Eric Lang grew up on a Glengarry County dairy farm dependent on the weather and the bounty of the great outdoors. But since 2016, Lang has built up an Eastern Ontario company focused on indoor farming and vertical growing. Cornwall-based ZipGrow Inc. has been making an impact in so-called "closed environment agriculture."
The company — recently recognized with an Ontario Excellence in Agriculture award — manufactures commercial indoor veggie growing systems based on a vertical hydroponic tower invented at the University of Wyoming about 15 years ago. ZipGrow bought the exclusive worldwide licensing rights to the design, which Lang touts as more space-efficient. The company's versatile systems range as small as a single tower that can fit in a kitchen or classroom, up to shipping container-sized setups, and much larger retrofits of indoor commercial spaces filled with upright towers. Produce with the highest return are herbs and baby lettuce, with most buyers of this produce being restaurateurs and grocery stores.
Other indoor growing manufacturers may have more revenue, but in terms of individual systems sold, ZipGrow leads the world with installations in over 30 countries, according to Lang, who still lives on that ancestral Williamstown farm where his wife now raises beef animals. He says his gross revenue is "only" $5 million per year and expects it to grow. He employs 10 to 15 employees assembling, welding, painting, and shipping the steel and plastic growing towers.
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