LEAMINGTON, ON – With increasing demand and a wider customer base, Double Diamond Farms is kicking off an expansion plan that will bring it the resources to match.
President/CEO, Chris Mastronardi took the time to discuss with me the growth spurts the company has seen and a coming 124-acre expansion plan it will be kicking off mid-April.
“As our company has continued to grow, our customer base has grown as well,” Chris Mastronardi shared. “To meet those demands, we’re excited to start a three-part expansion that will include an additional 124 hothouse acres and a new, state-of-the-art, 80,000-square-foot packing and shipping facility.”
Initiating the acreage roll-out is Phase I, which will give Double Diamond an additional 32 acres and 80,000-square-feet of additional warehousing, breaking ground mid-April.
“This first phase [32 acres] is expected to be completed this fall, followed quickly by Phase II, which will be additional growth by another 32 acres,” Chris explains.
The third and final phase will also be the largest—a new 60 acres scheduled to be completed the following season. Once completed, Chris said there will be an estimated 300 new jobs. Positions will include: Growers, Automation Technicians, Health/Food Safety Coordinators, and Management.
“It’s been a big year, and now that we have grown, we saw a need to widen our reach. This latest expansion will all be under grow lights, so we will have a larger year-round production on all commodities as we look to increase our overall production across the board,” Chris shared with me.
Double Diamond will be adding acreage to all of its core commodities, including bell peppers, beefsteak tomatoes, TOV, mini cucumbers, seedless cucumbers. It also plans to expand its specialty program, including consumer favorites baby eggplant, snacking tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes, and mini sweet peppers.
“We offer our retail partners the promise of fresh, quality, flavor-forward greenhouse produce supported by a sales and marketing team that excels in both vision and customer service,” Chris added. “Our goal is to stay ahead of the curve and respond quickly to the changing consumer landscape.”
Coming off the recently-launched “Flavor Grows Here™” tagline the company introduced to promote its focus on taste and quality last October, Double Diamond is already gearing up for its summer program as 2017 continues to fly by.
As the company promises more to come on the horizon, keep checking in with AndNowUKnow.
