Alternative agriculture

Planet Farms together with Swiss Life to target foreign markets

The partnership with the Swiss company will be used to develop infrastructure for controlled environment agriculture in the rest of Europe. Focus on Great Britain and Scandinavia, and a stock market listing is not ruled out for the future.

by Maximilian Cellino

30 April 2025

2' min read

2' min read

Planet Farms is aiming straight at foreign countries and is ready for the big leap towards internationalisation through its partnership with Swiss Life Asset Managers. The Italian group, leader in technology for controlled environment agriculture, and the asset management company of the Swiss insurance group have in fact just signed a strategic and transformative partnership aimed precisely at the development and management of indoor agricultural infrastructures.

The project

The joint-venture will have an initial capital endowment of up to EUR 200 million, a contribution of up to EUR 125 million from Swiss Life to which will be added the investments already made by Planet Farms in this area. Including the planned bank financing, however, the actual resources available would be around EUR 400 million.

The operating plant in Cirimido (Como) will also be included in the perimeter. With its 20,000 square metres of cultivable area, it already represents one of the largest facilities in the sector worldwide and supplies more than twenty of the leading supermarkets and food service brands in Italy and Switzerland with the group's products. Its technological model will be replicated to develop new plants throughout the European area to achieve what after all remains the main objective of the partnership with Swiss Life.

The challenge of internationalisation

"The plan," Daniele Benatoff, CEO and co-founder of Planet Farms together with Luca Travaglini, explains to Il Sole 24 Ore, "is to develop five new farms in different geographical areas over the next three years. The United Kingdom and Scandinavia are the reference areas indicated already on the launch pad, to which Holland and Switzerland could also be added, as commercial markets where the company is already present. A landing in the Middle East is also not excluded: 'We will be selective about the opportunities we explore there,' Benatoff admits, 'but if the right opportunity presents itself, we are open to considering it.

Fundamental along the way was the contribution of Swiss Life Am, which landed in Italy six months ago precisely with the intention of investing in strategic infrastructure with high growth potential. "This transaction perfectly embodies our strategy," observes Gianfranco Saladino, Head of Value-Add Infrastructure at Swiss Life Am, "because it stands at the crossroads of fundamental macro-trends such as decarbonisation, climate adaptation, strengthening of logistics chains and urbanisation.

First Step to the Stock Exchange?

The choice of relying on a joint-venture in itself is considered ideal by Benatoff for the creation of the platform, precisely because 'it allows us to move quickly and execute our strategy in a simple and straightforward manner, having the same partner in all plants and replicating a model in a scalable manner in different countries'.

The manager also considers the idea of exploring other areas such as cotton, coffee and ingredients for the cosmetics sector, as well as food and beverage. Above all, he remains open to the possibility of listing the group on the stock exchange: 'If the right opportunity presents itself, it is an option that we do not rule out,' he concludes, although he points out that 'the IPO would be a potential consequence, not a goal in itself'.