Very Good Food Company to open new production hub next to Rupert Station

Very Good Food Company announced on Monday it has reached an agreement with Canaccord Genuity to raise $10 million to establish a new production facility in East Vancouver.

The facility will be located at 2768 Rupert Street, immediately adjacent to SkyTrain’s Rupert Station. Currently, the building is occupied by Daiya, which is set to relocate to a new 400,000-sq-ft production hub near Production Way-University Station.

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At the Rupert location, Very Good Food’s facility will span about 45,000 sq. ft. of production, refrigeration, warehousing, research and development, and office space. The production capacity will be up to 37 million lb per year, which is an increase of 2,690% — about 27 times more than the Victoria facility’s capacity of about 1.375 million lb per year.

This will provide the “ability to meet the production demands for the wholesale market with the hopes of growing from 20% of the production allotted to wholesale to 70% in the next year,” and allow for the expansion to 50 more prospective wholesale partners. The company’s core product line is under The Very Good Butchers brand.

The company’s lease for the Rupert facility will begin in mid-January 2021, with the initial term lasting 10 years.

Very Good Food Company calls itself an emerging plant-based food technology company that develops, produces, and distributes a variety of plant-based meat and food alternatives.