Celebrating 25 years in business, Codd Mushrooms is the largest supplier of mushrooms to the Irish market. Based in Tullow, Co. Carlow, the family-run concern has plans for further expansion as founder and marketing manager Leslie Codd explains.
Since its establishment in 1989, Codd Mushrooms has grown year-on-year to become the largest seller of mushrooms to the Irish marketplace. As well as supplying retail chains such as Tesco, Aldi and Dunnes Stores, the company supplies to the food service / catering industry through distributors such as the Keelings Group, Caterway and Total Produce.
In addition, the mushroom producer packs more than half of all mushrooms sold in Ireland. Codd Mushrooms grows white mushrooms (agaricus bisporus), chestnuts and breakfast flats. The company, which also exports to France, is a recipient of the Bord Bia Best Grower in Ireland award. Compost, which provides the nutrients needed to grow mushrooms, is bought in from Custom Compost in Gorey, Co. Wexford.
Codd Mushrooms is headed up by brothers Leslie and Raymond Codd, who are the company’s respective marketing and production managers. They employ 225 staff in harvesting and general labour roles, of which 80 per cent are Eastern European, 10 per cent are Irish and 10 per cent are Asian.
“When we started this business, there was a big trend towards alternative types of farming or off-farm enterprises. Mushroom growing was one those. We grew quite quickly which, in hindsight, was crucial to our survival because many other growers were eventually squeezed out by the bigger suppliers,” Leslie recalls.
The development of a €5.5 million environmentally-friendly production and packing unit on the family farm in Tullow in recent years has seen the company grow and prosper during the recession. The growing facility is 17,712sq/m and is divided up into 38 units. Alongside the growing area, the Codds have built a packaging and cooling plant capable of a throughput between 250,000lbs and 300,000lbs per week.
Since building the plant, packing, vacuum cooling and refrigeration facilities along with loading bays have been added. Eco-friendly equipment installed during the programme included a one-megawatt wood pellet heating system and a 160-killowatt wind turbine which produces 20 per cent of its power supply.
Enerpower installed the wind turbine, which has a hub height of 31 metres and a blade diameter of 24m. The installation of the Wind World turbine has also significantly reduced Codd Mushroom’s carbon footprint.
Leslie says the investment in the new production and packing facility was aimed at reducing production costs and providing customers with an eco-friendly product.
“We are proud to be one of the modern and environmentally-friendly mushroom plants in Europe,” he continues.
“Our facility is based on the Dutch model. We can provide mushrooms that are produced with the lowest possible carbon count and our cost of production has been greatly reduced. Clean energy is the way forward and our wind turbine was the first large-scale turbine of its kind installed on a farm production facility in Ireland.
“By using the vacuum cooling method of taking the field heat out of the product, we can ensure an extra two days’ shelf-life on all our mushrooms.”
The company’s growth has also been aided by a rise in mushroom sales in Ireland in recent years.
“Overall production is up in this country. Mushrooms are a versatile and healthy vegetable. They are also a staple food in Ireland. While our busiest season is from December to April, our sales stay strong all-year round. This can be largely attributed to the fact that we offer a quality product at the right price,” Leslie says.
“At the moment, we are selling between 250,000lbs and 300,000lbs of mushrooms per week.
“We have also put a lot of time and effort into marketing our product in the past decade. We recognised a long time ago that the best way to go was to sell directly to the supermarkets and to cut out the middle man.”
Leslie and Raymond Codd have no intention of resting on their laurels. They are targeting a 50 per cent increase in production by 2019 and have identified France as a potential growth market.
“Our aim is to continue expanding. We have doubled the size of our workforce in the past five years and, with the right planning, there is no reason why we can’t increase our size by another 50 per cent in the next five years.
“At present, France accounts for just seven per cent of our sales base and we believe can make further inroads into the French market. It is likely that we will continue to develop our business in the French market,” Leslie concludes.
Codd Mushrooms Ltd
Downings,
Tullow,
Co. Carlow.
Telephone: +353 (0)59 9163031
Fax: +353 (0)59 9163035
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.coddmushrooms.ie
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 2 No 5, October 2014
