When it comes to producing top quality mushrooms, Goldcircle Mushrooms Ltd. is in a class of its own. We dropped into the company’s flagship farm at Tiernaneill, close to Emyvale in north Monaghan, to discuss the success to date and future prospects of this progressive business with founder Kieran Walsh.
Established in 1999 by owner and managing director Kieran Walsh, Goldcircle Mushrooms Ltd. delivers a full range of mushroom products from its three modern farms in County Monaghan. Using modern shelf Dutch-style growing systems, the business produces and sells a total of 150 tonnes of mushrooms per week and provides employment to a team of 160.
Goldcircle Mushrooms has come a long way in a decade and a half and this has been achieved through embracing modern techniques, the use of fully-trained staff and an insistence on promptly producing a wide variety of high-quality produce.
A full range of mushrooms is supplied including buttons, flats, brown caps, portabellas, exotic (including shitake, pink oyster, grey oyster, yellow oyster, king oyster, enoki and shimeji), sliced mushrooms and overwrapped prepack products.
Supplied fresh and direct (adding to shelf life) from Goldcircle’s farms, all mushrooms are selected and graded to exact specifications and picked, packed and delivered in less than 24 hours
A cool chain is maintained from field to fork, with distribution across the UK and Ireland seven days per week.
Reflecting on the genesis of the business 15 years ago, Kieran notes: “I set the business up, having worked in mushrooms all my life. I spent ten years with Walsh Mushrooms and then another ten years with Monaghan Mushrooms before deciding to go out on my own.”
It was a brave but inspired decision and Kieran has never looked back. Anyone who has driven along the section of the N2 between Monaghan town and Emyvale will probably have noticed that this is something of a mushroom heartland and it was here that Kieran decided to put down roots, so to speak.
“I used to live in Monaghan town and we were looking to move out to the country,” he reflects. “Tiernaneill was ideal. I bought a complete eight-house unit from James Quinn, who moved to Tipperary, and we set up here.
“Today, Goldcircle sells 160 tonnes of mushrooms per week and we grow 90% of these ourselves. We buy the other 10% in from outside growers. As well as the farm here at Tiernaneill we also rent another farm, known as Hacketts’, as well as leasing Quinn’s in Clontibret. We grow cups at Tiernaneill, flats at Hacketts and browns at Quinns.”
When one considers that a total of 140 people (pickers, yard staff and office staff) are employed in the operation – all full time! – it gives an indications of the staggering progress that has been made it 15 years. “You have to advance to keep things going, profitability-wise anyway,” says Kieran. “If we’re totally honest about it, the recession has helped our business.
“We sell into the UK, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and about 80% of our turnover is in sterling. This leaves you vulnerable to fluctuations in exchange rates but thankfully that market is quite favourable at the moment.”
Goldcircle sources its compost from Walsh Mushrooms, Monaghan Mushrooms and Tandragee Mushroom Compost. Its produce is sold to through various networks and centralised wholesalers to a wide range of customers including multiples, small retailers and hotels etc. across the UK and Ireland. “We also supply some other suppliers,” Kieran adds. “It’s a daily task matching demand and supply but that’s part and parcel of this business.”
The most modern techniques have been embraced through every aspect of the operation. “We have adopted most of the Dutch methods of growing, which are the best you can get. The technical knowledge of mushroom growers in Ireland had improved significantly in recent times. We have state-of-the-art facilities in Ireland now and these are as good as you will get anywhere in the world.”
Transportation is handled by Morgan McLernon Refrigerated Transport in Lurgan, County Armagh, who collect the mushrooms from Goldcircle’s farms daily and then bring them to their central warehouse for immediate distribution. “We pack and label the mushrooms ourselves and they go straight to the shelf as fresh as possible,” Kieran adds.” We try to pack on the same day that they are picked and they will then be on the shop shelf the following evening.
“It’s all about quality and we do everything in our control to get the produce out to the end user as fresh as humanly possible.
“We grow all the browns, whites, flats and exotics and also import exotic mixes. When you are growing mushrooms for multiples like Lidl, Aldi and Tesco, you have to be very precise – the mushrooms have to be sized within 5mm of the requested size, so there is an art to it.”
As for future plans, the founder / proprietor of Goldcircle Mushrooms intends to keep the head down and keep trying to unearth new opportunities: “Ideally, I would like to penetrate more of the large multiples. Ultimately, that’s the way we are going to have to go because it’s a matter of trying to move up the chain and get to the bigger guys like Asda and Sainsbury’s.
“You have to reinvest in the business and move it forward. You take a wage out of it and reinvest; that has always been the way.”
Goldcircle Mushrooms Ltd.
Tiernaneill,
Monaghan,
County Monaghan.
Tel: 047 81884
Mobile: 086 6072224
Email:
[email protected]
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 2 No 3, August 2014
