AppHarvest Inc. (Nasdaq: APPH) has named one of its board members as its new chief operating officer.
Tony Martin has been appointed as the Morehead, Kentucky-based agritech company's COO, effective immediately. He will retain his board seat, and as COO, he will lead efforts to optimize production and revenue across the AppHarvest four-farm network that now includes 165 acres under glass, according to a news release.
Martin succeeds former COO Julie Nelson, who left the AppHarvest in early November. Its former president, David Lee, also departed that month.
“I expect Tony’s extensive background in controlled environment agriculture (CEA) and his track record for optimizing the efficiency of core operations and consistently achieving revenue growth will help us accelerate our path to profitability,” said AppHarvest founder and CEO Jonathan Webb, in the release.
Martin joined AppHarvest's board of directors on Oct. 21, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The same filing also included the news of Ciara Burnham's resignation from the board.
“AppHarvest is at an exciting inflection point transitioning from a construction and development mode to an organization focused on core operational excellence,” Martin said in the release. “I believe AppHarvest has a tremendous opportunity to leverage its world-class CEA network at a time when both changing climate and major grocery retailers are demanding it. We’re working to ramp up production and revenue by ensuring efficient, cost-effective delivery of high-quality produce to major grocers and restaurants.”
Martin joined AppHarvest following a nearly 12-year career with Windset Farms, one of the largest CEA producers and marketers of indoor-grown crops in North America with more than 250 acres in the U.S. and Canada. At Windset, he supported both significant infrastructure and revenue growth, the release states. Martin has served as a consultant in the CEA sector and is a board member of the Fruit & Vegetable Dispute Resolution Corp., a nonprofit that sets standards for the trade of fresh fruits and vegetables in Canada.
Martin earned his credential as a chartered professional accountant following a bachelor of commerce in accounting and finance and a graduate diploma in accounting, audit and taxation at Concordia University in Canada.
In addition to Martin, AppHarvest's board consists of Webb, Lee, Kiran Bhatraju, Greg Couch, Hollie Harris, Geof Rochester, Martha Stewart and Kevin Willis. Its other C-suite officers are: Loren Eggleton, CFO; Travis Parman, chief communications officer; Kristi Putnam, chief people officer; Headley Butler, chief commercial officer; and Christopher Scott, chief development and construction officer.
AppHarvest, which recently sold one of its four Kentucky farms, reported net sales of $524,000 in the third quarter ending Sept. 30, down slightly from its $543,000 in net sales for the comparable period last year. The company had a net loss of nearly $24 million for the quarter, which is greater than the $17.3 million it lost in the same quarter in 2021. Its net loss per common share was 23 cents in the quarter.
In the first nine months of 2022, AppHarvest recorded a net loss of $83.3 million, compared to $77.8 million in the first nine months of 2021.
As of noon Tuesday, AppHarvest's price per share was about 66 cents, up more than 17% from when the market opened. As I previously reported, the company is at risk of being delisted from the Nasdaq exchange, as it shares have been trading for below $1 for over a month.
According to Investopedia, the delisting process is set in motion when a company trades for 30 consecutive business days below the minimum closing bid price requirement or less than the required market value.
