Kentucky hemp-food manufacturer buys oil-press facility in Vermont

A Kentucky hemp-foods company is expanding into the Northeast with a new factory in Vermont.

Victory Hemp Foods bought a 7,500-square-foot facility in Middlebury, Vermont, that formerly processed canola and sunflower oils, according to weekly newspaper Seven Days Vermont.

The facility will process cold-pressed hemp oil and hemp protein powder, according to Victory Hemp Foods owner Chad Rosen.

The factory also will enable Victory Hemp Foods to produce 8,000 gallons of hempseed oil and 50,000 pounds of hemp protein powder each month.

The owner of the former processor will stay on as production manager.

The company also hired Chris Bailey as COO. He is a founder and former CEO of meat-snack company Vermont Smoke & Cure.

Rosen said he came upon the facility while talking with organic dairy farmers in Vermont about hemp-growing possibilities.

“We found out they press seed oil with some really beautiful German equipment for sunflower seeds, and they had all the infrastructure set up, and it was basically ready to turn back on,” Rosen said.

Victory Hemp’s products are found in Kroger supermarkets and Whole Foods Markets in Kentucky, Rosen said, and are expected to be on shelves in Vermont in late spring or early summer.