Hydroponic truck farm business is essential in Glendale city. The business will initially start by providing fresh vegetables necessary in daily frying. For a start, tomatoes, onions, garlic, lettuce, broccoli, green pepper and carrots will be grown. There are several benefits that this business would offer the city and the surrounding market including Pasadena and down town Los Angeles. These benefits are
- Timely delivery of fresh produce, the trucks are within the market vicinity.
- Benefit saving on transportation costs, for the customers as trucks will make delivery to their premises.
- Choice of products for the customers as market is brought to them
- Customer can harvest for themselves
- Reduced losses due to harvesting will be done depend on demand
- Reduced dumping, grocery often leads to keen garbage management; the truck operator takes the responsibility.
- Less cost for land leases
- Low cost production since the methods employed are controlled unlike normal farming which is influenced by weather.
The business is faced with competition since there are already existing specialists. However, this is not a big challenge as customers will have more choice. Similarly, most are farm markets which limit delivery as the customers have to come to the urban farms (Magruder 1). Main competition will be from
- Circle fresh farms based in Colorado
- Tender greens
Market demographics/Target market
Down town Glendale has many hotels and restaurants. According to 2007 statistics, there are 80,000 restaurants in the whole of Glendale Los Angeles (lacounty.gov 1). The target initially will be 100 restaurants in the city. The business will also target individual shoppers, who will have deliveries made to their street address (Storey 1). The breakdown of the target market at the start is shown in the following diagram. The business will target a sale of 6 tonnes every month.
Works cited
lacounty.gov. Business. 11 January 2012. 15 November 2014 <http://www.lacounty.gov/business>.
Magruder, Melonie . Circle Fresh Farms Ties Network of Hydroponic Farms Together to Grow Local Food Movement in Colorado. 20 August 2013. 15 November 2014 <http://seedstock.com/2013/08/20/circle-fresh-farms-ties-network-of-hydroponic-farms-together-to-grow-local-food-movement-in-colorado/>.
Storey, Nate . Modern Hydroponic Production: Why The Right People Are All Wrong. 18 March 2014 . 15 November 2014 <http://brightagrotech.com/modern-hydroponic-production-why-the-right-people-are-all-wrong/>.
