New Potential Last-Minute Deal Delays Closure Of Minnesota Lettuce Grower

Most people tossing a bag of lettuce into their grocery cart don't think twice about where it came from. For shoppers across the Upper Midwest, there's a decent chance it was grown under glass in a small southern Minnesota town.

Revol Greens got its start in 2017 in Medford, a Steele County community just outside Owatonna. Its 10-acre greenhouse grows lettuce and other leafy greens year-round, which is no small trick in a state with a short growing season.

By 2021, the company was calling itself the largest greenhouse lettuce grower in North America. Revol kept growing from there.

In 2022, it announced a new greenhouse in Temple, Texas, that would become its largest facility yet. The company has built its reputation on greens grown without pesticides or herbicides, using about 90% less water than field-grown crops, and delivered to stores within a day of harvest.

However, the leafy greens business has taken a hit this year, and Revol has been fighting to keep its Minnesota operation alive.

How Revol Greens Ended Up on the Brink

In August, the company notified the state that it was preparing to close its Medford facility and lay off 89 workers by October 4 unless it could find a buyer or new funding. Its Texas greenhouse would also close for good if the company wasn't sold.

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Revol pointed to this year's nationwide Cyclospora outbreak as a big part of the problem. The parasite outbreak, tied to shredded iceberg lettuce from Mexico, sickened more than 17,000 people and sent hundreds to the hospital.

Revol's products were never part of it. Still, the company said the outbreak shook consumer demand for leafy greens across the industry and complicated its financing talks.

At the end of September, Revol bought itself more time by pushing the possible closure window to sometime between October 15 and October 29.

A Second Delay, and a Possible Deal

That October 29 deadline has now come and gone. In a new notice filed with the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development on October 28, Revol said it is working to finalize a transaction that could keep the facility running.

The filing doesn't say whether that transaction is a sale to a new owner or a financial arrangement that lets the company keep operating as is. Either way, it's the most hopeful sign for Revol's workers since the closure was first announced.

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The Next Two Weeks Will Be Critical

If the deal falls through, Revol says the plant closure and layoffs are now expected to happen during a 14-day window between November 6 and November 20, 2026.

For the 89 employees in Medford, that means another few weeks of waiting, just as the holidays approach. Each postponement has bought the company time, but time alone doesn't keep the lights on in a 10-acre greenhouse.

If the transaction comes together, Revol could become a comeback story for Minnesota agriculture. If it doesn't, Steele County loses a homegrown business that once claimed the title of the biggest greenhouse lettuce grower on the continent. Either way, the answer should come in the near future.