AUSTRALASIA’S LARGEST GREENHOUSE CONSTRUCTOR SELLS MINORITY STAKE TO DUTCH CEA PLAYER GREENV

Australia and New Zealand’s largest commercial greenhouse construction company, Apex Greenhouses, has agreed to sell a minority stake to GreenV B.V. , a group of individual companies that work seamlessly together, each delivering the best technology, products and services in their own domain of greenhouse technology. Apex Greenhouses’ Australian Chief Executive, Folco Faber, states: “GreenV has taken the minority interest in line with its vision to provide world-leading complete greenhouse projects, along with sharing its knowledge and international experience. It has been a well-considered decision to partner with GreenV. It enables Apex Greenhouses to leverage GreenV’s access to cutting-edge automation and emissionsreducing technologies in a rapidly advancing Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) industry.”

“Projects are becoming larger and more complex,” according to Folco Faber. “Our typical client 10 years ago was a family operation and while they are still an important part of our customer base, we see larger corporate interests entering the space with heavy investment worldwide from PE, super funds and listed companies. High tech greenhouse projects are capitalintensive, so the monetary injection is needed if we are to feed the planet.”

Apex Greenhouses constructs large scale commercial structures for the horticultural industry in Australia and New Zealand, including university R&D projects, Botanic Gardens and packing sheds. Its largest project to date has been a

130,000sqm greenhouse in Victoria. Formerly Faber Glasshouses, Apex Greenhouses was founded in New Zealand by Dutch immigrant Leo Faber in the late 1970s. Leo quickly moved from building greenhouses, to manufacturing steel-framed greenhouses locally, mimicking the Dutch designed ‘Venlo’ glasshouse structures. Leo’s son, Folco Faber, and Mr Harris have led the Australian and New Zealand operations for the past 15 and 12 years respectively. GreenV has international shareholdings in CEA businesses specialising in climate control, sustainable energy, heating and electrical engineering, including GreenSimplicity, Voshol, Prins Group, Stolze and HT Verboom in the Netherlands, JV Energy Solutions in Canada and Prins USA in the United States.

For more information, visit www.greenv.com