A dream that was conceived eight years ago was realized, last Thursday, when Vermillion Growers LTD., hosted the grand opening of its greenhouse facility.

Vermillion Growers Ltd., uses an innovative, fully-automated control system for growing vegetables under glass greenhouses. The greenhouse showcases industry-leading Gakon Netafim irrigation and greenhouse technology that reduces the amount of water and energy used by 50 per cent.

Phase 1 of the operation is a 10-acre glass greenhouse that will grow vine tomatoes for distribution to central Canada. It will employ close to 35 fulltime staff.

The greenhouse was the brainchild of John “Lucky” Deschauer, who came up with the idea eight years ago.

Deschauer explained he was doing construction in Dauphin in the winter right before Christmas during a snowstorm.

“And I’m looking at my guys working and we’re trying to close up the building and put windows in and I said, ‘what am I doing this for? It’s time to do something different with my life.’ So I started looking for other opportunities to enhance the community,” he said.

Since he always enjoyed greenhouses, Deschauer began looking into modern greenhouses and spent some time in Leamington, Ont., home of Great Lakes Greenhouses, and traveled to Netherlands, Germany and Belgium to learn about the greenhouse industry.

“And once I discovered what it’s all about and how it impacts your food security and how it creates jobs, I decided I wanted to give it a try,” he said. “And, literally, from that point on, I committed a lot of years of my life to learning, discovering and, finally, building a greenhouse.”

Deschauer received a lot of community support when plans for a greenhouse were announced, support he appreciates.

“It means a lot to have community members get behind you. Our city and province have been very good working with us. And I look forward to working more with them on our expansions,” he said.

With the grand opening celebrations now behind them, Deschauer said it is time to get to work.

“Now it’s time for the grow team to hustle, find good employees to work, work with Assiniboine Community College in training the people. Basically, utilizing our youth to make careers. Keep them in our community,” he said. “We’ll be doing a basic apprenticeship program with qualified students through the ACC Brandon and Dauphin facilities.”

Deschauer said it was a momentous day for him and his family.

“It’s very satisfying to have accomplished this,” he said. “I’m looking forward to the future. I’m looking forward to expanding this, working with the city in the development of affordable housing and things like that.”

An announcement on Phase 2 will be made soon, Deschauer said.

John’s sister Maria Deschauer, Vermillion Growers managing director, said a project of this magnitude, which they did not realize at the time, takes a long time to put together.

“There are a lot of parts and pieces to get this project up and running,” she said.

All three founders - John and Maria, along with Mark Kohan - were looking for something meaningful to do that would also be good for the community.

“And that’s where we decided to act upon Lucky’s vision, Lucky’s idea to do this,” Maria added.

With the facility now open, Maria said it was an incredible feeling to finally see it become a reality.

“When you pour so much time and energy into a project, it’s so satisfying to see it finally come to fruition, just knowing that this project will be employing so many people in the community,” she said. “It’s a huge relief, also, that we are now at this stage and actually operating in a sense, because we’re setting up for the plants to arrive shortly.”

Plans are to expand the facility to include growing peppers and cucumbers in the not too distant future.

“If all the stars align, we are hoping that we will be adding another five acres next year,” Maria said, adding they are currently working on getting the facility completely finished and ready to receive plants. She anticipates planting will be done in early September with the first harvest in early November.

“So we will be having fresh tomatoes in our local stores in November,” Maria said, adding she is grateful to the community for its support. “Without their support and their investment, this project wouldn’t be here today. And also just to mention that the opportunity is still there to get involved. We’re very, very grateful for it,” she said.

Dauphin deputy mayor Christian Laughland said the opening of Vermillion Growers means a lot to the city.

“It’s both the beginning and the end of a great journey for the city. Of course, with the opening it’s the end of the construction for the first phase and the beginning of something so great for our community,” he said. “Being a big fan of tomatoes, I’m really excited for this, but I know a lot of people that were at the event and others in the community are so happy and thankful that the group has decided to build and invest in Dauphin and create over 30 jobs to start.”

Laughland added the opening of the facility marks the start of many big things for the community with a number of improvements and additions coming in the near future.

“The next few months and years are going to be very exciting for Dauphin,” he said.