As part of a recent article for Urban Expressions, I was able to visit the Lufa Farm’s greenhouse facility in Ahuntsic. It’s actually located in an area next to the Marché Central that’s rather grimy/urban. I knew I was in the right place when I looked up and saw the big greenhouses sitting on top of one of the buildings.
It’s the worlds first commercial rooftop greenhouse, which let’s face it – takes guts to launch. It takes guts to launch the first of anything new, but something that requires so much infrastructure and upfront expenditure must be quite the daunting task.
Baskets are a minimum of $30 and fully customizable. There are over 200 drop off points in Montreal available. The awesome bit? The folks at Lufa Farms want your weekly basket to one day be able to hold all you grocery needs so they are adding new items weekly including St-Viateur Bagels, fresh pasta from Impasto, cheese, organic eggs, fresh bread and vegan baked goods.
Also, if you want to take a tour these run every couple months are so and are open to the public. It’s pretty cool!
Michelle Little
Writer & Photographer
Lufa is suffering from major growing pains at the moment. I know of three people, just in my close neighbourhood, that just quit Lufa.
It has come to a point that there might only be one product that is actually grown by Lufa in your basket. Lufa has grown into an online grocer and it has affected their service. (Care for some dry St-Viateur bagels?)
It’s almost impossible to be sure that your basket will be there on time.
Lufa, time re-focus on your core business and serve your customers better.
Thanks for your feedback – that’s such a shame but you are right – they want to one day become the only point for all your weekly grocery needs. I know they are adding a third greenhouse so hopefully there will be more variety of Lufa products in the future.
I wish them to succeed because WHEN you get a good basket full of their products, it’s just a great experience. But I can understand the kind of margins they’re getting as grocers. For ex., chocolat Bonneau sell their products on Fleury for 5$ and Lufa will sell for 6$. So I see the appeal for them BUT in the process they don’t take care of their customers as well, and that is always a slippery slope for a business.
Always align your goals with those of your customers.
Great blog by the way.
I agree – let’s see what the future holds.
And thanks for the kind words!!
I’ve been with Lufa since they launched (in 2011, I think), and I have watched them evolve and grow as a company. At the beginning, many of the baskets I got were mostly lettuce and swiss chard, and it got to be difficult to be creative in the kitchen, but after a period, they expanded, and they now collaborate with local farmers/bakers to offer a more “complete” grocery experience. Yes, sometimes certain items are expensive, but honestly, I barely go to the grocery store now so it is worth it. And the quality is exceptional.
It’s also true that some weeks I pick cucumbers for my basket, for example, but then they run out…. it can be frustrating but I think it’s important to remember how amazing this project is and all the work and planning that has gone into it. Lufa constantly wants feedback, and they are very good at customer service, in my opinion. I think it is a company worth following and a company worth supporting.