Newsletter
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February 2023
1. Certification
The first two months of this year were reserved for the certification of our farm and the confirmation of the work done so far. The first inspection at the beginning of January was carried out by ElectroSwiss, which we passed, and it was confirmed that we had built a vertical and modular cultivation solution according to the Swiss electrical standard. All electrical installations were planned and developed with the highest level of precision and safety. This is an important milestone for us, as all future farms will be built according to the same principle and the electrical certification will be standardised.
The second certification process focused on the product and the consumer, with certification experts from the "Orthodox Union" inspecting our production facility, vertical farm, products and packaging. One director of the Orthodox Union came directly from New York and the second certification expert from Zurich to get two independent opinions. Finally, both certification experts confirmed that GreenState AG is able to produce kosher food and that the audit was positive for GreenState AG. After the basil inspection, the rabbi from Zurich tried a basil plant for the first time in his life.
2. Growing Portfolio
In addition to basil and microgreens, we are currently conducting trials to grow various lettuces, such as iceberg lettuce, lamb's lettuce, romaine lettuce. We are also trying three different chilli plants, physalis, bush bean, broccoli and cauliflower for our future growing portfolio. This year will definitely be very interesting and productive for us, as we are expanding our microgreens area by 60% and have already started developing a second farm, which will be more advanced in terms of automation.
3. New employees
Our GreenState AG family is growing every day. We are very pleased to welcome three new employees to our business development team and another employee in production. For this year, we plan to hire four more employees for production and packaging in Neuhausen, eight more employees for software development and digital product development, and more managers for marketing and sales of our products and services. The goal is to hire twenty-five more employees by the end of the year and reach the total number of fifty internally hired and taken over employees.
4. South African Ambassador Visit
Last week we had the honour of receiving the South African Ambassador at our office in Winterthur. We then visited our production facility in Neuhausen, where the performance of the farm was demonstrated and full capacity was shown. Afterwards, the ambassador and his assistant tasted the basil and micro vegetables developed in the vertical and modular GreenState farm. Further discussions were held on possibilities for collaboration between GreenState and the South African government, whereby the South African Republic could offer access to the South African market by providing land and labour. Certainly, these preliminary negotiations are seen as long-term expansion targets, as GreenState is currently focused on the Swiss and European markets for the next five years. In any case, it is very interesting to see the growing interest of governments, ambassadors and large companies in our solution.
5. Investor Relations Application
Due to the growing demand of investors interested in subscribing to GreenState AG shares and the increasing workload of the administration team, we decided to develop an Investors Relation Application where all current investors will have the possibility to view their share portfolio, keep the documents in a digital data room, as well as communicate efficiently with company representatives. The application will serve as a digital data room for all new investors to reduce marketing and administrative costs. By digitising the investor relations process, we hope to have a faster, safer and more costeffective way of communicating. The application is currently in the testing phase and the company's current investors will be informed as soon as it can be downloaded from the Google Play Store or the iOS App Store. In addition, we ask you to support us in the first beta version and let us know if you notice any "bugs" and malfunctions after installing the mobile app.
6. Investor Presentation
Almost 6 months have passed since our last presentation. We have decided to organise another one this March to inform our current and new potential investors about the milestones of our company. For the first time, all attendees will be able to see the operational modules and how we can manage the whole farm through mobile and desktop applications. The presentation will take place on 24/03/2023 and we kindly ask you to write to us at info@greenstate.ch if you would like to attend this event. As last time, we will organise a large event with a very interesting presentation, product testing, Q&A and first tasting of our growing portfolio. Please contact your Business Development representative at GreenState for more information about the event. Please let us know you are attending so we can send you an invitation, as places are limited to 100 people.