The seeds of vertical farming robotics startup Fifth Season might once again see the light of day after the company's sudden shutdown last fall if efforts from a new independent board of directors and a chief restructuring officer prove successful. But what those seeds produce and who might be tasked with planting them, if anyone, remains unknown for now.
In the interim, Michael Von Lehman has been tasked with trying to get the company's assets to turn a new leaf, whether that's through an acquisition by another firm or otherwise. He was brought in as Fifth Season's chief restructuring officer shortly after Fifth Season executives told employees last October that the company would effectively be shutting down and that it would soon file for bankruptcy.
But the company hasn't filed for bankruptcy, at least not yet.
According to Von Lehman, who is also the president of Bellevue-based business consulting firm Meridian Management Partners, Fifth Season's prior board of directors was replaced shortly after the shutdown by a new board comprised of three individuals who lack any financial relationship with the startup.
"I was brought in as chief restructuring officer by the new board, of which I am also a participant on, to try to find a solution for Fifth Season, or Fifth Season's assets, that can breathe new life into the assets, and perhaps the company so that it can continue to provide jobs and provide value to the community it serves and its customers and try to repay some of its creditors something rather than just watch the dissolution of it happen in what I'll call an unorderly fashion," said Von Lehman. "There's no guarantee that we will be successful in this but the plan we put in place is to try to maximize the value of what Fifth Season created going forward for the benefit of everybody that was associated with it; the employees, the creditors and things of that nature."
Von Lehman said he's had "promising conversations" with an undisclosed number of parties that would potentially be interested in pursuing an effort of this nature but prefaced that fact by noting that these conversations are still preliminary.
"I'm hopeful, but we're certainly planning for every outcome," Von Lehman said. "I would say right now the situation is too fluid to have a hard timeline but eventually the market speaks one way or another."
Von Lehman described himself as a "turnaround professional by trade" and noted that he's done this type of work for about 20 years. He's served companies in various capacities over the years in roles like the one he finds himself in with Fifth Season but he's also been a receiver and trustee for other companies.
"My entire career has essentially been spent helping companies that are in some form of transition, whether they're growing very fast and that's causing cash issues or whether they're struggling with profitability, which is causing cash issues, but I'm almost always brought in to situations that are difficult and need to be managed and need to be managed in I'll call a nontraditional way," Von Lehman said. "I think there's been a lot of investment in Fifth Season so I've been optimistic that somebody will realize that and try to resurrect it in some capacity."
Before its shuttering, Fifth Season employed about 100 workers, most of whom reported to its headquarters in The Highline building on the South Side while others worked out of its 60,000-square-foot indoor farming facility in Braddock. It raised over $75 million in outside investments and churned out about 500,000 pounds of leafy greens annually at its heavily automated Braddock farm, shipping fresh spinach and lettuce varieties to hundreds of stores across the multi-state region owned by retail customers like Giant Eagle Inc. and The Kroger Co., among others.
All employees with the company, including co-founders Austin Webb, Brac Webb and Austin Lawrence, were eventually let go by the time the new board took over due to a lack of funds, Von Lehman said, but noted that Grant Vandenbussche, Fifth Season's now-former chief category officer, as well as a former senior vice president of operations, are aiding with this potential revival effort.
