Brotherton Seed buys Warden seed facility
By CHARLES H. FEATHERSTONE
Staff Writer
MOSES LAKE — Brotherton Seed Co. is buying the Seminis Vegetable Seed facility in Warden for an undisclosed amount, according to a press release issued early Wednesday by Brotherton’s parent company, Netherlands-based Verisem.
According to Brotherton General Manager Scott Marks, the Seminis facility has been shuttered since 2016.
“There’s been some activity there, but very little. It was pretty much vacant when we moved in,” Marks said. “The local people in Warden are pretty happy someone is moving in there.”
Marks said Brotherton will be leaving Moses Lake and moving all its operations to the Warden facility — which is located at 115 First St. N. — sometime in 2021.
He also said the company will expand its workforce of 20 “a little” when it moves, and that the new facility will allow the company to be more efficient.
According to the press release, Brotherton has already begun using the nearly 135,000-square-foot Warden facility, which will eventually serve as the company’s new base of operations.
“I’m excited for them. I raise for both companies and it’s a great facility, so I’m happy to see that it’s going to continue to be used,” said Elliott Goodrich, who raises plants for seed on his family’s farm southeast of Moses Lake.
Brotherton Seed, which specializes in pea and bean seeds, is based in Moses Lake and was acquired by Suba Seeds — which became Verisem in 2017 — in 2016.
Verisem, which grows plants for seed in Europe and the United States, is owned by Paine Schwartz Partners, a San Mateo, California-based venture capital company that owns a number of small companies specializing in various aspects of agriculture and food processing. On its website, Paine Schwartz describes itself as “a global leader in sustainable food chain investing” with over $5 billion in total acquisitions.
St. Louis, Missouri-based Seminis produces vegetable seeds for commercial growers and is owned by German pharmaceutical and chemical giant Bayer.
Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at [email protected].