Online grocer Greenling opens facility in Allen

by Conner Hammett of Star Local News

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Greenling hopes to hire 100 additional DFW-area residents on top of its 47 existing employees.

When it comes to online grocery delivery services, it's easy to be reminded of the failed models that came and went with the bursting of the dot-com bubble in the early 2000s. Companies like HomeGrocer.com generated big press, but failed to turn a profit and fizzled out almost as quickly as they appeared.

But Mason Arnold, founder of Austin-based Greenling, believes he's found a smarter approach to online grocery shopping -- and said his company has six years of experience and 6,000 long-term customers to prove it.

"The only value [prior grocery delivery companies] provided was the convenience of delivery," he said. "We provide additional value in that we go out and seek the best food that we can possibly get, so the stuff that's arriving on people's doors tastes better, is more nutritious and is healthier for people than what they can get at the grocery stores."

All of Greenling's products are sustainably produced, organic, or grown by local farmers, sometimes meeting all three criteria. Now, the company is expanding its business into the Dallas-Fort Worth area with a new distribution facility in Allen.

"I think the best part of the fit is the community [in Allen]," Arnold said. "It's very much a progressive city and it seems like a progressive population, so these are our core customers and partners that we want to have."

It wasn't just the customer base that brought Greenling to Allen. The Allen Economic Development Corporation (AEDC) offered an incentive package to Greenling and will partner with the company to establish an expandable "food hub" in and around the 12,000-square-foot site at Prestige Circle.

The hub will focus on bringing tenants to the area which specialize in the storage and distribution of organic and local food products, said Dan Bowman, interim director of the AEDC. Companies can take advantage of their proximity to one another by sharing resources such as storage facilities, kitchens, equipment, and office space with one another.

"We saw [Greenling] as a way to really diversify our employment base and at the same time look at sparking a local food hub, which is ultimately the goal in this area," Bowman said. "There are some available buildings on Prestige Circle, which is an older area of Allen that's been predominantly more of a Light Industrial area. We could see if bringing Greenling would ultimately lead to additional organic and local food companies coming in."

So far, only one company, Local Yocal Farm to Market of McKinney, has taken up the offer and is leasing 3,000 square feet of the Greenling building for a meat-cutting facility. Local Yocal will at the same time contract with Greenling and have its grass-fed, hormone-free beef delivered to DFW homes through the company.

"The most attractive thing, first off, is very attractive lease rates," said Matt Hamilton, co-owner of Local Yocal, in reference to the food hub concept. "It's very reasonable. There's great access to [U.S.] 75 out of that facility. It's a large space, so we can come in and have a good square footage. ... The most attractive thing is being in-house with Greenling. As they build the 5,000-8,000 homes that they're delivering to, those are going to be target customers for us."

So far, Greenling has partnered with 39 other DFW-area food producers to distribute their products, including Lavon Farms in Plano, who briefly sold its products through Greenling's Austin operation before rekindling the relationship in North Texas this year.

"Local farmers have no outlet for their products. They're too busy farming," said Todd Moore, co-owner of Lavon Farms. "They can't deliver their products. Mainstream grocery stores will not carry their products. This could be a big help to any kind of artisan and their locally grown products."

Business concerns aside, Moore said, the quality of food produced by farms such as his is the most important part of Greenling's approach -- a view shared by Arnold.

"We'll have farmers that will harvest at the break of dawn and bring us product mid-morning," Arnold said. "We pack it late morning and early afternoon and it's on people's doorsteps that evening. The farmer's market is the only place to get it that fresh, but obviously the farmers market isn't bringing it to you. We can turn that product around faster than any grocery store."

Greenling hopes to hire 100 additional DFW-area residents on top of its 47 existing employees over the next two to four years, Arnold said.

Greenling will start delivering to DFW homes January 23. For information, visit www.greenling.com.

The Allen American was unable to obtain the dollar amount for the AEDC's incentive package after repeated requests for information.

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