The only way is up
THE ONLY
WAY IS UP
Vertical farming means year-round salad leaves, grown with renewable energy and no pesticides. Small wonder Doug Meikle CA and Emily Willis CA are so enthused about working for GrowUp Farms. They tell Dominic Bliss about new investment, technical marvels and being the most popular people at parties
When GrowUp Farms launched, just over 10 years ago, it was growing small batches of leafy greens in a glasshouse on top of a shipping container in Beckton, east London.
A decade on, and with an investment injection of £38m in the summer of 2024, the British firm is about to embark on its biggest expansion ever. With more than 100 employees, it now aims to increase the growing space of its vertical farm in Sandwich, Kent to 1,000 acres, drive research and development at its laboratory in Cambridge, and distribute its salad leaves more widely across the UK.
As the farm’s crops are grown indoors, on vertically stacked layers of shelves under artificial lighting, they are harvested all year round. For power, they rely on renewable energy, thanks to an adjacent bioenergy plant. Insulated from the outside, they require no pesticides.
Once at full capacity, the farm, called Pepperness, will produce more than a million bags of salad a week, equating to around 3% of the UK’s salad supply according to Grocer magazine. Already, GrowUp Farms’ leaves are sold in six of the UK’s major supermarket chains: Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Iceland, Spar, Co-op and Lidl.
Two of the company’s leading lights are Head of Finance, Doug Meikle CA, who joined in early 2023, and Investor Relations Senior Analyst, Emily Willis CA, who arrived a year later.
Meikle’s financial role involves reporting on budgets and investment, as well as technical accounting and financial modelling. Willis liaises with investors, preparing reports and ensuring they remain fully engaged with the business.
Both are based in Edinburgh, where GrowUp Farms runs its financial operations from a WeWork office. The business also has an office in central London, as well as its Kent farm and Cambridge lab.
Unbeleafable salads, produced by GrowUp Farms
Unbeleafable salads, produced by GrowUp Farms
Meikle and Willis’s paths into the company have run somewhat parallel. Both trained with EY and remained with the Big Four firm for a few years beyond qualification. Meikle, now 32, initially moved into consulting before being seconded into a charity role. “That is where I found my love of all things environmental, social and governance (ESG),” he adds.
Although Willis, now 28, had enjoyed the corporate investment side of EY, she soon “realised I was ready for the next challenge”. Working for a sustainable food company was exactly what she was looking for.
During their ICAS training, both learned the vital skills that have helped them at their new company. When presenting to potential investors, Willis, for example, draws on the work she completed for her TPE (Test of Professional Expertise) Case Study exam.
“Every investor is different” she says. “The skill is to take data and interpret it in a form that works for them.” It is particularly useful, she explains, when presenting financial information to those without a background in finance.
When GrowUp Farms launched, just over 10 years ago, it was growing small batches of leafy greens in a glasshouse on top of a shipping container in Beckton, east London.
A decade on, and with an investment injection of £38m in the summer of 2024, the British firm is about to embark on its biggest expansion ever. With more than 100 employees, it now aims to increase the growing space of its vertical farm in Sandwich, Kent to 1,000 acres, drive research and development at its laboratory in Cambridge, and distribute its salad leaves more widely across the UK.
As the farm’s crops are grown indoors, on vertically stacked layers of shelves under artificial lighting, they are harvested all year round. For power, they rely on renewable energy, thanks to an adjacent bioenergy plant. Insulated from the outside, they require no pesticides.
Once at full capacity, the farm, called Pepperness, will produce more than a million bags of salad a week, equating to around 3% of the UK’s salad supply according to Grocer magazine. Already, GrowUp Farms’ leaves are sold in six of the UK’s major supermarket chains: Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Iceland, Spar, Co-op and Lidl.
Two of the company’s leading lights are Head of Finance, Doug Meikle CA, who joined in early 2023, and Investor Relations Senior Analyst, Emily Willis CA, who arrived a year later.
Meikle’s financial role involves reporting on budgets and investment, as well as technical accounting and financial modelling. Willis liaises with investors, preparing reports and ensuring they remain fully engaged with the business.
Both are based in Edinburgh, where GrowUp Farms runs its financial operations from a WeWork office. The business also has an office in central London, as well as its Kent farm and Cambridge lab.
Unbeleafable salads, product of GrowUp Farms
Unbeleafable salads, product of GrowUp Farms
Meikle and Willis’s paths into the company have run somewhat parallel. Both trained with EY and remained with the Big Four firm for a few years beyond qualification. Meikle, now 32, initially moved into consulting before being seconded into a charity role. “That is where I found my love of all things environmental, social and governance (ESG),” he adds.
Although Willis, now 28, had enjoyed the corporate investment side of EY, she soon “realised I was ready for the next challenge”. Working for a sustainable food company was exactly what she was looking for.
During their ICAS training, both learned the vital skills that have helped them at their new company. When presenting to potential investors, Willis, for example, draws on the work she completed for her TPE (Test of Professional Expertise) Case Study exam.
“Every investor is different” she says. “The skill is to take data and interpret it in a form that works for them.” It is particularly useful, she explains, when presenting financial information to those without a background in finance.
“Every investor is different. The skill is to take data and interpret it in a form that works for them”
Emily Willis CA, Investor Relations Senior Analyst
“Every investor is different. The skill is to take data and interpret it in a form that works for them”
Emily Willis CA, Investor Relations Senior Analyst
Meikle says his ICAS training helped him learn the importance of integrity and transparency around financial information. He realises that for GrowUp Farms to be more successful, he must always have total confidence in the accuracy of the figures he reports – a particular challenge, he says, when it comes to sustainability reports.
“Sustainability numbers are notoriously tricky to calculate and compare. I want to be able to explain how we calculate them for two years’ time, for example. Any figures we’re putting into the public domain require critical thinking. I like things to be right.”
The pull of purpose
Although Meikle and Willis’s roles are primarily financial, both deemed sustainability a major lure when they considered applying for their jobs at the vertical farming company. Willis points out that GrowUp Farms has B Corp certification, which requires regular assessment of its ESG performances. And being a farm, its entire business model operates with environmental concerns at the fore.
As well as sourcing all its energy, for heating, cooling, lighting and irrigating the crops, from the nearby bioenergy power station, the farm also distributes only to UK customers, meaning the carbon footprint of its supply chain is far smaller than that of its competitors.
Willis says the company’s environmental record is incredibly attractive for investors. Many have a requirement to be climate-conscious when assessing investments. “That makes us an attractive opportunity, and makes my job exciting,” she adds. “And being B Corp-certified means we have to maintain a score. That, for me, was really important when I joined the company.”
Meikle says working for a sustainable farming business gives him “purpose”. When he’s experiencing a particularly tough day, he reminds himself he’s not there simply to make money; he finds the company’s sustainability targets energise him to plough on through any problems he might face.
“Previously I said I was an accountant; now I say I work in vertical farming and I find I’m the most popular person in the room. They all want to listen to me talk about it”
Doug Meikle CA, Head of Finance
“Previously I said I was an accountant; now I say I work in vertical farming and I find I’m the most popular person in the room. They all want to listen to me talk about it”
Doug Meikle CA, Head of Finance
“That’s something I’d never experienced before,” he adds. “Not always having to think about the bottom line is a refreshing way of working.” It can’t hurt that GrowUp Farms has been named among the Sunday Times’ best places to work two years in a row, either.
In social situations, too, Meikle is much prouder of his work. “Going to dinner parties or social occasions or networking, it’s amazing the transformation I’ve seen,” he explains. “Previously I said I was an accountant; now I say I work in vertical farming and I find I’m the most popular person in the room. They all want to listen to me talk about it.”
Although Meikle and Willis live at the opposite end of the country from Pepperness, the post-pandemic hybrid work set-up ensures there are few logistical problems.
They divide their working time in Edinburgh between the office and home, and often find themselves at the company’s London premises. Meikle makes the trip down to the Kent farm perhaps once a month, Willis once a quarter. “At the end of the day, finance is finance,” Meikle confirms. “We can do so much more remotely.”
Meikle recalls the first time he saw the vertical farming technology in the flesh, with a tour of Pepperness’ growing chambers when he started, before commercial production had begun. “It’s genuinely incredible,” he says, in awe of the hydroponic system. “You can't picture it until you go and see it. The scale and the technology of the farming is impressive.”
Willis, meanwhile, marvels at the work she’s witnessed in the Cambridge laboratory: “When you see the smart people working there, you are overwhelmed by it. They’re very passionate about what they do. It was amazing; very futuristic.”
Willis and Meikle are optimistic for the future of the company. Willis points out that growing salad leaves outside of the UK’s warmer months means GrowUp Farms will be able to offer customers homegrown produce all year round, avoiding unnecessary food miles in the delivery process.
She is also encouraged by the huge support she gets from investors: “It’s good to be able to talk to people about what you do, and for them to actually be interested. I like to have a purpose in my job. I like to do something that makes a difference.”
Meikle is equally upbeat: “We genuinely believe we’re on track to do something quite transformational. We’re now in six major retailers around the UK. That in itself is pretty incredible.”
Of the several species that GrowUp currently grows, Willis’s favourite is the rocket, while Meikle’s is the sorrel. “It’s a really zesty leaf; so citrusy,” he says of the latter. “I’d never come across sorrel until we popped it into our latest bags.”
They both swear blind they love their salad leaves so much they often eat them straight from the bag. If you need proof of the crop’s quality, then there it is.
For more resources visit our sustainability hub
Of the several species that GrowUp currently grows, Willis’s favourite is the rocket, while Meikle’s is the sorrel. “It’s a really zesty leaf; so citrusy,” he says of the latter. “I’d never come across sorrel until we popped it into our latest bags.”
They both swear blind they love their salad leaves so much they often eat them straight from the bag. If you need proof of the crop’s quality, then there it is.
For more resources visit our sustainability hub
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