Hort Americas has teamed up with SparkFund to offer controlled environment agriculture customers financing plans for their energy efficient LED grow lights. The SparkFund lease covers the upfront costs of efficiency projects and customers can select the terms of the leases to help meet the cash flow needs of their businesses.
"By offering financing to our customers, we can help more growers access our efficient LED grow lights," said Chris Higgins, co-founder and president of Hort Americas. "We are excited to grow our partnership with SparkFund and help more businesses optimize their commercial plant production businesses."
According to Greenhouse Grower's 2015 State of the Industry Report, energy costs make up the largest financial input burden for small agricultural businesses. "Utility bills can be an overwhelming expense for many indoor agriculture companies," said Pier LaFarge, CEO of SparkFund. "We're excited to partner with Hort Americas' to make their LED grow lights more accessible and help more indoor growers keep operating costs low with efficient technology." Hort Americas' customers that install LED grow lights are consistently able to maximize cubic foot production and yield. One customer, Southwest Perennials, was able to more than double their amount of production of vegetative liners without expanding production space.
"Some of the results that we saw under the lights we wouldn't have gotten by applying more fertilizer or increasing the temperatures. It was simply the lights that were causing the plants to grow," said Jerry Soukup, owner of the Dallas, Texas based greenhouse business that produces more than 300 varieties of heat and drought tolerant young plants. Together, Hort Americas and SparkFund hope to ease the financial burden for growers through financing options for energy efficient lighting equipment.
For more information
SparkFund
Lauren Basler
Hort Americas
T: (469) 532-2383