Sakata Seed America Inc. is moving its headquarters from Morgan Hill to Woodland over the next couple of years, adding 100 employees.
The Morgan Hill positions will transfer to Woodland, where Sakata has a seed development, production and processing operation on a 219-acre campus that is now being expanded, said spokeswoman Alicia Suits.
“The expansion of our Woodland Innovation Center is an exciting and necessary step for the future of Sakata,” said Sakata Seed America CEO Dave Armstrong, in a news release. “As we broaden our leadership position in a range of warm crops, it’s imperative that we support our growing business and deepen our roots in one of the world’s most dynamic growing regions: the 'Silicon Valley of seed.'"
Sakata developed an $18.5 million seed innovation center just outside of Woodland in 2018. The company is set to begin a more than $25 million expansion this summer at its Woodland operation, Suits said.
The company is moving the headquarters to be closer to the seed mecca that is the Woodland area, largely due to the research out of the University of California Davis and more than 100 seed research and development companies in the region, Suits said.
“All of our competition is based there. It is a seed mecca,” Suits said, adding that Morgan Hill and the areas around it like San Jose and the entire South Bay have very expensive housing. “That is one of the reasons for the move.”
Senior management is rolling out a relocation plan for the Morgan Hill employees, she said.
Woodland Sakata now employs around 20 people full time, plus seasonal farm labor, said John Nelson, executive vice president with Sakata.
The expansion will include a combination of seed development, research and production, Nelson said. "All aspects of the business will be there."
He said the warehouse space will be doubled and the office space will be tripled. About 100 positions will move. The company anticipates that about 30 employees won’t make the move, but about half of those are about to retire.
"We have people raise their hand and say they want out of the Bay Area. They want out of the rat race," he said. "We have people who have already moved."
He added that it will be easier to recruit people to Woodland, because housing prices in the Bay Area are around $1 million. "People say they can’t afford to live here."
He added that when Sakata opened in Morgan Hill, the company did agriculture at its offices. "We can’t do that now. We’re in the middle of a business park. It’s a changed environment."
Sakata develops, grows and sells seeds through distributors to farmers. It also sells seed packets to retailers for home gardeners. Sakata sells seeds for vegetables, herbs, fruits and ornamental plants.
“I’m delighted to hear that they are moving the headquarters. It is very much the reason why I have been working so hard on Seed Central,” said Francois Korn, the founder and managing director of SeedQuest and Seed Central. SeedQuest is a central information center for the seed industry. And Seed Central is an initiative of the Seed Biotechnology Center at UC Davis and SeedQuest.
“We had a seed-industry cluster 12 years ago when we started, and by giving it a name, it only accelerated it,” Korn said.
“The more companies you have in the same area and the more qualified employees you have in the same area, the more attractive it is. It becomes a virtuous cycle,” Korn said. “The trend is clearly continuing.”
The new expansion at Sakata in Woodland will add shipping, mailing and packaging to the Woodland campus, Suits said.
“We have a lot of infrastructure built out,” she said.
The Woodland research station has a 25,000-square-foot warehouse, greenhouses, research and development shop, equipment maintenance shop and an office building.
Sakata Seed America is a subsidiary of the Yokohama, Japan-based Sakata Seed Corp. It also has research stations in Mount Vernon, Washington; Salinas; Fort Myers, Florida; and Sinaloa, Mexico.
Sakata Seed America has been based in Morgan Hill since 1988. The headquarters will transfer to Woodland late in 2024.
In May this year, Sakata opened a new facility near Salinas, a 20,000 square-foot, temperature-controlled warehouse and office building. That is home to Sakata’s lettuce seed program.
