. “I’d like to thank the Board for their confidence in my leadership during our most recent transition and for the opportunity to lend my expertise in developing leading technologies for the organization.”
Daniel Burns, Chair of the Board of Directors, added, “John brings significant experience in the space and is well-positioned to help orient the business towards future success. Having served with John previously when the Company made the decision to purchase HydroGreen, he demonstrated his wealth of experience and relationships in the dairy industry, which will be critical to our success.”
Additional information
Additional information relating to CubicFarms and other public filings is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com or at www.cubicfarms.com and www.hydrogreenglobal.com.
Contact press@cubicfarms-web.azurewebsites.net for media or investors@cubicfarms-web.azurewebsites.net for investor inquiries.
About HydroGreen and CubicFarms
HydroGreen’s Automated Vertical Pastures™ technology produces high-energy fresh forage at commercial scale 365 days a year using a unique process to sprout grains, such as barley and wheat, in a controlled environment with minimal use of land, labour, and water. Automated Vertical Pastures™ not only provides a superior nutritious feed to benefit the animal, improving feed efficiency, cow health, nutrition, and performance outcomes, but also enables significant environmental benefits to the farm while helping to meet increasing demand for valuable farm-based inset and offset carbon credits.
CubicFarms is a leading agricultural technology company developing and deploying proprietary ag-tech technologies to enable growers to produce high quality, predictable produce and fresh livestock feed with HydroGreen Nutrition Technology, a division of CubicFarm Systems Corp. The CubicFarms™ system contains patented technology for growing leafy greens and other crops on-site, indoors, year-round.
“Our family is dedicated to protecting the prairie. We strive to work smarter on our ranch by applying our business and consulting expertise and focusing on ranch innovation and sustainability. With climate change, technology advances and decreasing natural resources, we know we must operate our ranch differently. With the HydroGreen system, we can now produce better, faster, and stronger for ourselves and the planet.”
“My family is originally from Holland, I grew up on a dairy farm, and I’ve been in the industry all my life. Talking with my parent’s friends who are immersed in the veggie industry, they recommended Iinvestigateoptions to produce lettuce in a sustainable way. I looked into the greenhouse and indoor vertical warehouse systems, but they could not meet my needs. I needed to minimize my risk, space and lower my labor costs.
“After a significant drought and taking over my family ranch, I was looking for a more cost-effective way to produce our fodder. I knew there were better producer options out there, but most of the systems had too much manual labour and seed obligations that were not cost-effective. The HydroGreen system’s value proposition was compelling. The fodder’s nutritive value is exceptional for our herd and the system is time-efficient. I run one piece of machinery for 35 mins a day when in the past, it would have taken me a few hours a day and three machines using traditional equipment. In our neck of the woods, one six-rack HydroGreen system is the equivalent to 320 acres of South Dakota prairie sitting inside a 60 x 40 building. It is essentially drought resistant ‘Land on a Stand’ which produces grass every day, in any weather, in less than an hour.”