News in brief:
– Jones Food Company, a major UK vertical farming firm backed by Ocado, has collapsed with £22 million in debt, highlighting the sector’s ongoing struggles with high costs and scalability.
– Its failure follows similar setbacks globally, including bankruptcies at Plenty, Bowery Farming, and AppHarvest, as the industry faces growing pressure to balance innovation with financial sustainability.
One of the UK’s high-profile vertical farming ventures, Jones Food Company (JFC), has collapsed, leaving £22 million in unpaid debts and 61 employees without jobs.
According to a news report, the Gloucestershire-based company, once touted as a leader in sustainable indoor agriculture, was placed into administration on 7 April, marking a significant blow to the nascent sector.
Founded to revolutionise food production through large-scale vertical farming, JFC operated one of Europe’s largest vertical farms and was backed by Ocado, a UK online grocery giant. Its business model relied on growing fresh produce year-round in a controlled, soil-free environment using LED lighting and hydroponic systems, offering a potential solution to supply chain vulnerabilities and climate-related farming challenges.
However, the company struggled to reach commercial viability at scale. Rising energy costs, inflationary pressures, and delays in scaling its production facilities contributed to mounting financial strain. Despite raising significant investment and expanding its operations to a second facility, JFC was ultimately unable to turn a profit.
Insolvency documents show a lengthy list of creditors, including suppliers, contractors, and landlords, now facing unpaid invoices. Administrators are currently assessing the company’s assets and exploring options, including potential buyers for parts of the business or its technology.
JFC’s collapse comes amid a broader downturn in the global vertical farming industry. In May 2025, US-based vertical farming pioneer Plenty filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, despite having raised nearly $1 billion from high-profile investors such as SoftBank, Walmart, and Jeff Bezos. The company cited scalability and profitability challenges, and now plans to maintain only limited operations in Virginia and Wyoming during restructuring.
This follows the late-2024 shutdown of Bowery Farming, once valued at $2 billion, and earlier bankruptcies in 2023 from AeroFarms and AppHarvest. These collapses reflect a volatile period for the capital-intensive agtech sector, where investor fatigue and high operational costs are forcing a rethink of the indoor farming model.
Still, there are signs of resilience. AeroFarms, for example, re-emerged from bankruptcy and now dominates the US retail microgreens market, holding over 70% market share as of 2025 and expanding through partnerships with retailers like Costco.
As the sector recalibrates, analysts suggest vertical farming’s future will depend not just on innovation but on financial sustainability, cost-efficiency, and strategic scaling.
