Canadian food ingredients company to establish U.S. office in Rogers

Pacific Ridge Corp. (PacRidge), a vertically integrated Canadian company focusing on regenerative farming using sonic milling and seed cleaning, is establishing a U.S. office in Northwest Arkansas.

The privately owned startup announced its plan in a news release Monday (Feb. 20). The address is a new 15,000-square-foot office building at 5500 W. Northgate Road in Rogers’ Pinnacle Hills area, west of Interstate 49.

5500 Northgate Road Ventures LLC, managed by John Schmelzle of Rogers, is the building owner. Schmelzle said the two-story building would have multiple tenants, and construction would be completed by this fall.

PacRidge CEO Ken Grenier said he expects approximately 10 people to work in the Rogers office by the end of the year. The company has secured temporary office space until the Northgate building is completed.

“We partner with farmers across about 375,000 acres of dryland farms,” he said. “Our new True Crops app technology will expand regenerative farming practices and products to more farmers, retailers, and ultimately consumers’ homes. Our expansion to NWA is truly the perfect next step to carry out our vision.”

Grenier said one of the company’s investors is Bentonville marketing agency Launch.

“The connection with Launch brought us there, and the area’s workforce helped us realize we needed to be there as a company,” he said. “It’s a great place for us to open up shop.”

He said the company would hire locally to fill sales, logistics and EDI (electronic data interchange) jobs in Northwest Arkansas.

“All those things are [in Northwest Arkansas] and a great pool of talent to draw from,” he said.

PacRidge launched in 2021, and Grenier said it brings next-generation farmers and consumers together with a tech-powered, sustainable, and fully vertical supply chain.

PacRidge uses breakthrough technologies to process plant-based ingredients at its grain-cleaning plant in Regina, Saskatchewan. Using water and energy, Grenier explained that the patented sonic milling process creates shockwaves of sonic energy breaking apart whole grains, nuts or seeds. The outcome is healthier, highly digestible plant-based beverages and product ingredients with more nutrient density.

PacRidge also touts its seed-to-plate transparent traceability. The company’s True Crops platform gives farmers, retailers and consumers access to seed-to-self crop traceability to verify transparency, quality and true regenerative product validation.

Grenier said PacRidge’s oat milk and creamers are in high demand.

“We can’t build up our capacity fast enough to meet the demand for the product,” he said. “If you look at oat milk, it is the alternative milk taking over. The only one still ahead of us is almond. Everything else we’ve swallowed up in market share. Oat milk seems to be a real winner. And it’s a great product.

“We have anecdotal research, and we’ve got some formal research that we’ve done on our product, and every time we do, we crush it. It’s a great flavor and a great texture.”

He said PacRidge projects to hit $65 million by the end of 2024 for oat milk, creamer and concentrate sales.

“The valuations for our business are kind of incredible,” Grenier said. “We were looking at the EBITDA and were like, ‘That can’t be.’ We really de-risked our price points, cost and production. It’s a really solid business. We’re excited about the oat milk side.”