Former Homestead Organics for sale again: New owner has serious health issues

BERWICK — The long and difficult saga of Homestead Organics has taken another unfortunate turn.

A new business was to open in the former Berwick feed mill, east of Chesterville, until owner Peter Jegachandran decided to sell the business, said former Homestead Organics owner Tom Manley, who worked as an organic consultant for Jegachandran.

Last month the small sign announcing the closure of Homestead Organics was still stuck to the front door of the Berwick building. The windows were clouded by spider webs; and the sign for the new business, Greenside Organics, was tucked behind a bush.

After working for months to get the operation ready to open, including hiring a local millwright to do repairs and maintenance, getting a new sign, making flyers, putting in an internet and phone line, lining up suppliers and scouting employees to run the operation, Jegachandran ran into a serious health problem in early fall, Manley said.

Manley operated the Berwick-based organic feed mill and supplier until filing for bankruptcy in 2018. It had grown too quickly, Manley said, and he started bleeding revenue to cover an expansion into Western Ontario.
Agricorp suspended the company’s grain licence for tardy payments to growers before being forced to throw in the towel. Manley, who’d taken over the business from his parents, stuck around to help sell the three properties and assets. The company owed over $4 million but only had about $1.3 million in assets to pay back its creditors. People lost thousands, with the single largest individual unsecured creditor, Katherine Willow of Carp, owed $500,000.

Last year, it had seemed that things turned a corner. The Berwick feed mill was sold to Peter Jegachandran and Manley was hired on to reopen it as Greenside Organics. The goal was to fill the niche vacated by Homestead Organics. This past summer, after applying almost a year earlier, the new business received its official organic certification.

Jegachandran did not respond to Farmers Forum’s requests for comment.