Verdant Tech, a food-storage innovator started by Holiday executives, is purchased by Colorado firm

Verdant Technologies, a food-storage innovation company in St. Paul funded by the founding family of Holiday Cos., has been purchased by a Colorado maker of equipment used by food-processing firms.

The acquisition by Gulftech International, which closed this week for undisclosed terms, brings Verdant into a suite of companies that make products ranging from industrial-sized juicers to corncob-sorting and product-labeling machines.

Verdant produces sheets, stickers and labels containing a plant growth regulator that slows the ripening of fruits, produce and flowers.

Verdant announced its commercial launch just last fall and the company is in the midst of ramping up its main product, HarvestHold, a plastic-like sheet or film that is used in boxes and other containers.

The sale to Gulftech "is an opportunity to operationalize the business and move into the commercial market in a more accelerated fashion," Gordon Robertson, Verdant's chief executive, said in an interview.

HarvestHold contains as its active ingredient 1‑methylcyclopropene. Known as 1‑MCP, the compound slows ethylene, the hormone that ripens plants, and therefore extends the usable product life of fruits, vegetables and flowers.

The compound was approved for use in the U.S. in 1999 and has steadily been embraced by food processors and distributors.

For food producers, the prospect of extending the shelf life or market viability of fresh food can lead to more choices for where to grow food, how to ship it and produce less waste.

"Time, and the value of time, especially in fresh foods and vegetables is very significant," Robertson said. He noted estimates that more than one-third of the global production of fruits, produce and flowers are lost to waste.

"If we can take a bite out of that, we know we have an opportunity to thrive," he said.

Ronald Erickson, longtime chairman of Holiday, is a key investor in Verdant Technologies and served for a time as CEO in the startup. Erickson and others at Holiday became interested in packaging years ago as they saw the effect that food spoilage and waste had on retail loss, or "shrink" in industry jargon.

"They've seen firsthand how much shrink can impact the quality of what the consumer gets," Robertson said. "They made the investment in this technology over many, many years."